Comfortable in the uncomfortable

‘My journey with Henley is very personal,’ explains Lerefolo, who completed an Advanced Diploma in Management Practice (ADMP) through Henley Business School Africa (hereafter referred to as ‘Henley Africa’) in 2023, followed by a Postgraduate Diploma in Management Practice in 2024. In 2025, she started her MBA at Henley Africa, a choice she did not make lightly, with a busy toddler and a nine-year-old at home. However, after following a non-academic route into the corporate world, Lerefolo is relishing being in an environment of learning, reflection, and personal growth.

‘I didn’t follow a traditional academic path because of my personal circumstances at that time,’ she shares. The loss of her mother and her grandmother by age 16 significantly derailed Lerefolo’s life and future plans. By the time she was able to return to her studies at Tshwane North Technical and Vocational Education and Training College, her high school contemporaries had already graduated and moved into the workplace. Nevertheless, the school was supportive in helping its graduates find work and Lerefolo secured an HR internship in skills development at the Automotive Industry Development Centre in Pretoria. After nine months, she obtained a role as an HR assistant at Ecolab in Kempton Park.

Just as she was beginning to find her footing, she became a mother. Six months later, she graduated with a diploma in HR Management.

At the time, with so much change and challenge to deal with, Lerefolo did not have the bandwidth to study further. With her career taking off, she opted to get on with carving out a niche for herself in her chosen profession. ‘I felt like I just wanted to work. I was done with studies,’ she recalls. Life, however, had other plans.

A segue back to studying

According to Lerefolo, she soon began to take notice of the people around her who were actively investing in their personal and career development. This was particularly evident by 2018, when she joined multinational cloud technology company Oracle: ‘I had colleagues who were doing their honours and master’s, and I became aware of the gap in how you think about things and how you critically analyse. I think that pushed me to want to take my development very seriously.’

Being a new mother to a young daughter also galvanised her into action. ‘I was thinking how I wanted my daughter to see me,’ she explains, noting that she drew inspiration from her own mother’s academic qualifications and career as a maths teacher.

Lerefolo set about intentionally researching her options. Henley Africa’s family-friendly approach immediately stood out and withstood Lerefolo’s scrutiny as she quizzed graduates from the business school about their experience. Not only was she assured that her family commitments would be catered for, but she was impressed by the well-rounded leaders – ‘not just managers’ – that Henley Africa was producing. She took the plunge and enrolled for the school’s ADMP.

‘That journey taught me a lot of discipline, a lot of resilience,’ she recalls, noting that as she prepared to welcome a son into the world, she too was able to test out Henley Africa’s family-friendly credentials. ‘Henley became part of my growth and my journey, and not just academically, but from a personal perspective. When I reflect, I’m totally, completely different. And two kids later, I’m feeling different. I’m seeing things differently. I think differently.’

Building on this with her current MBA studies, Lerefolo adds that learning with people from different backgrounds, sectors, and cultures, while engaging closely in syndicate course work, has broadened her mind and challenged her perspectives. ‘There’s a line that one of the professors uses: “I want you to be comfortably, uncomfortable.” They definitely do that, and it stretches you,’ reveals Lerefolo, remarking that the ability to reflect deeply on her own experiences has been transformational.

‘I want people to experience this themselves,’ she comments. ‘It’s just life changing.’

A perfect partnership

While Lerefolo was going through her own ADMP journey, she also had her professional hat firmly on. As an HR business partner and organisational development specialist, the approach, delivery, and programme content resonated strongly with her and highlighted deep parallels with Oracle’s leadership and development needs. Shortly thereafter, Oracle would partner with Henley Africa to deliver a customised ADMP offering.

Expanding on what has proved to be a successful collaboration, Lerefolo notes that continuous learning is very much part of the Oracle culture. ‘We invest in our employees, not only with external learning partners, even internally.’

The nature of being a tech giant means, of course, that the environment and context in which Oracle operates is fluid and ever-changing. In turn, this influences the type and focus of training initiatives. ‘As the business shifts and transforms, there’s continuous learning. Learning is embedded, and encouraging people to learn is almost the culture. Plus, the type of environment you work in kind of forces you to want to learn more,’ she suggests.

Inspired by the self-propelled learning journeys of her colleagues early on in her career, Lerefolo acknowledges that nowadays she is among those role models and advocates for continuous learning. As much as she sees learning as a personal journey, she is well aware that young women coming up through the ranks continue to be fed conflicting views about the trade-offs they will have to make in their lives. ‘What we are hearing from society is that women cannot have it all. You can’t be a mom and a professional and excel at your profession. You can’t be a mom and have a professional career and still be a student. I’m feeling: why not?’

‘Yes, I’m a mom,’ she asserts, “but I’m also a great HR professional, but I’m still an MBA student. I want to have an identity outside the other roles I wear.’ While this means that some nights she does not get to put her kids to bed, Lerefolo knows that being the best version of herself makes her a stronger, more resilient, and better mother, professional, and person.

She is encouraged in this endeavour by her fiancé, her sister, close family and friends, and the help she enjoys at home, as well as a bevy of invested colleagues at Oracle. ‘I have leaders, managers who actually want me to do this. They are so proud of me. They support me, they invest in me financially,’ she discloses. ‘It’s amazing. Not everyone has that.’

Similarly, Lerefolo credits her previous boss, Chanique Dodo, for playing a pivotal role in guiding the trajectory of her career. ‘She was one for putting you in very uncomfortable places,’ she laughs. ‘I still struggle to this day with imposter syndrome and to realise my potential, but she pushed me. She still pushes me. She completed her MBA recently – with Henley – but even before she had the “Henley effect”, she saw something in me that I didn’t see. And she never gave up.’

Sharing the wisdom

If Lerefolo has any advice for someone looking to embark on a personal growth journey, it is to take accountability. While her role as a learning and development expert is to grease the wheels, she actively tries to understand each person’s needs, drivers, and fears; rather than treating everyone the same. ‘You can’t force,’ she says, ‘but you can encourage and you can advise to a certain extent and then put it in their hands. Because I’m big on reflection, I try to encourage others to be reflective – and to value feedback – good or bad. Not just receiving feedback, but reflecting on it.’

Ultimately, she adds, it is about helping others to look beyond their current situation and helping them appreciate and develop their potential. Again, this comes back to reflection. ‘I know I’m repeating it over and over, but it’s really what the programmes do, they push you to be intentional,’ she says. ‘They name everything that you do.’

A process of catharsis

This journey has also helped Lerefolo reflect on the traumatic loss of her mother and the panic of almost losing her son a few days before she gave birth. ‘My son is healthy as a champ, he’s a busy, busy, busy and healthy baby, but I don’t know how I survived that,’ she shares, adding that the wound of her mother’s passing is ever present. ‘My entire identity is influenced by that,’ she notes, stating that this plays a ‘very big role in how I parent, and how I show up in my different roles’.

While she continues to find motherhood challenging and demanding – and that ‘corporate is never easy’ – having children keeps her grounded and open to receiving joy. In a world that sometimes seems beset with change and disruption, Lerefolo continues to find her centre, and her sense of positivity, in her children. ‘The constant thing is the kids. When you walk into the house, the energy and how they are happy to see you. Just being there,’ she beams. ‘The possibilities of the world that you’re trying to build, or the future that you’re trying to build for them, I think that keeps me motivated.’

Getting to know Boitumelo Lerefolo

The one tech tool I can’t live without is: ‘ChatGPT. I can’t live without AI [artificial intelligence]. I don’t know how I lived before! I use it for different things: posters for my monthly recaps for my personal statuses when I recap and post something on my social media. My daughter uses it as well, to translate from Afrikaans into English and other languages as well. It’s pretty cool.’

I unwind by: ‘Listening to podcasts – from entertainment podcasts to political podcasts. Lazing around with a podcast or an audiobook playing in the background, that’s kind of how I wind down and switch off. Sometimes I’ll randomly get a podcast, an audiobook, or something on Apple or YouTube on a topic I need more information on or a burning question … just to hear insights or what people are saying about it. It depends on the moment.’

I restore my energy with: ‘Quiet time and being alone with my thoughts. It’s very difficult, because I’m an extrovert. I get a lot of energy from people, but then again – going into being uncomfortably comfortable – I’ve realised that quiet time is something that also helps me relax. It’s difficult, but it helps.’

Top of my bucket list is: ‘A trip to Egypt, the pyramids. I come from a Christian background, and there’s a lot of history around that. It’s one of the trips that my mom took before she passed away. I can still hear or see her energy when she came back, in terms of what that trip did. It’s a trip I want to take because of that, but also the history. It’s something I definitely want to see and experience in my life.’

Home tastes like: ‘My mom used to make sour porridge. I still can’t make it to this day, but I can still smell it, and the substitute of that would be normal white porridge. It’s my kids’ favourite, so I try to cook it once a week. I have that with a bit of sugar and a bit of vinegar. That’s home for me.’