Leadership Elements

There are several leadership elements that are key to ensuring that you are either a successful leader or a failure as a leader.

As a leader you shouldn’t have the perspective that you know everything. You should be prudent to know that no one person knows everything so be humble to even say the dreaded words ‘I don’t know’. A smart way of navigating through something that you don’t know is to use your team effectively. How about having a brainstorming session where everyone has an opportunity to contribute. How about giving the group an assignment and see what they will come up with as you do your own research either through the professional or academic networks you may have. All these will enable you to save face or inspire confidence in the group that you are still the top guy and you have things under control even when deep down you know that you may be vulnerable. Since no one knows everything try and error should be encouraged and shouldn’t be frowned upon once you hit a dead end where your past experience can’t give you the way out. Hence the determination and the desire to beat the challenge should spur you to look for ways to solve your situation. Getting it wrong doesn’t mean failure, we can use that incident to learn and shape our future as thy say experience is a good teacher.

It doesn’t stop there. There has to be something else that will make it even better after getting it wrong. The humbleness to admit that you got it wrong is a big plus as a leader. The reason is that this creates the right attitude to learn and understand the correction and the reasons for doing the mistake. This has the effect of showing the team that you are also human and that they can be as productive hence increasing the team’s synergy. This attitude and approach has the benefit of bringing honest to the team such as when people have been assigned their respective roles but one may not know how they should go about it. They can easily ask for contribution from others on how to go about it thus saving time and energy that would have resulted in doing something wrong when it could have been avoided in the first place. Another advantage of getting it wrong and admitting that you got it wrong is that the person who may know how to do it right will be willing to show you how to go about it in a warm way with an intention of ensuring that by the time they are done explaining you are at par with their understanding of the subject matter.

No wonder Seth Godin said: Two elements of successful leadership are a willingness to be wrong and an eagerness to admit it. Seth Godin"

WAZZAM???

Presentation in the workplace

One way or another we have to do presentations in the course of our lives; either in class or at work, or at a party. The main objective of any presentation is to pass the desired message. Here what matters is the delivery. The delivery is a combination of the body language, the pronunciation, the content and the confidence. Presentations go hand in hand with public speaking. What separates the great speakers from the others is mastering the art of public speaking.

Here is what we believe can help you with your presentation. It can be the difference maker in giving you the edge out the others or may be clinch you that deal.

1.      Practice, Practice and Practice

The only way you can get your skills right is to practice. Take ever opportunity of addressing people because once you can get your public speaking right then your presentation will be top draw. A lot of content is not delivered with the right oomph due to nervousness when you are the center of attention of listeners.

2.      Know the content

There are people who cram what they are going to say which may lead to the speaker not knowing whatever he is saying. In the movie 3 Idiots, (an Indian oriented file) we have a student of engineering who delivers a Vote of thanks to the Chairman of the school and government official. The speaker didn’t know Indian very well so the 3 mischievous boys altered his speech. He crammed the speech with the wrong words as altered by the ‘three’. What followed was a hilarious episode to the rest of the audience apart the chairman and his guest. The speaker thought he was getting it right as everyone was laughing only to get a beating afterwards. The point is that knowing the content will help you in convincing, persuading as it will have made sense to you in the first place. Get to know how the words that aren’t familiar to you are pronounced and whether they can be replace with easier words but which are equal in meaning and magnitude. It’s always good to know the content as a good presentation should elicit questions which the speaker should answer with ease.

        3.      Appearance

Ensure that you are well kempt from your hair, shirt, suit, shoes, face, finger nails etc an example is you zipper refused to close or you lost a button at an uncomfortable area of your blouse. I bet that your mind will be caught in two areas; what you are trying to say, and what you are trying to deliver. Your body language will give you away and you will expose yourself to being nervous and this can be interpreted to mean different things. Therefore, ensure you do your grooming the day before such as in the case of hair dressing and in the area of clothes ensure that you put out the clothes you will put on ready before the material day.

4.      Know your Equipment and Area

Due diligence will require that you get to know what you are going to use in presenting. Is the equipment something new and unfamiliar to you? Is it for the first time that you are going to use it? You will be more cautious of trying not to embarrass yourself hence not give your best. There are some ways to handle this, you either carry your own equipment or get someone who will work with you in the use. It is also prudent to visit the area where the presentation will take place as this will give you a familiarity hence reduce the nervousness of a new place and audience. Such a visit will help you with deciding the voice projection that will be effective and the utilization of the stage to. It will also help in coming up with the right background of your slides and other visual aids.

5.      Body language

I believe that the body language says as much as the mouth. A strong person may overlook some of it and dismiss it as nervousness while some may want to give their own justify that with failure e.g. he/she is nervous hence she isn’t telling the truth. To guard against this ensure that you take up the right posture from your entrance to the stage, your hands and movements so that they portray confidence, decisiveness, and above all reinforce what the mouth is saying.

The right presentation can be the difference maker in getting the contract, the job, the financing etc. Give it the right attention and it will deliver the goods for you.

Teamwork and Motivation at Work

Motivation can be aroused in many ways such as from speech, an action, or even in a story. To me it is the drive that inspires one or others to dig deep to find what is required to achieve their goals. It can be from a person’s character, achievements, success, principles, history or back ground and so on.

It is now the norm for organizations to demand or to promote team work as part of their organization’s character. It is one thing to state your desire but totally different to taking the steps to achieve the desires. Motivating a team say one that undertakes a project will require careful approach in the composition of the team. Being selected to be part of a project can resuscitate ones motivation. The next aspect is the team’s composition. Not all workers are excellent in their attitudes and application; there are those who are lazy. The best workers are usually apprehensive of the lazy ones and pairing such contrasting personalities leads to demotivation of the best workers. What the leaders/bosses think is the best team isn’t always the case. The workers themselves know each other’s characters better than the bosses ever will, from their frequent interactions like financially assisting each other like always borrowing soft loans, and coming to work after a night out still reeking of liquor but because once in a while humanity tugs at their heart strings they decide to cover for them and the bosses never get to know of it.

Everyone loves being rewarded so in addition to being part of a project team, the reward the team gets after achieving their set goal also gives them a satisfaction and motivation to want to work for the team next time round if they in another team project. They will view the reward as something that each of them contributed towards attaining the set goals. That is one way of looking at it.

Another way to look at it is that there are those who do more than the others. Common knowledge is that we always want to a fair return especially for our efforts. The person who burnt the midnight oil to find a solution and toiled throughout will not like it if he a rewarded that is equal to the one who used to report late, go missing in action during the operations, in short one who never applied himself according to the team’s ethos. This will hardly go down as motivating. What will in fact motivate such performers is to provide individual recognition over and above the award the team will get.

In 1999, Manchester United was in the European Champions League semi-finals against the mighty Juventus. They had just managed a draw in their own back yard at the Theatre of dreams, in Manchester, through a Ryan Giggs goal in the dying moments. The match ended 1-1. That was the first leg. In the return leg in Italy, the scene was set at the Stadia Delle Alpi in Turin, Juventus stadium. They had to have a 1-1 score to force extra time while a 2-2 draw guaranteed their final place. In 10 minutes they were 2 down and trailed 3-1 on aggregate. Step up Roy Keane, the Manchester United captain. He gritted his teeth, clenched his fists, and stamped his superior will on the star-studded Juventus midfield which had Edgar Davids, Didier Deschamps and Zinedine Zidane. In an immense performance of leadership, skill and determination Keane first harried the Juventus midfielders, then subdued them, and then stabbed them with a beautiful headed goal. He eventually totally dominated them to provide an unshakeable platform for his team mates to finish Juventus off. Goals from Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole delivered the coup de grace. It was a truly stunning performance by Roy Keane. His performance encouraged and inspired the rest of his teammates to overcome the odds. It should be known that Keane got a yellow card which meant that he will miss the finals. This didn’t stop him from doing his best to ensure the team progressed. The team went on to win the final. They were all given medals but the semi-finals performance by the captain in that match made him a worthy legend of Manchester United folklore.

In Alex Ferguson’s - Managing My Life, the Manchester United manager described Keane's performance thus, "I did not think I could have a higher opinion of any footballer than I already had of the Irishman but he rose even further in my estimation at the Stadio Delle Alpi. The minute he was booked and out of the final, he seemed to redouble his efforts to get the team there. It was the most emphatic display of selflessness I have seen on a football field. Pounding over every blade of grass, competing as if he would rather die of exhaustion than lose, he inspired all around him. I felt it was an honour to be associated with such a player."

The manager would have just chosen to congratulate the rest of the team and that will be good enough but he went further and gave a special mention to his inspirational skipper. This will surely have spurred him on and others when faced by a similar situation in the future matches.

What do we learn, as much as we treasure teamwork we shouldn’t be oblivious to the fact that there are top performers and there are some weak performers. Rewarding them as a team is applauded but also it is highly recommended that the top performers get rewarded when their performances count more than the rest.  Keep this in mind if you want to keep hold of your star performers, motivating them to continue performing, and motivating the team work culture desired.

Well, this is what Roy Keane wrote in his autobiography regarding that match "I was proud of our team that night. I was for once proud of myself, content that I had justified my existence and honored my debts to the manager who'd placed so much trust in me. The Champions League final was where I believed Manchester United should be. I genuinely felt that that was so much more important than whether or not I would be there. When that euphoric feeling evaporated (it lasted quite a while) I was gutted."

WAZZAM??

Gifting in business: Part I



The statue of Liberty - A gift from the French people to the American people




You must have given or received a gift from friends and acquaintances for some reason or another, as a show or respect, love, value may be even as a show of intention to build a closer relationship. In all, giving gifts has been around for a while, I would even dare say since the existence of mankind. It may be a gift to God (sacrifice) as a show of respect and worship, a gift to a lover to show affection, gifts to leaders (kings, queens, presidents) as a show of respect and adoration. It is true that a lot has to be considered before one can give a gift to another otherwise a good intention will end up with disastrous results. And trust me ignorance of a gift’s recipient likes and dislikes is no excuse for badly thought out gifts. Just imagine carrying a prime cut of pork as gift to a Muslim; it doesn’t matter at all how much regard you as the giver hold the gift item, when it comes to gifting its all about the receipt. If you have ever given a badly received gift you would agree with that it isn’t a good feeling to see disappointment/disgust at your well intentioned gifts.

I can go on and on about the dos and don’ts of gift giving but that would require that I write a book in several volumes because gifting is very interlinked with every peoples’ culture. And they are many cultures out there. All I can advice is that you need to consider a lot of angles especially when dealing with cultures that are not your own.

Gifting forms a big part of the business culture of the world in that millions (possibly billions) are spent every year by both big and small businesses on gifts. Gifts ranging from simple key chains and T-shirts, to high value plane tickets and collector items like wines and paintings exchange hands every year.

So as a person giving the gifts in a business setting, what must you consider? As mentioned earlier, when it comes to gifting the receiver is king, so it goes without saying that the most important thing one needs to look at the person who will be receiving the gift. This will in turn determine the value of the gift. You don’t want to find yourself in a position whereby you are handing Kibaki a key chain. The gift must be in tune to the status and place in life of the recipient. It’s not a good idea to give a gift that appears to be above the status of the person receiving it. Like giving a car to your account manager at your local bank may be misinterpreted and may even land a few people in trouble. Such a gift would be considered as overkill in a business setting. The status in life definitely determines the value (not price but value) they attach to a gift they receive.

As mentioned in the introduction the nature of the gift is also important to consider. For business reasons I would recommend something less personal or intimate. Something that can be shared in an office like a box of chocolates, or used in the course of the recipient’s line of work like a stethoscope to a doctor, or a pen to a government official (may be a coat hanger would be ideal if you know what am sayingJ).

The relationship between the giver and receiver must also be examined to ensure that no moral and legal issue may arise. The line between a gift and a bribe (greaser) is very thin and often than not very easy to cross and it is mainly because of the relationship people have. To those that hold the fate or whose decision affects the destiny of a given organisation; it would be immoral and in most countries illegal to give them a gift of high value. This breeds feelings of obligation in the recipient and may be viewed as an unfair advantage. This is even truer when dealing with government and public institutions. As the giver of the gift, it’s key to ensure that a gift is given in an open manner and doesn’t appear to be an under the table kind of gift which in that case it wouldn’t matter much what the gift was.

In case the gift is across borders/cultures then the culture of the recipient has to be considered. This is to avoid any misunderstandings that may arise for lack of knowledge of the recipient’s culture is no excuse for a gift in bad taste. For instance in Japan (the Far East countries) some numbers are considered to be bad luck while others very lucky numbers. So it follows that gifts bearing such numbers are considered lucky or unlucky. In other cultures it may not be numbers but may be some animals that are taboo or some words or some things. It’s up to the giver of the gift to consider all this.

To try and manage gifting in organizations, most organizations have come up with guidelines and policies to guide the employees on how to determine what gift is appropriate. Some policies are more extensive than others while some are poorly drafted and vague. A good policy should enable an employee intending to give a gift arrive at the right decision, firstly on whether to go ahead and give the gift, what gift is appropriate in terms of value and type, who qualifies to give a gift on behalf of the organization, and also under what circumstances the gift should be given. Such a policy should be clear and if possible with examples on several instances on how the policy applies. Lastly a policy is only good for the organization if it is well executed and implemented. There is no need for a well written guideline that just lies in a shelf gathering dust. Educating the employees on the content of the policies and promoting its understanding will ensure that the policy is well adhered to. Such a policy should also tackle the issue of how employees receive gifts because as sure as people give gifts in the course of business, they also receive them. But that is a discussion for another day in thecorneroffice. So choose your gifts wisely.

Customer Service Experience

This plays out in a banking hall

Client: Where can I get x forms

Guard: I don’t know. Do you see me carrying any forms?

Client: Shock written all over his face

Me: Shock and disgust at such a response from the guard

A customer can be referred to as a buyer, a prospective buyer, or a client. Customers can be classified as internal or external. Internal customers are the work colleagues and other departments that depend on input or service from you. External customers on the other hand are those that aren’t within the particular business entity and hence depend on the overall organization’s products or services.

Good customer service can be seen in various ways such as how we receive a phone call, how you address someone such as your workmate, supervisor, cleaner, and client, or how you communicate a setback that will affect the services or goods you provide. Good customer service is all about proper communication between the customer and service provider.

Take for example a company that doesn’t inform their customers when they are experiencing a problem with their product or service. Possibly the first instinct that a customer will have is that they (the customer) can take care of the problem and will try to correct it by themselves. Once at the end of their wit, they will contact the product manufacturer or service provider and inquire what may be at fault only to discover that it’s been in the knowledge of the provider/manufacturer.

This happens so often to mobile phone users where in case the service provider is experiencing a problem with one of their products, the users only get to know about it when they need to use it. Never mind the fact that in the case that a service doesn’t work, we the users try all the tricks we know to make it work before we turn to customer care who just apologize and inform that all that is an internal failure on their end. Leaving the customers in the dark without communicating and later apologizing will surely not help in building trust relationships that make the customer comfortable in dealing with any given business.

When you take care of customer service you will in return secure future income as you end up building your brand as a customer focused business. You won’t be found having hidden costs or charging more than you state you will charge. A company that is quick to promote a product should be as quick to also promote or advertise the change of the terms to that product. A failure to do so results in words such as unscrupulous, con-company, swindlers. The customers use your product because they trust you to give what they require. The company that betrays their customers’ trust by going behind their backs to increase charges such as tariffs without informing them, may make money in the short run but soon enough customers get to find out and abandon the company. I think they will stick with you if you are honest with them and this can be achieved by building a connection with them and the only way this is achievable is through good customer service.

Empathy I believe results to the designing of good customer service experience. Take an example of our banks. The Floor Manager should know when is the peak time or period for example end months or beginning of school terms or semesters. He should then ensure that all the teller boxes are manned. This will ensure that service is provided efficiently and effectively. I have been on a banking line for such a long time and I think if I wasn’t dozing off then I was fainting. Having gone through such an experience; if I was in the Floor Managers shoes, I would ensure that all the peak times are forecasted on and all the man power needed at the ready. Incase anyone from a bank is reading this, there is nothing more demoralizing than queuing for so long while teller booths are unmanned, it just seems as if the bank hasn’t noticed that there the floor is busy.

Within your team, department, or organization the way one deals with others determines morale and drive the others concerned have. If you are a supervisor who undermines other departments because you feel they don’t play a big role like the department you are in, or you don’t care about other departments who incidentally need information or data or input from your department and treat them poorly you are in the long run hindering the performance of others. They will not want to work with you unless they don’t have a choice and that will translate to you being bad for team morale and poor results and in the long run damage to the image of the overall organization as each teams input is key to the overall output. It is a team game, you treat your subordinates well they become loyal to you and it translates to good results. You as their supervisor you give them customer service. You as the department head of marketing or finance are the customer of say research or engineering departments and they are your customers too hence if their connection is hampered it will bring disharmony and in the spirit of synergy, you get fired.

Back to the beginning of this article, the guard was very rude and what is that they say about word of mouth; bad remarks about your service or product travel faster and wider than good remarks. No need of spending a ton on advertising yet you aren’t backing it up with the service or product. Customers don’t talk about how much you spend but how much their customer service experience was with you. Remember, as a company or a person ensure you guard against injuring your reputation because once word is out you will spend more time and other resources trying to repair the damaged which could have been saved by treating a client warmly, or another department nicely, or your team members encouragingly.

WAZZAM!!

Office Dressing

She walks in and everyone in the office cranes their necks to take a look. Today she is in a tight sweater top, short skirt and cowboy boots to boot. The top has a low neckline and they can see the bust.

What does your dressing style say about you or affect those around you? There are some companies that have a dress code and others don’t. In some other areas people are influenced by the norm from their colleagues, friends who work in other firms, and yet others are influenced by magazine and TV. Does a dress code count so much at the work place?

I would like to think that it can go either way. On one hand having a uniform way of dressing breeds confidence to the external customers as it exudes professionalism and maintains formal working environment. This is predominantly in banks, legal, and audit firms where the goal of dressing formally, read suits for both sexes, to inspire customers to trust them with their money people. It is a simple psychological battle, look presentable and you are trusted. To the internal customers who are workmates, the dressing of one especially the ladies can be distractive from a man’s point of view and in this day and age to some ladies as well. Look at it this way, one may be holding a discussion and then a scantily dressed lady walks by. Chances are that the conversation will stop and after she is gone and out of sight the momentum will be destroyed leave alone remembering which point was being discussed. This is one of the negative effects that can results as a free for all dressing stand a company might be employing.

On the other hand, a policy that states specifically what can and can’t be worn is perceived by some employees as limiting their self-expression hence hindering their focus and application thereby affecting their ability to meet their targets. Take an example of a radio presenter, a rapper, or even a fashion designer; I believe their individual expression is most important. A fashion house can’t have an employee dress code

I am for a dress policy that gives direction and a platform for the right course of action if there is a breach or defense needed. Morally, being decently dressed adds more value to the impression you stir. Ever heard sleeping my way to the top? You can be perceived as one who is an easy lay judging by the way you dress. You can still be perceived not being straight judging by your dressing.

The point is that we are at the work place and need to have exercise some restrain so that we make it possible to have good working environment. Even if it is Funky Fridays or Dress down Fridays, we should ensure that even if we are going clubbing later in the night we don’t dress that way from morning. Some people may be at the brink of giving in to their temptations then she walks by, out of the window goes the strength, the last will-power to stand tall in the face of adversity. At the end of the day you may be an individual but in a team we have to pull together. If you dress well without crossing certain boundaries may be we can get some work done and attain the objectives set for us as a team if we don’t meet them we shall all get the boot. Therefore the big picture is that policy or not decency should be a priority that we should all achieve. To stop being called certain names let us remember the adage advice of dressing how we want to be addressed.

A guy approaches a lady and solicits for sex as though she was a hooker; enraged the lady replies to the man’s advance in a violent manner arguing that there was no way she was a hooker. Calmly the guy apologized for the mistake but not before explaining himself. If you see a person in a police uniform, it goes without saying that he/she is a police officer. How about if you see a person in a hookers uniform?

WAZZAM

Excelling in leadership

One Saturday morning, 12 November 2011, owners of houses in Syokimau got up to a rude shock. There was heavy machinery in their neighbourhood brought there courtesy of Kenya Airports Authority (KAA). The excavators were for the purpose of bringing down the houses. The reason was; the land belonged to KAA and they wanted it back. You and I know or suspect that there is a lawful way of going about it, there has to be an eviction notice and a court order and other legal mambo jambo. The story goes that the eviction notice was served but the conjectured encroachers of the land had contested it and the matter was yet to be decided. The decision was to be made known on the following Tuesday. How convenient that they went to carry out the demolition on a weekend so that they couldn’t be challenged with a court order to stop like it would have been done on a weekday. The supposed land grabbers who built on their plots had their documentation from the relevant authorities so they thought. When the Mavoko County Council was interviewed he said that if the Ministry of Land gave the title deeds to the settlers then they don’t have power to do otherwise hence the blame is on the Lands ministry.

How convenient to say “I am not the one, It is that department”, or in the famous words of the former mayor of Geoffrey Majiwa, “They told me to sign so I signed”. If you are a leader, supervisor, manager and this is the nonsense you are pelting, then you aren’t worth your salt or that position and you are a fraud. In true Kenyan fashion a commission of enquiry should be formed to investigate how you got there. It is an insult not to take responsibility of what you are in charge of and instead taking the easy way out of throwing the blame to someone else. The same people of such an appalling character are the bed rock of system failure in our country, organizations, even departments. They hold such positions which should translate to overseeing everything, being on the top of each and every aspect of the activities you are in charge of. Hypocrites these people are, they wouldn’t take any blame but open their arms wide to receive the acclaim even when it isn’t their efforts that brought the achievements.

As a boss, manager, supervisor one should lead with among others; integrity, applying due diligence, fairness, and most of all striving to be in control even after delegating. A leader is able to influence others to accomplish an objective and directs the team, group, or organization in a way that makes it more solid and comprehensible. This is because what you do as a leader is transmitted to even the lowest of ranked workers under you. If you are poor time keeper your whole team will follow your lead. If you try to cheat the system such as rules governing employee conduct e.g. leaving office stationery for office use and not for your post-graduate studies or for your kids, your team will do the same. They will have the mentality, ‘If the top boss is doing it then it must be ok’. You shall lose credibility when you warn them against doing something but yet you do it. The famous phrase goes like, ‘Preaching water while drinking wine.’ As the head you should have the decency to be answerable to whatever your charges do, their failures and achievement. How you deal with them individually is up to you but you shall sound lazy and out of your depth if you tell your superior that it wasn’t you but a particular person who is under your authority. When you observe that something isn’t right either one of your subordinates isn’t pulling his weight in the team due to lack of competency you have to look for ways to remedy that be it training or other means. If one of your charges aren’t conducting themselves in a way that is helping the rest of the team then he needs to get a talking to from you as the head so that it is clear to everyone that such conduct won’t be tolerated. In such an instance of where you decide to go moaning to some of your team members it will show a sign of weakness and translates to being viewed as lacking authority to rein in those who are going against the grain. Your juniors will assess your leadership qualities as lacking.

To be successful in your leadership you have to be able to face problems head on. Wanting to cover your ass from blame will only turn the team to be made up of people looking out for themselves and not for the team objectives thereby destroying the chemistry, moral, and focus that a compact team should have to succeed. You should direct and take charge of your teams every aspect

So will you be Majiwa, or the Mavoko Ministry of Lands representative or even Shaggy who gave us the song ‘...Wasn’t me…’? As for me and I hope you too, I should stand for what is right as per the team’s decided stand and not conduct yourself as someone without a backbone who can’t stand up to wrong actions yet you have the position of authority reducing yourself to a weakling of a manager looking at skipping responsibility of all wrong actions but ready to jump at the chance to grab the glory for yourself. It is better to own up and say ‘I was wrong’ than say it wasn’t me. You retain your dignity and credibility. That is excelling in your leadership

WAZZAM