“The smartest people in your organisation could be just under your nose, and you might overlook them because they are not part of your management team. Always remember who it is who does the work every day…” From the early days of her career, the leadership approach taken by South African businesswoman Nosipho Siwisa-Damasane has been to work with what she found. She realised that to achieve success in an organisation one needs to be “on the ground” and to interact with those at shop-floor level. Equipped with determination and empathy, and bolstered by her father’s belief that she could do anything her brothers could, she faced down any potential prejudices against her because she was black and female, irrefutably showing those labels to be irrelevant in contemporary business. Hers is an extraordinary story but, as she shows, it doesn’t have to be a unique story. Drawing from her own experience, she has formulated a leadership philosophy of valuing diversity and engaging employees as fully as possible. It’s a template whose seven steps are clear and accessible, and its results empowering.