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.