Renowned Zambian business leader Mizinga Melu has released her latest book, As You Rise: Leadership Matters: Sustaining Leadership Beyond the Title from the Top. In this insightful guide, Melu explores the challenges of leadership longevity, offering practical advice on how to maintain success and make a lasting impact at the top.
Drawing from her extensive experience as CEO and Managing Director at leading international institutions, Melu highlights the importance of resilience, emotional intelligence, and adaptability. She emphasizes that reaching a leadership position is not the ultimate goal—what truly matters is staying in that role long enough to effect meaningful change.
The book serves as both a reflection on Melu’s personal leadership journey and a roadmap for aspiring leaders looking to accelerate their growth. Through candid experiences from her tenure at Standard Chartered Bank, Barclays Africa Management, and Absa Bank Zambia Plc, she provides valuable lessons on navigating corporate leadership, embracing change, and staying true to one’s values.
Mizinga Melu has an impressive career spanning multiple leadership roles across Africa. Prior to her current position as CEO of Absa Bank Zambia Plc, she served as CEO of Barclays Africa Management, where she was responsible for stakeholder relationships with governments, regulators, boards, and customers across the African continent, excluding South Africa. In this role, all Barclays Africa Group managing directors outside of South Africa reported directly to her.
Before that, she was the Managing Director and CEO of the National Bank of Commerce in Tanzania (2013–2014) and previously held the same role at Standard Chartered Bank Zambia (2008–2013). Notably, Melu was the first Zambian and the first woman to lead Standard Chartered Bank Zambia, and during her tenure, she was the only female CEO among the bank’s 13 African subsidiaries.
In 2020, she was named CEO of the Year by the Global Banking and Finance Review. A year later, in January 2021, she authored Braving the Odds, a book that became an Amazon bestseller.
With As You Rise, Melu continues to inspire professionals across Africa by sharing hard-earned leadership lessons. The book is a must-read for those seeking to sustain their success at the top and make a lasting impact in their leadership journey.