The Chief Executive Officer of Lebara Nigeria, Teni Stuffman, has shared a reflective account of her leadership experience, highlighting the unseen mental and emotional demands of executive decision-making in the telecommunications and digital infrastructure sector.
In a recent professional commentary, the telecom executive and founder described leadership not as a structured or fully defined process, but as a continuous flow of real-time decisions made under pressure, often without complete information. She noted that much of executive work involves balancing competing priorities simultaneously, including people management, operational demands, timing, and strategic risk.
Lebara Nigeria (Lebara Nigeria), where she serves as chief executive, operates within Nigeria’s competitive telecom and digital services ecosystem, focusing on connectivity and mobile communication services.
She explained that leadership, in practice, extends beyond formal planning documents or structured strategy frameworks, instead emerging through “how you think, how you decide, and how you hold your ground” during periods of uncertainty.
The executive also reflected on the pressures faced by female founders in particular, noting the additional expectations placed on women in leadership roles. She described the experience of balancing business responsibilities, team leadership, and external expectations while maintaining clarity and composure under sustained pressure.
Her remarks emphasized that leadership often requires internal discipline — the ability to remain steady during operational stress, prioritize effectively, and persist even when conditions are demanding.
The reflection underscores broader conversations within Africa’s business and technology sectors about leadership resilience, gender representation in executive roles, and the evolving nature of strategic decision-making in fast-moving industries such as telecommunications and digital infrastructure.
