Elephant Gin was created following co-Founders Tessa and Robin Gerlach’s adventures in Africa, with a vision to conserve African wildlife and help conservation trusts. They produce award-winning, handcrafted premium gin products made with rare African botanicals. All ingredients are hand-selected, bottles custom-made, labels hand-written and production efforts controlled by working in small batches. We caught up with Tessa to find out more about her leadership style and get her advice for aspiring leaders in sustainable luxury.
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What makes a great – or successful – leader?
In my opinion a successful leader has a vision, sees the big picture and avoids distraction for effective time and budget management. Endless motivation is important to face any challenges. Also empathy and compassion for others is more important than ever to build a healthy and productive team. Striving for the best but acknowledging mistakes along the way is important as well as taking responsibility for falling short of goals, and steering quickly towards a plan B.
What are your personal strengths as a leader?
Spreading a passion for something. I believe that passion is the fuel for everything else that follows.
What is the toughest lesson you learned?
That I cannot do it all – and cannot do it all immediately. Also setting clear boundaries between my personal and professional lives (still working on that part!).
And the most rewarding?
Recognising wins with the team and reflecting on accomplishments. At the moment, we are looking to celebrate the €1,000,0000 milestone of donations given to elephant conservation projects.
What is one piece of advice our would give to an aspiring leader?
Finding the right people for the team is the hardest part. Focus on people that will make your team stronger in the medium/longer runs, even if the expertise and CV doesn’t perfectly match the immediate company needs.
Why should people be positive about the future?
There is so much creativity and goodwill out there that is often overshadowed by the darker news of the world. We just need to find a way of how to best fuel and motivate people to work together, maintain a flexible mindset in this ever-changing word and a willingness to try new ideas. The Friday’s for Future movement, which is youth-led and engages the younger generation in not only conservation and sustainability but also mindfulness, gives me a lot of hope for a greener future and taking more and faster action to saving our beautiful planet!
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