'Organisations need to embrace possibility of failure without shame': Thuli Madonsela

Madonsela was the keynote speaker at a Leadership Conference hosted by the Durban University of Technology at the ICC. 

Addressing delegates via Skype - she said while allowing room for mistakes and failures - organisations also needed to build a sense of accountability and ownership.

"So embracing that possibility of criticism, embracing that possibility of disapproval, and knowing that as long as you've done what you believe is right in the pursuit of what you consider is your purpose, and that's okay. And maybe then some of the criticism may be valid, and you'll use it as lessons. And some of it might not be valid and you will just take it."

Madonsela  also says while diversity in leadership - saying while important - placing people in leadership positions purely for the sake of diversity is dangerous..

"One way to kill organisations is to affirm incompetence. By just bringing people in - because you want an older person, or you want a young person, or you want a woman, or you want a person with disability - make sure you find people who are already leading without a title on the issues you want them to lead on, and give them the title so that they can step to the next level of leadership."