WIMCA 2026: Sustainable Success Requires More Than Giving Your All, Olumide-Ojo Tells Marketing Professionals

Dr Nkiru Olumide-Ojo, Executive Head, Africa Regions, Marketing, Communications and CSI, Standard Bank Group, has urged marketing and communications professionals to prioritise their best selves over giving all of themselves to work, saying sustainable success requires more than total commitment; it requires purpose, balance and the ability to preserve one’s best self.

Olumide-Ojo gave the charge during a Fireside Chat, “Grow, Give, Glow: Growing Through Pressure, Purpose & Possibility,” at the 2026 Women in Marketing and Communications Awards (WIMCA), recently held at the Landmark Event Centre.

Speaking with WIMCA Convener, Joshua Ajayi, who moderated the session, Olumide-Ojo said the intense pressure associated with marketing and communications should be managed by professionals rather than allowed to consume their entire lives.

According to her, mistakes are particularly visible in the industry, where an error in communication can become a public-facing brand crisis.

“Your mistake can literally end up on a billboard,” she said, noting that while professionals must learn from errors, they should not allow them to define their careers. She stressed that the most productive pressure is pressure aligned with purpose.

“If I know that I am facing this pressure because there is something I am trying to protect, because there is a purpose behind what I am doing, then I can understand it,” she said.

She also challenged industry leaders to rethink mentorship. While acknowledging the desire of experienced professionals to help younger colleagues, she warned that mentorship without structure could leave mentors exhausted.

“Otherwise, you want to serve, but you become exhausted in the process of serving the person,” she said, advocating structured and sustainable mentorship systems.

For Olumide-Ojo, true leadership is ultimately measured not by titles or power, but by influence and the leaders one raises.

“How many people have you impacted? How many people have you influenced who are coming behind you? Most importantly, how many leaders have you raised as a leader?” she asked.

Her message captured the central thrust of WIMCA 2026: professional resilience for distinction, growing through pressure while preserving purpose, giving to others without emptying oneself, and creating a legacy that allows others to glow.