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

How strong should your opinions be?

Just had an interesting ‘debate’ on how strong ones opinions should be in a job interview set up. My take on it was that if you have strong feelings about something it would be in your interest to express it if an opportunity avails itself. This doesn’t mean you rub the people with a contrary opinion the wrong way, but the things you strongly stand for are what determine how well you fit - in in a group or an organization or even that job. The other take on this issue was that one should present themselves as accommodating of other people’s opinions as possible. The argument is that too strong an opinion may present someone as not being a team player or not willing to accommodate differences. These two arguments to start with aren’t mutually exclusive but I believe there is a place and time one should sound accommodating and almost opinion-less and there are others where that hardnosed character should shine through.

Here is a scenario, you just completed college and are out to get your first job, how do you present yourself at the interview? Highly opinionated or laid back; and ready to form new opinions? It goes without saying that you can’t be too strongly opinionated as you operate at a lower power position to that of the organization that interviews you. This is due to the fact that the organization has more to offer you than you have to offer them.  But this is not to say you should be a push over; a real life ‘yesman’. Any attempt to contradict the things you stand for should illicit strong feelings and should be resisted. Work occupies so much of our lives that if what you do for a living contradicts what you stand for you will just lead a stinker of a life; you will end up a walking contradiction. Like the all famous Kaguthi (former head of NACADA), working for BAT or EABL, would that work bring him joy in his life and fulfillment as fighting drugs seemed to do or was his strong stand part of his job description at NACADA meaning he will dance to the tune of the one paying? I bet not. But on the other hand he probably would have taken a job from EABL as he left college and who knows may be he did.

Second scenario, what if you are being interviewed for a leadership position? How strong a stand/opinion should you take on things and to what extent should it show? Unfortunately, I have to say the extreme is required. A leader is gets to be one as a result of the certain values, beliefs and views that they hold as their guide. A leader is expected not to just have an opinion but to hold a strong one at that, referred to as his/her ‘stand on things’. If this lacks in a leader is viewed as being indecisive and that is where leadership stops. Kalonzo in Kenya is a classic example, he has shown the lack of a clear path charted by him, he is all over the place and doesn’t seem to have focus on where he is heading. For him it’s always ‘kati kati yao’ (in between them) as if to imply he first wait for others to set their path and then chooses to stride a path in between them like the proverbial hyena. Contrast this to the strong opinion/stand shown by our new Chief Justice. Justice Willy took a stand on a small inconsequential issue; a stud; and in so doing showed a glimpse of the kind of leader he is. He is no one’s puppet; we can conclude that much from his stand off on the stud. So even if he is headed the wrong way, at least he is confident it is the right way and people tend to follow those who seem to have a clear picture of where they are going and have a map to lead them there.

So next time you are in front of that panel and they question a belief you hold dear, please  ensure that there are things that you will not compromise on. If it’s distasteful question at the interview, a sexual overtone by a member of the panel or even some insults; take your stand, you don’t have to take ‘crap’.  Because at the interview you display the person you are and set the precedence for the person you are expected to be. So show the prospective employer who you really are and set the right precedence. You may think that employers look for a certain kind of person; but what they really want is the right kind of person, who fits in to the organization. SO LOOK FOR WHERE YOU FIT IN THE MOST.

WAZZAM!!!

A chain is as strong as its weakest link

I had a hard time understanding what that meant for some time but am glad I can now say I have got it. There is a football club in Britain called Manchester United. It prides itself of being the greatest in the world. Logically that would translate to having the best of the world’s players and a winning strong team, not true but they have very good players but some players can’t hack it. Step onto the stage Ben Foster. He was the 2nd choice keeper at the beginning of the 2009/2010 season at Manchester United when the 1st choice keeper Edwin V. Sar was out injured. Ordinarily in such a case the 2nd choice keeper should jump at the chance. His performance got so littered with mistakes that 8 games into the season he was dropped to become 4th choice. The coach decided that he couldn’t keep him in the team may be because probably due to either; he was letting in easy goals or he was affecting the rest of the team due to his performance since they had to play with the uneasiness that their goalie isn’t solid or both.

When you are a team leader or supervisor or in charge of a group of people handling a project it is demanded of you that your team or subordinates are equipped and to be up to the task. It is difficult to get one heading a team he didn’t take time to choose. They are chosen based on their strengths and despite knowledge of their weaknesses taking them on board believing that they can add to their positives and help them in weeding out the negatives through training, mentoring, and in extreme cases reprimanding.

Apart from Jesus who chose people he knew inside out including Judas, the rest of us mortals in saving ourselves from having the wrong team or followers in terms of their attitude, character, and skill; engaging good recruitment skills is essential. We have to use all that is available to us such as staff files, references from their colleagues although there is a thin line between gossip and the truth, tests so that the tract record can be established and also find out whether one can fit the demand of the project or activity. Those who fail to invest in picking the right team member or employees of an organization they usually incur more costs due to the fact that poor enlistment tools yield poor team or organizational members.

A weak team member in terms of expertise or character will eventually result in the objectives not being met or if they are met then not in the desired way or they will bring about the wrong output from the rest who may want to cover for him or even cause friction between those who consider such an individual as hindering their results or will result in failure for them in terms of not meeting the goals. If it is in a cut throat competition or business world the team members are the ammunition that is available. If one member isn’t delivering or develops a handicap then the weakness can harm the overall effort once it is known by the competitors they will want to exploit it. They will make strategies on how to utilize your weakness to their advantage and thereby diverting some of your attention or resources from the other areas that you are perfect at to try and provide some cover to the area of weakness. A current example is the CMC fiasco where we have seen highly respected businessmen dragged in the mud. It’s clear that in the CMC management there was a rotten potato that in turn corrupted more and more people to keep the scam going. So CMC as a brand is losing on its image, on its revenue, and ultimately on its profitability just because the top brass had a weak link. In the end CMC may just have played into the hands of their rivals and trust me it won’t be long before you hear of fresh investigations into the then controversial purchase of Passat vehicles from CMC.

There are many ways in eliminating the weaknesses are many but there is only one that is productive; Training. I believe if you want to be stronger you have to be honest with yourself and that means knowing what you can or can’t handle. The processes of training involves getting to know what you are lacking so that you chose the right training to deal with that be it in football, at work or even in relationships (oh yes, we are training for marriage through dating). Depending on your attitude you shall either remove the weakness quickly and some due to their pride may see the advice to get training as punishment. They understand it isn’t personal but rather is for their overall good. They therefore go through the training trying to show they aren’t supposed to be there.

Therefore, what is a manager, coach, supervisor, or even an individual supposed to do once you have exhausted your patience, resources and expertise in trying to deal with the weakness and there is still a gaping hole? Going back to the Manchester United and Ben Foster story, his manager decided to ship him off at the end of the league season. Ben Foster later said that there is too much pressure at Manchester United and a setback on any result the whole place feels like the end of the world, “There is more pressure at United, without a doubt. Even if we drew there, it was the end of the world.” This just shows that he didn’t have the mentality that matched the group. We can then fairly conclude that the coach got it right. When Foster was in goal the defenders had to play in a restrained way to protect their goal and this went to affect the whole team because at the back of their minds they knew their goalie wasn’t solid hence the automatic response to a known weakness. The opposition knew this too and thus gave them a hope that they can sneak in a goal. Once the 1st choice keeper came back normal service was resumed and the confidence in the team returned. We all like a fairytale ending to a story, sorry, not for this one. Manchester United went on to finish 1 point behind the winners that season. Could they have won it had the 1st choice been available from the start?

That is what can happen if you have a weakness in your strong armory, you win or fail, kill or be killed, dumped or married, be a success or a footnote. Therefore you can only achieve up to the level your weakness allows you hence it is evident that just like a chain you are as strong as your weakest link.

Facebook and work, Allies or Enemies

Facebook has in this day and age been the driver of most change in the world. And by Facebook I mean the whole social media buzz that has been embraced by the Y-Generation or are we at Z already? (These alphabet generations keep changing; don’t know what will follow after Z generation.). As a whole, social media has been credited with so much; the rise and fall of governments, the election of our beloved Cousin President Obama, the success and failure of businesses and products. Basically it’s now responsible for setting the local and international social agenda. Every global leader has a Facebook or Twitter account or both in there name as they try get ‘with it’, even our own leaders have turned to social media as the new battle front in the next general election. The likes of Tuju, Kalonzo and Uhuru Kenyatta are active on Facebook as they try to appeal to the young who have joined Facebook in the millions, there is however doubt on whether they actually use the accounts themselves. Safaricom has now turned to twitter for the provision of customer support services and its doing quite well I must say. Politicians, businesses, entertainers, environmentalists, governments, etc have all come to the realization that; social media is where everyone is at.

So coming back to the Kenyan management scene, I have to say we are yet to embrace the new phenomenon (may be not so new) to work for us far more than in the developed world. Companies and even educational institutions are spending a lot of resources to limit the access to social media especially at work. The reason for this is that the employees are considered to waste a lot of company time on this sites that they would otherwise have used more productively. This is just a lazy excuse as employees slack off either way, even before Facebook this was the case and even where Facebook is controlled there are still numerous things that can be considered distraction from work. At least with Facebook they are still physically present at work more so on their desk. There are the storytellers in the office, who demand your undivided attention, then there is the newspaper (Crazy Monday), the sweet text messages from sweetheart(...like the naughty one I just got), the calls from friends, and most employees will agree the biggest distraction is often the boss as he calls in his orders. If all this is in the office, who is to point an accusing finger at Facebook as a distraction. Statistics from a survey by USAToday; I know that isn’t exactly Daily Nation but it shows that more than half of U.S. workers waste an hour or more a day on interruptions: 60% come from electronic devices and e-mails, while the other 40% come from traditional sources, such as phone calls or chats with colleagues. The average worker wastes 2.5 hours a week looking for documents missing in poorly organized electronic files. So for me there are just too many distractions in this day and age for some to claim Facebook is so big a deal especially at work to warrant the lengths that some organizations go to curtail its use. Going by the findings of that survey you are better off organizing your files better as more time is wasted that way.

Don’t get me wrong am not trying to justify using Facebook at work on the grounds that there are many other possible distractions because for me social networking sites have more to offer and can compliment work and work to the employers benefit. Someone once described a small organization that has formed a group on Facebook and they all log in to Facebook as a matter of duty. This group has become the notice board and even chatting on Facebook is now a way of enquiring stuff from colleagues even when working in the field. This had turned the office into a less stuck up place, imagine that all your colleagues are your Facebook friends or for the less technologically alive, your Facebook friends are all your colleagues, it just makes communication a bit easier. Even bigger organisations are now turning to social media to revive the fun in the office and in this sense Facebook is becoming a source of motivation for the staff. Trust me I dread the thought of my boss following me on twitter or checking out some of the updates on Facebook; let alone the photos, but yet again, I kind of want a boss that understands all that (even the ones about him) that would be so cool. But the modern day boss should encourage that kind of freedom at work, the Z-Generation likes and works well in a more open environment and not in the dictatorial kind of office where they bow down to the boss as they pledge their allegiance in the morning as boss who strikes fear into every heart. Those days are gone.

Then there is all the useful information and associations that one can have on Facebook. You can always find someone to ask about your professional or personal interests on Facebook,  there are groupings of people in the same field that share information, there even business associates that one can keep closer using social media. The amount of information on the social sites especially Facebook is just immense and may just be giving Google a run for its money. If you don’t know about some, just check them out on Facebook or LinkedIn, they will tell you about themselves even with out you asking. I personally bug my friends on Facebook with work related questions on fields I believe they can help me with and in so doing end up applying Facebook in my work. Basically social site are fast becoming the leading source on information. Be it disasters, breaking news, keeping up with announcements by public bodies and so on. All this is available; but you have to be there to enjoy these benefits.

Ever met a friend and it felt like you just met the day before? This to some extent is a common feeling. By just exchanging a line or two every now and then or checking out what your friends are up to it has reduced that need for face to face meetings or long telephone conversations to keep friendships going not to forget the airtime costs in these times of Safaricom increasing the call costs and a weak shilling. This can be used to the advantage of the employers especially those that work on weekends. It’s just human to want to keep up with your friends and family and to feel you belong; think Maslow had something to say about that. But for demanding jobs, most employees find themselves cut out and disconnected from their once close friends as work consumes most of their time. Here Facebook works like a charm, by the employer providing that avenue for constantly having online contact with friends, these bonds aren’t lost and somehow the organization ends up with a happy overworked employee who is still dedicated to the work. The face to face in that case can wait for the when the employee is on leave.

All in all it's hard if not impossible to put in eight hours of work each without taking breaks here and there, may be you talk to coworkers, check Facebook, take long lunches and instant message friends, read a tabloid, take a snooze it’s all just human. All I believe the managers of today should not view this distractions as the enemy as more often than not resisting them ends up in a less motivated employees. And this can’t be truer than for the younger working generation who demand freedom and trust. Don’t demonise or ban these habits without looking for more innovative ways of making them work to your advantage. Luckily Facebook and other social media have great room to be utilized to make a better work place, a more productive worker and ultimately an effective organization. Having the internet with controlled access to sites is like being left in a house with all the rooms locked except the kitchen and the johns, sure you can do all that you have to do to live, but it isn’t fun at all and what this shows is the level of distrust and disrepute for your self control. So giving the employees a bit more freedom and trusting that they are responsible and will do the right thing may just motivate the workers some more.

Facing our fears to become achievers

If you have ever read the Harry Potter books you should have noticed that the books got to high levels of what they call black magic as the story progressed and drew to a close. The story was captivating that I was incapacitated to do get anything else done but engrave myself in the book once I got my hands on each book. Having watched all the films up to 7 A, which was the first part of the last book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows I became afraid and fearful and told myself that I didn’t have the balls to watch the second part of the film 7 B since the first part had bucket full of scary encounters that I found myself screaming in the theatre. No shame in that as in my company were kids of not more than 15 years and my cousin who closes her eyes whenever a scary part came up.  The story line all along was about good vs evil depicting Harry and his gang as those fighting for the good guys while ugly Lord Voldemort (always wondered why with all his powers he couldn’t get a better face)was the evil’s side top dog. The point of all this is that I would have missed watching the end if I had given into my fears and thereby missing Harry kicking Lord Voldemort’s behind and subsequently good triumphing over evil.

In management as in life, we have to be brave enough to face our fears head on to achieve the victory that made us go through it all. I saw someone with (paraphrased) a t-shirt which said ‘Pain is temporary but Success is forever’. When I stopped to think about it, I found that it resonates with facing our fears or things that if given an option we wouldn’t go ahead and do them. If you want to be successful, achieve goals and objectives set we have to strive to ensure our house is in order. This may prompt one to ditch his friends who are fun to be around but who happen to derail his very efforts of being a productive staff even though the alternative may be boring, discarding traits that make you the least valuable team member transforming you to be the most valuable team member who every team leader wants, or as a manager firing those employees that pull the performance of others down resulting in failure to meet the set out goals.

Accomplishment in such actions may require one doing away with close associates which is hard to execute due to the emotional bonds shared but they are critical if attainment of the bigger picture is at stake. The result of undertaking such an action may either elevate you to greatness or doom you to failure; depending on what one chooses between the easy way out or facing your fear and attacking what you know pulls you to underperform. The people around who are achievers will be evaluating you from a far check whether they can either partner with you and be more than acquaintances or abandon you due to the logic that professional associations from work or through networking are built on the basis of ‘what can I benefit from you’ and if there is no benefit from their association with you in any form then there is no point in associating with you. Their choice of action may be influenced by their view that partnering with you may not take them to the next level either as a business partner, or as a colleague, or being a member of your team. This may mean you remain of no real/unique value.

Implore yourself to weed out all the characters that you may have or people/things that are barriers to reaching your potential of being the best, and more even if it sends you to mourning but if it is for the good of achieving your goals then go ahead and take the step of faith. Being fearful will only serve to put you in a state that when you look back and you shall say ‘I sure could have done more with my life’. The smart people around you always know what is hindering you from getting to the point but funny thing is they won’t engage you until you show some effort therefore in your journey to facing your fear you shall find willing hands to help you in carrying you to your dreamland, so step out and reach out towards your potential.

Just like Harry Potter did in facing the evil Lord Voldemort when no one wanted to face him let alone say his name he found out that there were other willing helpers to help him through. The first step is always the hardest to make but once it is made you shall cause a chain reaction and eventually such words like good boss, best team leader, best employee, best mate will be associated with you. Go deep into the well that will supply you with the courage, the fight and the ammunition that will power you to emerge victorious in your pursuit of reaching your potential.