Creating a Great Place to Work, by Gbitse Barrow

Organizational leaders often speak about crafting an employee value proposition – creating a great place to work; a great place to learn, or a great place to grow. As is usual with a lot of these huge corporate transformation campaigns, plenty of money is spent, and most times the only people that come out smiling are the HR executives who can nicely tick off their performance scorecards and the consultants who got paid for designing the EVP and running internal road shows and publicity. Months down the line these superficial programmes yield very little – employee engagement remains low, and talent retention is still at risk.

Obviously there are a number of organizations who have gotten it right, but they definitely went a bit deeper than an EVP campaign and road shows. It boils down like everything else to the character of the leadership in the institution, and where this is wrong, no amount of branding or re-branding can make a change!

We are preparing this week for a trip to the ancient city of Kano, and I am really excited about visiting my favourite hotel in the world – Prince Hotel. Perhaps its owner has never sat down to think about crafting an Employee Value Proposition, but judging from my visit over 5 years ago, he has an EVP well wrapped up under his belt. Employee engagement is about incentivizing the right behaviour, rather than playing favourites with a bunch of yes men that is typical with organizational leaders today. At Prince, the hotel staff members get a big share of the service charges, so they would do everything to keep you satisfied and locked up in your rooms ordering room service all day long – It works you know! Conversely, I recall how a young employee in a bank once told me that he suffered under his boss for a while for calling her by her first name, which was the right thing to do since the organization had a first-name open-door policy. He soon learned of his “unacceptable” behaviour, began to append Aunty and “Ma” before and after her name, and soon he got a long-awaited promotion!

You may recall episodes of the award winning TV series on NTA – Super Story where a company CEO served up some specially concocted jollof rice for lunch each day at the canteen and got away with hypnotizing his employees to work without a salary. One day the spell wore off, and the attempt at manipulating employees in the short term like many of our organizational leaders try to do with myopic incentives and political camps in the workplace.

One of the saddest leadership stories around motivating employees that I remember from my own career was the end of year party where the party committee had set aside lavish gifts of microwave ovens and deep-fryers for the “managerial” cadre staff and less stylish plate sets and cup sets for the “non-managerial” cadre. I may be wrong, but I would have thought that in terms of impact the wife of one of our drivers would have been more impressed with a deep-fryer, that my wife who already could afford one and indeed still had two extra in her store from our old wedding gifts. Right thinking leaders would have either provided the same gift items for everyone or perhaps even taken the higher road and given the more junior staff the more lavish gift items. It’s just a grab-grab attitude that is becoming so pervasive. We all know you are the managers – your salary, status cars and other perks already show it. Do you have to rub it into the faces of the spouses and children of your junior colleagues even at a Year- end Party?

We have even had CEOs of Nigerian organizations who have separate elevators in their buildings, forgetting that someday when they leave the headship they have to join the regular lifts. I saw that happen in a government building in Abuja with a former minister, and had a really good laugh!

We can go on and on, but I believe the point is made, if you really want to create a great place to work you need to incentivize the right behaviour, be gracious with your employees – pay them properly, invest in their development, and most of all do not rub in the fact that you are the boss by creating all this power distance. Next time you hear about a corporate EVP programme, reflect on these real life examples of what works and what doesn’t and make sure that yours does!

Going Higher, by Nike ONI

Are you desirous of achieving great dreams or are you currently working on making one of your dreams a reality? Are you thinking about writing a book, starting your own business or doing something really great to change the world around you? Dreams... you and I may call them but they may eventually turn out to be reality. People like Wole Soyinka (the first black African Nobel Laureate), Ferdinand Magellan (the first to sail around the world), King Sunny Ade and Michael Jackson (notable musicians) etc, were men of like passion - with great dreams and desires who ensured that they used teamwork to make their dreams work.

Like you, I have some really huge dreams, but I have come to understand the bigger the dream, the better the team that I need to make it happen. In order to build our dreams and make the best of it we must realise that having the right people on board our team really matters in order to ensure that they not only connect to our dream but they also are able to key into it with great ease. For instance, I know of a close associate whose dream became a reality by sharing ideas with close family and friends and today despite still undergoing a lot of challenges he is still ensuring that he lives his dream. Not only has he made the dream a reality but has also in one way or the other gotten those who he shared his dreams with and have made meaningful contribution to it involved in its execution.

In the words of Dr John Maxwell "one mistake I've seen people repeatedly make is that they focus too much attention on their dreams and too little on their team". Building a dream team is perhaps the single most important ingredient in making your dream a reality.

Most times we are often faced with several challenges that come along with our dream. Dr John Maxwell has also identified some of these challenges and they type of teams required to tackle them:
For a New Challenge You need a Creative Team
For a Controversial Challenge You need a United Team
For a Changing Challenge
For an Unpleasant Challenge
For a diversified Challenge
For a Long - term Challenge
For a Mountain - sized Challenge You need a Fast and Flexible Team
You need a Motivated Team
You need a Complementary Team
You need a determined Team
You need an Experienced Team

Think about your current dream project and the challenges that it poses and use the correlation table to guide you around decision regarding the type of team you need, to make your dream a reality.
It is also important if you are working with a team currently to assess their ability to cope with your specific challenge(s). You may need to make additional investments in growing them, adding others to support them, or removing the ineffective ones altogether. If this doesn't work, then perhaps you may need to give up your dreams and help others achieve theirs.

In our journey to making our dreams work, we should be careful not to become - "I woulda, coulda, shoulda". We can find the cure for cancer or AIDS, or become the next President, or become the most sought after professional in our areas of competence. All we need is to put together our dream team to make our dream work.

Great Memories Strengthen Relationships

Have you ever seen siblings sit together and chat all night long, our couples sit in bed re-living fond memories of their lives together? Great memories are a good source of nourishment for our relationships. Imagine if you could re-live great memories with your colleagues, employees, bosses and important clients. You will perhaps not just create great moments of joyful nostalgia, but also help to create a stronger bond in the relationship.

While events may just occur and create the great memories for your relationships, we could be a bit more deliberate, and actually create and sustain these memories ourselves. We should therefore be passionate about creating the time, and the enabling environment for great memories to take place.

For example, imagine a boss who sits behind her chair all day, behind the closed doors of her office, compared to another who spends time on the shop floor, engaging employees and customers and creating those opportunities for an interesting joke to be shared, an important lesson to be learned or a heartfelt feeling to be shared. By being open and available, we therefore create the time and atmosphere for great memories to be made. The heartfelt feeling, joke or important lesson created as you walk around the shop floor can be that great memory and bond that brings you closer to that person.

I have a personal example with a colleague who I teased on two separate occasions about getting pregnant because she stayed at home during a strike in the first instance, and went on leave at an awkward time in the year the second time. Interestingly, I was right on both occasions - she got pregnant just within the same spaces of time. Now, when we see each other we often share the joke around the memorable moments when I teased her and it draws us closer each time.

Think about your relationship with your spouse, parents, siblings, children, colleagues at works and clients, and make a deliberate effort to create a pleasant memory. It could be a lunch or dinner outing, it could be an away-day or team building event, or something special that you do for them, or even a story or lesson that you can share. Plan to create this memory, then create it, and use the opportunities of your future interactions to re-live the memory and strengthen your relationship.

As we do this, we should also take time to think about the fond memories we already have with people, and take the next opportunity we have to re-live that memory, and create an even stronger bond. Memories can serve as great ice-breakers for people you haven't seen or spoken to in a while, and can help to re-kindle the relationship in a very enduring way.

Remember, memories are powerful things. We shouldn't wait for memories to just happen to us, rather, we need to make memories happen, and ensure that we re-live them

John Maxwell Leadership Training debuts in Abuja

The Nigerian Human Resources and Training Community in Abuja got a first-hand taste of the recently launched John C Maxwell Leadership Development Training Workshops from Learning Impact NG. At an exclusive event which was strictly by invitation, Learning Impact NG delivered one of their John Maxwell Workshops - "Winning with People", based on the best-selling work of internationally accaliamed leadership expert - Dr John C Maxwell. The one-day workshop was facilitated by the leading John Maxwell certified trainer in sub-saharan Africa and founder/CEO of Learning Impact NG, Mr Gbitse Barrow. Participants included Human Resources Directors, Personnel and Administration Directors, as well as Training Directors and Training Managers from within the public and private sector in the FCT.

The exclusive event held at the Shehu YarÁdua Center Center on Thursday,28 October and participants were taken through the most modern training delivery techniques based on experiential learning principles. Participants got an opportunity to apply the Think-Say-Do Model developed by Dr Maxwell in a number of interactive activities, case studies, group and individual activities and lecturettes from Mr Barrow.

Participants were generally excited about the programme, the quality world-class content from John Maxwell that had now been put in Nigerian context, and the excellent delivery methodology used which kept them busy for the whole day, and helped ensure that they could actually transfer some of the learnings to action in their work, personal and family lives.

Learning Impact in May 2010 acquired the exclusive license in Nigeria for John Maxwell leadership Development Workshops, and offers a unique range of Leadership Development Workshops and other proprietary workshops for Human Resources and Training Professionals. In a press statement issued at the end of the event, the Company's Head of Research and Publications, Ms Nike Oni was pleased with the turn-out and reception that the Abuja HR fraternity had given the John Maxwell brand in Nigeria, citing that the event was over-subscribed, which made organizing it quite challenging. She was confident that the Company will ensure that it's programmes help to lift the lid on leadership in Nigeria, based on its aspirations and the strategic vision of its founders and international partner - Dr John C Maxwell.

The Company's Head of Sales, Mr Abioye OKE also revealed that the Company will be taking its Signature Programmes to Lagos on 12 November to the even more interested HR and Training fraternity in Lagos, where again the event seems well-subscribed. According to Mr Oke, the John Maxwell quality in leadership development is second to none, and we are encouraged by the support from our colleagues, and look forward to helping organizations in Nigeria build positive influence in their people and work ethic".

Leaders need Others - So Do You!

Think about your current leadership role or any times in the past where despite your best efforts and intentions, you were not getting the level of motivation and engagement from your team members or your employees. The symptoms include taking on too much work, having to take responsibility for almost every decision, and poor quality of output from a team that otherwise has the skills to perform. One of the reasons for this may just be that your team does not feel needed. A recent survey of employees that we conducted suggests that there is a correlation between the feeling of being needed by one’s leaders, and the level of engagement and productivity of an employee.

Everyone has an “ego” need, the need to feel appreciated and needed as part of an organization or system - the desire to make a contribution, and receive recognition for this contribution. According to Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy, this need is part of the evolution of an individual’s motivation, but of course varies by degree from one person to another, and perhaps in different situations. Our research shows that a particularly vulnerable group, are new employees or new joiners to a team that are eagerly expecting feedback on their performance on the new team.

On the other side of the vulnerability it is common to find people in leadership positions or positions of authority ascribe their entire success to their own efforts. Entrepreneur CEOs, pioneering business people, inventors and outstanding athletes may think of their effort as singular in achieving and sustaining their current status and future achievements. Some leaders therefore fail to acknowledge or perhaps encourage the input of others to their success, and therefore have to struggle with disengaged, underperforming staff and a truck load of work. In reality, all of our achievements come from God, and as He has proven through time, He uses the people around us to influence us to actually achieve our goals.

Some Generational Theorists also suggest that the “Y Generation” which constitutes the growing population of the workforce today are “recognition freaks”, and the absence of adequate recognition takes the wind out of their sails.

No matter how powerful, successful or intelligent you are, you need the help of others to succeed. No matter how small the help we receive, we must acknowledge that other people play a key role in our success. To get more from the people around you, you need to show them how much you appreciate and need what they do. Everyone likes to feel needed. A feeling of being needed is often more treasured or valued than monetary compensations or rewards. It is at the heart of intrinsic motivation. Leaders who are not confident and comfortable in their abilities pretend that they can do anything and everything, with or without the input of others. Leaders who are mature and authentic recognize the support and help that others provide to them.

Leaders have to be deliberate about conveying how much they need others and can achieve this by:

• Thanking and appreciating the people around us for the work that they do;
• Not making statements that suggest that with or without others you can succeed;
• Challenge them with stretch assignments, and show them that you have confidence in their ability to perform these tasks;
• Allow yourself to be vulnerable and allow those around you to take responsibility and rise to the occasion;
• Seek their input when making important decisions, and reflect their opinions in the decisions you take, and when you do, let them know.

Earlier in my career, our CEO would usually engage the newest and youngest members of the team to make contributions and proffer solutions at meetings. As a young team member, it made me feel wanted, in fact - needed, almost as if without me that decision couldn’t be taken. It encouraged me and many others to sincerely challenge ourselves to think of newer and better ways, and send our opinions to the top management team whenever we could.

Leaders can learn from this example, and the potential impact that needing others can have on employee engagement and productivity, and start to work on any of the tips above in the days and weeks ahead.

Communicating is Beyond Words

Many of us may have had the opportunity of watching one of these TV shows where contestants compete in a singing competition – “Pop Idols, Naija Sings, and Project Fame.” A few times clusters of participants are given a challenge to sing the same song, expectedly done with very different results. The same goes for trainers/teachers facilitating a workshop/class – same content, different appeal; or even business leaders reading out a speech or broadcasters reading the same news on the television. Although in all these situations, the communication is based on the same content (words), it is clear to see who is really communicating with impact, and it is beyond the words.

Effective and impactful communication therefore goes beyond your words. While the words you use are very important your audience has to sieve through the delivery of those words first, and this involves other components that you have to pay attention to. Albert Merhabian, a renowned American psychologist’s research further confirms this. According to him, an audience’s total “liking” of a message (their positive response to it) is made up of 7% verbal (words), 38% vocal (tone) and 55% facial (body language). It means therefore that beyond your words, you should be very concerned about your tonality and body language as you communicate.

Communication therefore has physical and emotional components that have to be contextualized to make it impactful. If your words are not carried within the right physical delivery and emotional context – they become merely words, sometimes empty and only with a 7% chance of being liked by your audience, no matter how much “big grammar” you use.

Going back to the example of singers, trainers, and broadcasters, you can therefore see clearly what gives the very best of these the winning edge. On a personal note, I remember my best and worst speaking events, and the difference is always about how I am able to connect with my audience emotionally, and display a physical presence and connection with them. Surely, saying the right words, and getting your diction right are important, but in the game of public speaking either as a performing musician, politician, public speaker, trainer or broadcaster, everyone expects you to have the right words and diction as a minimum pre-requisite. If you are still struggling with getting the words right, it is almost impossible for example to make it past the audition in a singing competition. In fact Merhabian’s research is gaining stronger ground these days as nobody even knows the lyrics of popular music any longer; it is much more about the beat (tone) and the performance (body language) of the artiste.

To make the emotional connection, your words have to have meaning to the audience, and this even applies in written communication. Using stories and real-life experiences or true to life examples that your audience can latch on to will help make that connection. Don’t write in too much of the abstract, bring home the story with examples that are well known to the audience, and be audience-centric. Using your personal situations and examples also helps the audience to see that your content is not too “theoretical” but that indeed you have real life personal experience – good or bad of the issues. Also, learn to vary and control the tone of your voice and capture the emotions of the underlying words appropriately as you speak. Some speakers go through emotionally charged content with the same consistent flat tone, unable to ride the highs and lows of the content as they deliver. A great remedy for this is to practice inflexion with singing, especially nursery rhymes and children’s songs that have a lot of undulating high and low notes. I think that the time spent watching and singing along on Sesame Street and the Sound of Music with my girls has helped in this regard, and is something I still do.

Connecting physically means that your body language has to be respectful, engaging and confident. Managing the thin line between arrogance and confidence is particularly important. Also, in a bid to be respectful, speakers need to manage the delicate balance between sympathy and empathy. While we empathize with our audience, we must respectfully remain in charge and not over-sympathize and yield to all their needs. You see some teachers, trainers and facilitators get so sympathetic, that they are completely worn out by their audience and this affects their physical delivery and connection. To physically connect, we also need to stay focused on the audience, make eye contact, and use an appropriate amount of gesticulation and movement to convey the words that we speak.

Making a connection with your audience - individual or a group is beyond your words. Getting the words right is important, but quite frankly almost taken for granted. The real impact is felt in the emotional and physical connection. Make sure you make the right physical and emotional connection in your next speaking event (even a one-on-one with your boss, subordinate or client), and communicate with impact!

Leadership is a Process, by Gbitse Barrow

Do you have a boss, supervisor, manager or CEO who doesn’t meet your expectations as a leader? Are you concerned that your new boss or manager doesn’t have the right attitude, knowledge, skills and behaviour to lead, or are you worried that despite many years in a position of leadership, your boss continues to fall short of everyone’s expectations? These are real life scenarios that play out each day in our workplaces, businesses and communities. Even on a larger scale in society, how satisfied are we of our civil and political leaders and their abilities to lead us effectively and towards success?

If you are dealing with a leader similar to the ones described above, or you suspect that you may be indeed that positional leader who is falling short of the expectation, one of the most important lessons you must learn about leadership is that it is a process, and not an event. Leaders grow each day, and leadership is in itself a journey. The mere fact that you have won an election, started a new business, married a wife,gotten a promotion, or arrived at a position of leadership doesn’t make you a leader. Authentic leadership is about a life-long commitment to learning and transformational change, which is required for you to create the positive influence and success required of you as a leader.

Some of the challenges we have with ourselves as leaders, as well as with our positional leaders is because we haven’t recognized and understood that Leadership is a process and a journey. Through this journey of leadership leaders need to grow and become more aware of themselves by reflecting, asking questions, and getting feedback from the people they lead. The new learnings from this process will enable them adopt different styles and approaches and engage their followers more effectively. A lot of leaders jettison this process, and believe that having arrived at their positions they would all of a sudden achieve a “god-status”, and that all the powers and successes that “leaders” have will suddenly become theirs.

A great example of what I am describing can best be seen when a new leader is promoted from within the team. How can you be so myopic to believe that from the first day you will gain everyone’s respect or buy-in; how can you fit into the shoes of the previous leader so quickly; how can you heal all the wounds of the past and move forward? Honestly, these things take time, which if you do not apply yourself to as a systematic process, may indeed take forever, or actually never happen. A lot of new leaders who were great team members and performers fail to recognize this and fail woefully in their first leadership assignments. I have seen people fall into this trap, and struggle to retrace their steps quickly enough and learn the competencies required to be leaders. Some of them escape, wobble and fumble along to higher positions of leadership, but carry with them forever, the scars of their leadership events, rather than the learnings and changes required of a leadership journey.

Look around today, and think about those examples of positional leaders who are not effective leaders, there is perhaps a lesson or two that can be learned from their first leadership events or positions. As you look at newly appointed or elected leaders who seem not to have what it takes – do endeavour to give them a chance and support them through their journeys. If they are committed to life-long learning and transformational learning like all great leaders should be, then their journey to leadership, although challenging will be blessed with success in the long-run.

As we look around us, we must also look at ourselves, and ask the pertinent questions – How have I dealt with my past and current leadership positions? Is leadership just an event, or am I in a committed systematic process of growing each day as a leader? Whatever your answers may be, just remember that you can re-trace your steps and create a real leadership journey as you continue to grow as leader. Focus on continuous learning, feedback and a willingness to change, and be committed, deliberate and systematic about it!