From Purpose to Legacy Building a Career with Meaning – Exclusive Interview with Josephine Eneje

Josephine Eneje is a human transformation architect and founder with over 25 years of corporate experience across media, telecommunications, maritime, and skincare industries. She is a certified Global Professional in Human Resources (GPHR) and a certified cosmetic formulator, whose career spans multi-disciplinary leadership roles in human resources, global project leadership, change management, and enterprise transformation, operating at the intersection of people, performance, and purpose.

Josephine Eneje, Human Transformation Architect | Founder

Your career spans several industries and leadership roles. What connects all these chapters of your work?

I have spent over twenty-five years working across different disciplines and leadership roles, including communication, human resources, learning and development, project leadership, change and transformation, and, more recently, beauty and entrepreneurship. What connects these chapters is not chance or convenience, but a deliberate internal process that has guided my decisions from the beginning.

Towards the end of my university years, I developed a strong sense of direction about my purpose, even though I did not yet have full clarity on how it would ultimately take shape. What I knew was that my work needed to be meaningful, intentional, and connected to who I was becoming. That sense of direction became the reference point for every career decision I made, allowing clarity to unfold through lived experience rather than forcing it too early.

I evaluated each role carefully. I never moved simply because an opportunity was available or attractive. I always asked whether the role would take me further in the direction of my purpose. Sometimes the connection was immediately clear. Other times, it required deeper reflection, but there always had to be a thread I could recognise.

One example was my transition from a communication-focused role in media into a learning and development role within telecommunications. While the environment changed, the discipline at the core of my work remained consistent. In both roles, I was using communication to educate, align people, and help translate values into daily practice. That same logic applied later when I moved into global project leadership roles. What changed were the responsibilities and scope, not the underlying purpose driving the work.

So while my career path may appear diverse from the outside, I have never experienced it as fragmented. Each role built on the capabilities of the previous one, adding depth, perspective, and leadership range, and shaping a coherent journey guided by purpose and deliberate choice.

At what point in your journey did you realise that aspiration needs direction, not just drive, to build a career with meaning and continuity?

When I look back at my career, I see a series of roles chosen with intention. Not because they were the obvious next step, but because each offered an opportunity to express my values and build toward something meaningful. What mattered to me was ending each day knowing my work had purpose and that it would add up over time.

From my first role, I was clear about why I wanted to be there and what I wanted to gain. I did not approach my career as a ladder to climb for its own sake. Direction mattered more than momentum. Even when I did not have every answer, I needed to know that each role was taking me further along the right path.

I remember an early conversation with my manager when I took on a role. I was transparent about how long I planned to stay and what I was working toward next. During that time, I was deliberate about the skills I wanted to build, the contribution I aimed to make, and how I used the opportunity to grow. That clarity shaped how I approached my work and the decisions I made each day.

That experience reinforced something I already understood. Drive can keep you moving, but direction gives continuity. It ensures that growth is not just upward, but meaningful and sustainable over time.

You have led major transformations under pressure, including during periods of global uncertainty. What did those seasons teach you about leadership?

Leadership, for me, has never been a fixed style. It shifts with people, context, and what the moment requires. Reading team dynamics and understanding what people need in real time has always shaped how I lead, especially under pressure.

A defining season was during the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, I was a Global Project Implementation Leader, responsible for delivering a complex transformation initiative with a largely remote team spread across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Almost overnight, the way we worked changed, bringing with it heightened uncertainty, emotional strain, and new personal realities for people across regions.

I was leading a highly experienced, high-performing team made up of talented specialists and subject-matter experts in their respective fields. These were professionals accustomed to operating at pace and delivering to demanding standards. When team members had to step away unexpectedly due to personal or health-related circumstances, I had to make rapid adjustments to ensure continuity. What stood out was how the team responded. Others stepped in willingly, took on interim responsibilities, stretched beyond their defined roles, and supported one another, so the work could continue without disruption.

That response did not come from pressure or authority. It came from trust. People felt heard, respected, and included. They knew their perspectives mattered. Over time, this created a strong sense of togetherness and shared ownership, even in an uncertain and emotionally demanding period.

In every weekly team meeting, I was intentional about reconnecting the work to the bigger picture. When people could see how their contribution mattered, they leaned in more deeply. That season reinforced a belief I hold firmly today: leadership under pressure is shaped as much by values, clarity, and self-leadership as by technical skill. When people feel trusted and valued, they rise together.

What has your personal leadership journey taught you about carrying responsibilities that are not always visible?

Over time, leadership taught me that some of the heaviest responsibilities are the ones no one sees. When you realise that your decisions affect not just performance, but people’s livelihoods, families, and futures, leadership becomes deeply personal.

One role that shaped this understanding was during a peak period in my human resources career. While I led a direct team of HR professionals, I was also responsible for the employee lifecycle of over a thousand permanent and outsourced employees. How people experienced the organisation, how they were supported, developed, and guided through difficult moments, ultimately sat with me.

Much of this responsibility was invisible. I often found myself holding space between employee needs and organisational expectations, acting as an umpire of sorts. I facilitated conversations, guided decisions, and managed tensions that were rarely captured in any role description, yet were critical to maintaining trust and stability.

A significant part of my work involved helping people see that they had choices. Rather than directing them, I supported them to understand their role in shaping their own growth and next steps. Many conversations focused on reframing perspectives, encouraging accountability, and helping individuals see options even when situations felt limiting.

This work required care, honesty, and courage. The thinking often followed me home. What mattered most to me was not visibility or recognition, but knowing I had listened carefully, assessed situations fairly, and acted with integrity, even when outcomes were difficult. That is what carrying invisible responsibility has taught me.

When did it become clear to you that you needed to start planning for what came next, even while carrying significant professional responsibility?

Beauty has always been part of my world. I grew up fascinated by the way my mother and her sister exchanged beauty products, ideas, and opinions. It was never casual. Even as a child, I was drawn to it. My mother noticed early and, with care, put boundaries around what I could explore until I reached an age we agreed on. Her dresser table, filled with beauty products, left a lasting impression on me.

My first real attempt to create my own natural beauty products came in 2014, and it failed completely. I ordered raw materials, experimented, and quickly realised how much I did not know. I packed everything away, but I did not pack away the dream. I allowed it to sit quietly in the background while I continued building my career.

Years later, while fully engaged in demanding corporate roles that I genuinely loved, that interest resurfaced. In 2021, the spark returned. By early 2022, I enrolled to study skincare formulation and beauty brand management, preparing after my normal work hours, often in the quiet and stillness of the night, where focus came more easily.

As a driven, time-conscious professional who travelled frequently and moved across climates, my skin felt every transition. That lived experience became confirmation. What I had started years earlier was not a distraction from my career. It was a natural continuation of it.

Planning for what came next did not feel like leaving something behind. It felt like alignment.

Your work today reflects a strong focus on legacy beyond career achievement. What does legacy mean to you in practical terms?

In my world, legacy is about creating work that restores, simplifies, and supports career and professional women on their journey of becoming. It is not an abstract idea. It is something built through everyday choices, with care and intention.

That philosophy sits at the heart of my skincare brand, Dame Jo! I created it for high-achieving, time-conscious professional women who carry full calendars and heavy demands, and who often give generously to their work and to others. Dame Jo! is not skincare for everyone. It is intentionally designed for career women who want results without complexity, clarity without excess, and care without overwhelm. Each product is created to be effective, while also offering a quiet moment of pause and reconnection within demanding professional lives.

Building Dame Jo! drew deeply on my corporate background in learning and development, project leadership, and change management. I applied the same thinking to build something thoughtful and sustainable, rather than driven by guesswork or trends.

As I shared that journey, I began to notice a pattern. Many professional women hold strong ideas and a clear vision, but find themselves stuck in ideation mode without a structured system to move forward. That insight led to the creation of Lab To Legacy, a platform designed to support career women in moving from idea to execution and into building legacies of their own.

Legacy, to me, is not just what you build. It is the clarity and space you create for others to build on, long after you are no longer in the room.

A closing reflection

If any part of my story resonated with you, I invite you to visit our Story page on Dame Jo!, to learn more about the brand’s philosophy, or to join our mailing list via the website footer, to stay connected.

Follow me on LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info!

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