Wisdom Unlocked 🔓✨ Career Lessons from Leading Women: A Conversation with Anike Ajagunna
1. Could you start by introducing yourself — your name and what you do?
Anike Ajagunna, Chef Tournant, Mandarin Oriental Hotel
2. Storytime! We’d love to hear about a pivotal moment or decision that shaped your career. It can be a success or a challenge — what stands out to you, and how have you changed because of it?
The most pivotal career-related moment for me was shifting career paths from a corporate business setting to a hands-on service vocation. I worked in sales and marketing for a number of years and in my mid-thirties decided to go back to school and pursue my personal passion, cooking. Not just as a hobby, but as a professional cook.
The motivating factor for me was that though I enjoyed my work, I wasn’t inspired by it. So, I decided I wanted to put the thing I had great enthusiasm for at the center of my life. It’s been challenging but there’s rarely a day that I don’t find something enjoyable in what I’m doing. There is an old adage that says some people live to work and other people work to live. I’m definitely in the latter category. My work allows me to enjoy the tasks that it requires, without being so time-consuming that I can’t enjoy the aspects of my life outside of work. Honestly, I feel I’ve gotten lucky because that’s not typical of this type of work, but I’ve found a nice place to land and I’m very grateful.
3. Navigating work-life balance can be challenging and often more difficult for women. How have you managed this throughout your career?
Work/Life balance sounds binary to me as if there are only 2 spaces/places that we have in our lives. For me, it’s more of a continuum that I categorize into five parts:
- Work (The Tasks that make up the job you do)
- Work Environment (The people/colleagues, The industry, The culture)
- Life (Family/Household/Extended Family)
- Life (Friends, Neighbors, Community)
- Life (Third Spaces/Affinity Groups, such as social clubs, religious organizations, hobbies, group fitness pursuits, etc.)
When I’ve felt as though I’m managing this continuum well is when I wake up looking forward to each day and not stressed about how to just get through it. Which typically means that I have a game plan for the day/week/ month/year that has room for adjustments along the way. I feel as though I have positioned myself for success when I’ve utilized my resources efficiently. Meaning, that I’ve tapped the creativity of myself and others to meet the challenges in all aspects of living. Being intentional in big and small ways makes me feel like I’m forging a careful and deliberate path.
4. We encourage everyone, particularly women, to seek mentorship and guidance from leaders in their fields. Who has been your mentor along your journey, and how have they influenced your career?
I really haven’t successfully availed myself of too many mentors throughout my work history. I can identify three. Those three were essential to my feeling confident about my skills and laying a foundation for my success. The first, Eric Dawes, a manager who worked for a small regional bank who I started working for as a temp and then moved into a permanent position with and who helped me move into a subsequent position outside of the bank when our interests diverged. The second, is you, Kim Martin, who encouraged my desire to learn and grow from an entry-level employee to developing skills to take on more responsibility in Affiliate Sales and Marketing which set me up for professional success down the line. And lastly, a Sous Chef named Michael Garrett initiated me with a caring hand into the fire of a commercial kitchen. That was some tough love, but he was super supportive and put me on the path to where I am now.
5. What’s one piece of advice you would give your younger self when you were starting?
This is advice that not only would I give to my younger self, but I need to remind myself of daily — ASK MORE QUESTIONS.
