Gifty Bingley highlights resilience and leadership support at Uche Ofodile book discussion

By:  Nana Appiah Acquaye

Corporate Affairs and Communications Executive Gifty Bingley has highlighted the importance of resilience, recovery and support systems in leadership following a fireside chat hosted by Uche Ofodile as part of engagements around her book, Beneath the Smile: Leadership Infrastructure, and podcast, Don’t Let the Smile Fool You.

Bingley, who moderated the discussion, said the event brought together accomplished women and leaders from different industries and sectors for an honest conversation about leadership and personal experiences.

In a post on LinkedIn, Bingley said the part of the book that resonated most with her was the Fourth Floor, titled “Recovery”, which explores how people restore and rebuild.

She said hearing Ofodile read from the chapter in a room full of women who had “had to rebuild more than once” was a special moment.

Bingley also described the question-and-answer session as honest, practical and relatable, reflecting on the challenges of balancing family, career and academic work at different crossroads in her life.

She said grief this year had had a defining impact on her life, prompting her to think deeply about what truly matters and redefine resilience. Hearing Ofodile and other women share lessons gained through hindsight, she added, was reassuring.

“What stayed with me most was how openly the women spoke,” Bingley said, adding that Beneath the Smile reminds readers that what is visible on the surface of a leader is only part of the story.

“The strength people admire is often built on things they never see, and leadership is as much about what holds us up inside as what we show the world,” she wrote.

Bingley said she left the gathering with gratitude for the women who shared their experiences and for Ofodile, whose work she said would help others lead well.

“We need to be deliberate about building our leadership infrastructure because we cannot do it alone. It is not sustainable,” she said.

She congratulated Ofodile on the book and thanked her for trusting her to moderate the conversation.