THE GOVERNANCE CHALLENGE

The importance of strong institutions cannot be gainsaid, but what are strong institutions or what is strong institutional framework? Perhaps the best way to answer that question is to ask another question. How do you ensure that everyone is treated fairly in every situation? The only way to do that is to ensure that everyone undergoes the same procedures when they are in the same circumstances. This requires the existence of procedures based on policy that ensures that people are treated according to the same standard. If there are systems in place that support that policy and effective structures that oversee their implementation then there is a fair guarantee that individual matters will be followed through and acted upon consistently. Corporations with official policy, documented procedures, service systems and organization structure are able to guarantee service provision because they have instituted mechanisms that govern the operations of the business. These organizations are able to develop and improve because they can systematically develop and improve the mechanisms that govern the organization. Organizations without governance structures may be creative, but will be unable to guarantee service delivery.

NGCL Team

Three levels of followers

A follower is one who lets another take the lead, give direction and set goals. Poor followers do not do what they are asked, rebel and find it hard to submit and need repeated coercion. Good followers are obedient, take instruction and respond positively to authority. The best followers follow through to the next instruction, are actively engaged in the pursuit of goals and take responsibility for the outcome of their actions. The greatest followers become good examples, show others how to follow through, handle responsibility and become leaders.

Allan Bukusi

How to get an MBA in Enterprise

College programs give you an MBA in two years or less, but from observed experience it takes five years to earn an MBA in Enterprise. Only two out of every 10 enterprises survive their first year. Of those that survive their first year only 20% live to see their third year. In other words, less than 2% of enterprises started every year get to see their third year of existence. We are not even talking about whether they will be successful or not.

In the first year of business you have no idea of what you are going. You do things because you have been told they work. When they do work you are surprised and when they do not work you have no clue of what to do about why they are not working. Your first year is really a day to day hope against hope.

In the second year you are busy avoiding all the mistakes you made in the first year. You are so busy trying to stay afloat that where you are going does not matter as much as the fact that you are not sinking. Everyone is congratulating you for still being around, but deep down you have no idea how long you will survive because you have lost everything possible including your friends and possibly self respect. You will not have hit the bottom of the J curve yet, that is supposed to come in the third year but you are rapidly approaching your loan limits and your start up capital was exhausted long ago.

In the third year, you now know what you should be doing and begin to focus on it. All the excitement of startup is gone and you know that survival is a ruthless battle. At this point it is also clear to you that you can’t go back and you can’t get out and look for a job because nobody will hire you (they will want to know what you have been doing for the past three years). The truth is you have been doing a lot of things, but have nothing to show for it. You have burned your ships at sea and have lost everything that got you to where you are. If your business gets to year three you have no choice but to press on. Pressing on is the easier option. Congratulations you have hit the bottom of the J-curve But you do get some comfort from the new comers and greenhorns who believe you are an old hand.

Only in your fourth year of business do you have enough data for decision making. Only then can you sit down analyze the business cycles you have been through over the last three years. You can evaluate your performance, produce and process to draw up a plan, execute a budget and look forwards to a modest profit. At this point in your business, if you have maintained the discipline of not eating your working capital, you understand what it means to break even. Breaking even is getting to the point where you understand what you are doing and can begin to replicate your performance. Many enterprises never break even until their 5^th or 6^th year.

In the fifth year you have enough experience to have mastered the enterprise process in your chosen area and can now embark on developing mission statements, developing products and strategic plans. In your fifth year you will have developed a loyal customer base, learned a great deal about yourself and cultivated a niche market that regularly consumes your products. If you get there; you will have earned your MBA.

NGCL Team

Politics in leadership?

“Politics is not leadership and leadership is not politics” is a quote from Thinking Leadership in Africa. Nevertheless, where there are people there is politics and where there are people there are leaders. Politics is a subtle element in leadership that plays out in many dimensions in public and private leadership. Greek leaders, Strategos, were openly politicians and military rulers. Julius Ceasar was both politician and military leader. While great effort is made in modern times to separate the military from politics in the public eye, the President or head of state remains the commander in chief of the armed forces.

Public leaders mobilize the political will of the people to fund national conquests making war a means to achieve political ends. The capacity to mobilize people and rally them to a cause is not just a political or military maneuver it is a challenge that exists at the heart of business leadership as well. The art of political persuasion wins votes and gives power (the authority to act on behalf of the people) to lead people to achieve a greater cause. Such causes cannot be achieved by an individual no matter how rich, talented or strong.

Political leaders employ the political process to create gains for the society they represent. In this regard they cannot be ignored as leaders and agents of social transformation. Indeed mastery of the political process is a key to creating social transformation. Similar effects can be achieved through business development, enterprise and military exploits but possibly none as overt as the social impact of effective politics.

In leadership theory and practice, politics is an enabler and facilitator of outcomes and desired ends. It is therefore a useful tool to master when leading a diverse group of people in a family or corporate institutions. It is an instrument of unity in diversity. While some believe it is the ultimate form of leadership, it certainly commands centre stage in world affairs and makes the headlines in every news bulletin. While corporate leaders may not be able to charm crowds in public or command the charisma of popular leaders, they must have their finger on the political pulse of their organizations as they mobilize staff teams to pursue and achieve business goals.

NGCL Team

To inspire or to motivate?

It is really no secret that inspiration is stronger than motivation. Inspiration is a spiritual conviction while motives are driven by emotive passions. Inspiration is from within, an internal quality, while motivation is attributed to some external quantity or entity. Strong feelings towards anything motivate action in line with the resultant emotional state. Indeed emotions are at the heart of both crime and great pursuits. However, emotions are also driven by the size of the returns or reward. The spiritual fulfillment is driven by sacrifice, selfless service and intangible rewards. While the emotional state vacillates and can vary drastically depending on the circumstances, situation and conditions of the environment; spiritual convictions are more stable, long term and dependable. Indeed extreme spiritual convictions are considered radical and sometimes irrational. While leaders can lead by managing peoples emotional drives, leaders with inspired followers do not constantly have to concern themselves with rewarding those who do their duty. For the inspired, service is a privilege. For the motivated service is rewarded. It may not be completely practical to separate inspiration and motivation as both spirit and emotion are qualities of a human being. Nevertheless, leaders must exercise wisdom and balance in drawing on the virtues of inspiration and motivation of their people to achieve corporate goals.

NGCL Team

Chaotic leadership

Other words for chaos include anarchy, disorder and confusion. The polite scientific equivalent is entropy, a state of free existence, turmoil and or commotion. The big bang theory of creation is based on the initial existence of chaos. While chaos can clearly be described by discordant behavior, disruptive movement and the lack of objectives, it is a state that is essentially unacceptable. While chaos may continue for significant lengths of time, there exists in humanity a desire to create order. Chaos is not an enjoyable state and essentially unprofitable.

The virtue of leadership creates value out of chaos. Leadership creates order, significance and direction. Leadership facilitates change, development and transformation. However, leadership does not have to wait for chaos in order to respond. Leadership initiates value though invention, innovation and continuous improvement. Leadership contains chaos through strategy, policy and procedures. Finally, leadership eliminates chaos through the vision of a better day. Chaos is fertile ground for appropriate leadership to intervene. It may be possible to lead in chaotic situations, but “chaotic leadership” is non-sense.

NGCL Team   

The relation between Religion & Leadership

A journey thought history will quickly reveals some of the most powerful and influential people that have walked the earth like Hannibal, Shaka and Alexander. These were men with military power and commanded a great following. There have been political leaders like Abraham Lincoln and Nelson Mandela who still command a following. But if leadership is influence then Jesus, Mohamed and the Buddha who established religions may be the greatest influencers of not just our time but of all time.   

What is the power of religion, how does it influence and is it a legitimate form of leadership. All leaders seek a following, religions focuses on the person. Leadership calls for values, religion provides a belief system. Leadership requires mission, religion provides purpose.  Leadership emphasizes vision, religions provide fulfillment. Leadership is often a struggle for power, religion calls for self-sacrifice. To become a leader one can start a business, a political party or a religion, get a following and the rest will be history.

Religions draw their power from meeting and serving the spiritual needs of the people. This makes them both powerful and influential. Religions are also able to command and sustain what many business and political leaders covet – loyalty! While political leaders struggle to make meaningful promises and business leaders rake their brains to create an attractive value proposition, religions get away with euphemisms like happiness, satisfaction and “life after death”. Even with these non tangibles religions are still able to attract a satisfied following.  While corporate organizations have to pay executives to stay, religions are fully staffed by volunteers for free! While it may be argued that corporate institutions are the most powerful institutions on earth, there is little doubt that religions are the most influential and endure from generation to generation.  Religious leaders are able to mobilize the collective will of the people in ways that no politician is able to sustain. Religious leaders inspire followers to sacrifice while corporate leaders employ carrot and stick methods to motivate staff to perform their duties. There is much more in common between religion and leadership than meets the eye. We could learn a great deal about leadership by studying the advance of religions and the methods used by religious leaders.  

NGCL Team

The difference between global and local leaders

The difference between global and local leaders is not a question of geography. The difference between is their impact appeal and their eventual influence. Global leaders are focused on the advancement of the human race, local leaders are proud their development record. These tow leaders are different in their thinking and approach to the resolution of issues. While global leaders think of, “how to make things better for everyone”, local leaders think about , “what is in it for us?”

These two leadership thought processes are different in at least four areas. While global leaders can live with diversity, local leaders focus on uniformity. Global leaders pursue synergy, local leaders settle for harmony. While global leaders encourage innovation, local leaders value tradition. While global leaders pursue purpose, local leaders are satisfied with principles. Neither global nor local thinking is good or bad, but their approaches to issues do have a significant impact on situational outcomes. By shifting his gaze from local (equality) to global (peace) leadership Mandela was able to open doors for the people of South Africa to an opportunity they had denied themselves for generations. However, global businesses must respect local traditions of local markets if they are to survive.

The difference between global and local thinking can be applied in personal, business as well. A person whose interest is narrowed to self is unlikely to share much with anyone else. A business that is focused on beating the competition is unlikely to realize its full potential. Is global thinking better than local thinking? There is a place for principles when the purposes are evil. And there is a place for ethics in diversity. Global thinking opens doors to possibility while local thinking allows for the profitable application of principles.

NGCL Team

Do we need rulers or leaders?

In the book of Genesis the Creator gives Adam the specific instruction “to rule”. This first direct instruction to Adam defined the purpose for his existence on earth – the Creators organization.  While it is exact that leaders lead, it is perhaps more accurate to realize that leaders can only lead because there are rules. While lawyers and politicians are quick to point out the importance of the “rule of law” for the purpose of public governance, it will also be prudent to investigate “rule” from a leadership perspective.  

“To rule” is “to obey the rules”. The working of rules is in their obedience. When rules are disobeyed, there occurs a criminal act after which, depending on the extent and nature of the crime, the offender is excluded from membership and or interaction in a society, group, club or organization. When a football player disobeys the rules the referee uses his discretion to exercise his power and authority to punish rebuke or exclude the offender from participating in the game.  The attachment of power and authority to the concept of “rule” allows us to give ruling a leadership interpretation. Leaders have the discretion and privilege to exercise power and authority. Their use of power and authority makes them good or bad leaders. But however charismatic, outgoing creative or innovative a leader may be, he or she cannot lead if the people do not (or chose not to) obey the rules. Rules make people governable and lead-able. The moment people disobey the rules, they cannot be governed and make leadership impossible.

The foundation of this argument is that there must first exist rules for effective leadership to survive and thrive. Indeed leadership breaks down and collapses into disorder when the people chose to disobey the rules. Interestingly, when people call for (good) leadership, they often absolve themselves of the responsibility to obey the rules. The mantra for leaders then should be “if you are willing to obey my rules, then I will lead you. If you are not willing to obey my rules, you must find another leader”. If Adam was going to lead he had first of all to obey the rules of the Creator and thus obtain the moral authority to enforce them. People who are not willing to follow the rules of a business organization, cannot submit to the leader and have to find some other place to work! What would have happened if the Creator had asked Adam to lead the world? That question requires some reflection. Nevertheless, it seems that we must all learn to rule before we can lead.

NGCL Team

The Ethics Challenge in Leadership & Teamwork

Some time ago we conducted a teambuilding program for a team with a representation of diverse nationalities. The engaging, interactive, discordant challenges the participants faced made individuals respond to challenges from their basic belief systems, cultural defaults and ethical paradigms. While unfamiliar challenges naturally draw out varied responses in each individual, we noticed that groups within each team with similar background and working relationship responded in “unison”. These groups responded according to their basic ethical frames of operation. People from one nationality, responded in the same way while groups form one department acted out an obviously agreed coded response. Those of similar cultural exposure also demonstrated a distinct ethical behavior.

The ethical challenge in Leadership is not the development of corporate culture, it is the ethical code by which individuals and groups operate within the corporate environment. During the team building program we noticed that while some teams were open to and enjoyed “bending the rules”, other groups were horrified by such behavior and threatened to withdraw from the teambuilding process. While one group emphasized “winning at all costs and by all means”, another group within the team is willing to “play fair and lose”.

Leading teams without well developed ethical frames, and advanced culture creates operational, implementation and leadership problems on corporate organizations before they even begin to operate. Leaders must be aware of the distinct ethical disciplines housed in organizations before they can develop effective teamwork and leadership approaches that are acceptable, implementable and profitable within the corporation.   

NGCL Team

Are you a Chapter Six Leader?

Chapter Six of the constitution is dedicated to the principles and practice of leadership in Kenya. The eight short clauses that define leadership & integrity require that public a state officers abide by the principles of integrity in the exercise of power and authority. The fact that the constitution boldly uses words like honor, discipline, accountability and selfless service is clearly a demand for moral intelligence at the national level. The fact that national officers take oaths of office and are held to account for acts of impropriety, corruption and demonstration of loyalty to the state, puts leadership directly under the scrutiny of the public eye.

The ethical challenge is on public leaders, but this challenge also raises the bar on private sector and business leaders. Indeed the constitution raises the bar on the transparency and accountability of every organization operating within the states space. Citizens and customers, with the knowledge that they can demand and receive excellence from leaders and leadership, are likely to be uncompromising in their demand for quality service and customer satisfaction. So what type of leader will fulfill these constitutional standards?

The Chapter Six leader will be equipped with a keen sense of moral intelligence, but will also needs to be technically competent. Because the power of selection of leaders is vested in the people, leaders will have to operate within the tenets of democracy. In other words, Chapter Six leaders need not only technical expertise, but persuasive political wisdom to pursue visionary goals. Those that lead by edict and decree, may not be in error, but they will encounter significant resistance to achieve success. The Chapter Six leader must stay ahead of the law not just by keeping his nose clean from corruption, but must also follow due process and master official procedure. This requirement may be encumbering to those with a charismatic, visionary or entrepreneurial flair. The Chapter Six leader must be a shrewd politician, astute business executive as well as a disciplined, scrupulous and determined character. Institution, organizations and corporate business will have to make systemic and structural adjustments to accommodate Chapter Six leaders.

The Chapter Six leader is really a diamond in the rough. The nation needs to invest in the development and refinement of this leader in order to benefit from Chapter Six Leadership. Given the cultural diversity and socio-economic extremities and political and governance dynamics across the nation, it will be very hard to be a leader unless that leader understands and is willing to submit to the principles, process, practice and probity required of anyone who desires to hold the office of a leader. In other words, a new generation of leaders is needed to fulfill the new constitutional requirements of leaders and leadership in Kenya.

NGCL Team

Why it is important to train next generation leaders!

When you consider that every organization lags behind its environment, training the next generation of corporate leaders becomes a vital activity for the continuity and success of any institution. Every leader in spite his or her greatness operates out of history, context and in the hope (vision) of a future. While this is our human condition, it constrains even the greatest leaders to that which they have experienced, understood and imagine. While it is possible to work from past reality (experience) and succeed fairly well in the short term, it is the understanding of the present reality that keeps us competitive. However, it is only by our imagination that we can create a future.

By training the next generation of leaders we equip them with a vision of the future. Our current understanding will become their past reality. Our vision will enable them to create a new current reality! This means that their future reality may not be anything the past generation can identify with, but within which the next generation is able to live. This process of handing over the baton of leadership to newer prepared leadership ensures that they do not make the mistakes past generations made, but also empowers the next generation to improve on the improvements of past generations. Leadership determines the quality of life of a people, by training leaders we control and influence the quality of life of a generation, a corporation and a nation.

Corporate leaders have a special place in society because of their direct socio-economic impact on the lives of the 7+ billion people across the globe through their role in ensuring the success of enterprise, incomes and livelihoods of communities everywhere. If we do not train the next generation of leaders today their vision will be limited to (solving) the problems of our current reality. In other words if we do not train leaders, society will never see a better day.

Allan Bukusi,

NGCL Program Director

Do you have the right people working for you?

Organizations go through huge challenges hiring and developing the right people and do not always get it right. The right people are described as self motivated, passionate and independent. Able to work without supervision to meet strict international reporting schedules. At other times they are described as innovative, go-getters, with a positive or "can do" attitude. These people are also described as enterprising and creative team players.  The right person will be required to have a core competence and able to achieve set goals but flexible enough to handle challenge and diversity.

In an effort to attract and arrest the attention and interest of the right people organizations often attach substantial and generous pay packages to the vacant positions and therefore end up attracting applications from all manner of would be gold diggers. Many of whom have learned the art of faking the requirements of the job. However, since the organization is not very clear of what they are looking for in the first place, it becomes obvious after a few months that the description they used to attract the new employee was not quite right.

Our suggestion is that you start your recruitment process by defining the right person. A fairly accurate definition of a person who fits the hoped for profile in paragraph one is a leader. Interestingly leaders are not always attracted by flamboyant salaries. They do require training, but are more inclined to work on interests that excite them. The leaders pay is making a difference in the world and using their gifts to serve humanity. That may sound more romantic than realistic, but a person who has poor leadership ability and does not take time to develop their leadership capacity will not meet the desires of the corporation. Would you rather an organization of leaders or team of employees? What are you looking for an employee or a leader?

NGCL Team

Why Next Generation Corporate Leaders?

The world has changed dramatically over the last century. Changes in agriculture, industry, medicine and education have made the world more productive, healthier and habitable in many ways. But the world has also changed fundamentally over the last decade. Education has revised the way children are education while information technology has changed the way we define our world. Even war has been redefined from fighting “objects” and people to fighting concepts such as terrorism and “human rights” and “literacy”. The corporate world has challenged the image of the super manager to run organizations and now demands process leaders to ensure corporate success. No single manager knows enough to run the corporation by him or herself. CEOs today must rely on leaders to run the business of the corporation.   

The Next Generation Corporate Leaders face a different set of dynamics that their predecessors. In the past there was relative stability in professions, markets and industry structures. In the early part of last century it was possible to plan for 50 years of production for a stable market based on a single invention such as the motor car. Today strategic plans are outdated by a single innovation in a matter of months – and there are hundreds of innovations every day. In the old days markets were closed. Today anybody can do business anywhere. In the old days careers were guaranteed by education, today if you do not go for training you are outdated as soon as you graduate from college. Next generation corporate leaders must handle dynamics, diversity and turn dreams into reality.

Dynamics is not the same as change or change management. Corporations today house dynamic order. People come and go, technology is adopted and revised, products and processes are in a constant state of modification in a bid to keep up with external competition and innovation against the erratic demand of customers. Gone are the days when careers were permanent and pensionable and staff were reliable and guaranteed to stay for 20 years. The nature of the corporate process is “here today gone tomorrow”. The leader must be comfortable with these dynamics.

The very definition and advantages of a stable corporate culture demand a significant degree of uniformity. However, the new world does not guarantee uniformity. Globalization goes against the very core of uniformity. Organizations struggle with generational ethics where old and young work in the same environment. Analog and digital exist side by side. Diversity is more than race or color. Diversity is about integrated systems, accommodating religious beliefs, worldviews and educational backgrounds. It is about mainstreaming gender issues, but also providing opportunity for minorities to develop themselves. The demand is for corporate leaders who understand how to interpret a single product profitably in four different countries with multiple cultures and several different time zones. The next generation leaders will not deal with consistency - they must master inconsistency!

The only way that the next generation can advance the cause of their organizations is if they have vision. Vision is the capacity to not only see the future but bring it about today. In the past it was enough to see the future, today leaders are expected to bring the future to the people. Such is the challenge of NEXT GENERATION CORPORATE LEADERS – Today!

NGCL Team

The College Corporate Gap

I hear it over and over again in the corporate world; “don’t they teach anything in college”. This challenge would be easily resolved if colleges and corporate organizations could sit down and come to an understanding. But since they chose not to, both will keep suffering from each intransigence. Unfortunately, corporate organizations end up with the short end of the stick. However, there a colleges and corporate that are beginning to appreciate this gap and create programs that are not just educative but transformative in nature.

Colleges give introduction, corporate want production. Colleges teach theory, corporate want application. Colleges have a syllabus to cover, corporate have a system to run. However the point is not to focus on the differences but to work out how these parallel processes can be integrated to create value for (and in) the corporate world. Since this is where corporate draw their human resources.

The induction of college graduates to the corporate world demands that they quickly get to appreciate what the corporate world wants from them and not only what it is willing to give in exchange. There is a glaring shift from the college (and schooling) culture of learning and preparing to doing and producing. College demands receptacle cognitive skills like knowledge, recall and comprehension the corporation demands productive competencies like understanding, initiative and creativity. These later competencies have to be learned just as the competencies that guaranteed one success in college had to be mastered.  The difference in these approaches is the difference between “learning” and “training”.

While colleges require intellect to facilitate learning and skill acquisition, corporations require three other competencies in equal measure initiative (leadership), enterprise (innovation) and employment (productivity). College students are not a natural fit in corporate structure and rarely do academicians make good corporate leaders. However, corporate executives provide excellent case study material for student development.  While college emphasizes knowing, corporations demand know-how. 

An evaluation of the college corporate gap gives you a first line assessment and a birds eye view of the challenge of molding an effective corporate executive out of an outstanding student. Large corporations have their own training schools that covert and shift employee thinking to align it with the organizations programs, others have two or three year management trainee program that serve to facilitate this transformation while the basic minimum is an employee induction program that helps the employee appreciate the goals and objectives of the corporation and how to realize and materialize them.

Allan Bukusi,

Director NGCL Program