I was invited to speak at a function the other night where many small businesses owners were gathtered to network and find business opportunities. I decided that I will share some personal experience on how to change your beliefs and work on your perception of reality.
Approximately 3 years ago I found myself in a situation where I had to ask really difficult questions to myself. I've gone through a divorce at the time and relationships have been a challenge for me over a number of years. Only after my divorce I realised that I had been engaging with relationships from fear, approval-seeking base, which is totally wrong. You have to engage with relationships with self confidence, with love and trust. You only then build your relationships on a strong foundation.
Stef du Plessis - a leadership coach - facilitated a Breakfast workshop at the Institute of Directors where he spoke about his Masiwa's journey and how he discovered that his beliefs system is impacting his behaviours. It dawned on me at the time that it is exactly what happened to me. So, I started with a journey to change those beliefs and subsequently I managed to change my behaviours and hence I am happily married today.
What I really want to share with you is that in times like this, we have to check our beliefs and understand our behavioural response to our reality. The economy is in a down-turn, sure, but we should not interact with the economy from fear. We have to maintain our passion, our focus and self confidence because there are still customers and there are still organisations who have needs. If your product or service should be changed to address those needs, then you know what to do. Get going and make the changes.
Entrepreneurs are making money in the midst of economic recession because they are geared for survival. Do not fear when one, two or even three customers cancel your order or put your project on hold, get another customer...
Go out and keep on selling... and believe that you can make a difference.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Monday, November 17, 2008
Recession - Is this the only time for efficiency?
How do you understand the concept of efficiency??
A few weeks ago I sat in a meeting with a major financial institution in South Africa and we were discussing the global economy and what actions the bank should take to deal with the challenges ahead. I asked a senior manager how many people stand to lose their jobs and after giving me the figure the manager added: "During the good times we've built in some fat, so I guess it's ok..." My immediate response to this was: "Why did you build fat in the first place?" The question I raise today is that many organisations tend to overlook the importance of efficiencies when the going is good, but when the going gets tough we go into crises mode and we want to retrench people...
In a time of recession many organisations find themselves in the middle of an economic storm, but I can't help to wonder how much "fat" has been "collected" over the good years. We had skill shortages during a time of growth and this was probably a contributor to the fact that our managers are not performing their management roles as effectively as they should. They have been performing technical functions because there weren't enough hands to get everything done. Management focus means creating value through increasing revenues through acquisition of new clients, new product development and minimising cost as well as improving efficiencies all the time! Managers seemed to overlook the importance of this important management activity.
In another organisation the impact of the commodity prices and the rand/dollar exchange rate is obvious, but in a recent meeting with senior managers of this organisation, they said that they could improve their overall efficiency by approximately 25%. Now imagine if all organisations in Africa and the Middle East can improve their efficiencies by 25%? It will have an enormous impact in the sustainability of those organisations, which will possibly help them through tough times.
A recent study shows that if an organisation improves their efficiencies by 10%, the sales, marketing and business development functions of the organisation will have to double their sales and new business in order to have the same bottom line impact. Doesn't it make sense then to focus on improving our efficiencies, unlock the creative energy of our people and get them to come up with ways to make the business more cost efficient and more protitable?
How does the efficiency look in your organisation?
A few weeks ago I sat in a meeting with a major financial institution in South Africa and we were discussing the global economy and what actions the bank should take to deal with the challenges ahead. I asked a senior manager how many people stand to lose their jobs and after giving me the figure the manager added: "During the good times we've built in some fat, so I guess it's ok..." My immediate response to this was: "Why did you build fat in the first place?" The question I raise today is that many organisations tend to overlook the importance of efficiencies when the going is good, but when the going gets tough we go into crises mode and we want to retrench people...
In a time of recession many organisations find themselves in the middle of an economic storm, but I can't help to wonder how much "fat" has been "collected" over the good years. We had skill shortages during a time of growth and this was probably a contributor to the fact that our managers are not performing their management roles as effectively as they should. They have been performing technical functions because there weren't enough hands to get everything done. Management focus means creating value through increasing revenues through acquisition of new clients, new product development and minimising cost as well as improving efficiencies all the time! Managers seemed to overlook the importance of this important management activity.
In another organisation the impact of the commodity prices and the rand/dollar exchange rate is obvious, but in a recent meeting with senior managers of this organisation, they said that they could improve their overall efficiency by approximately 25%. Now imagine if all organisations in Africa and the Middle East can improve their efficiencies by 25%? It will have an enormous impact in the sustainability of those organisations, which will possibly help them through tough times.
A recent study shows that if an organisation improves their efficiencies by 10%, the sales, marketing and business development functions of the organisation will have to double their sales and new business in order to have the same bottom line impact. Doesn't it make sense then to focus on improving our efficiencies, unlock the creative energy of our people and get them to come up with ways to make the business more cost efficient and more protitable?
How does the efficiency look in your organisation?
Monday, November 3, 2008
Management-leadership chaos
Forty years ago organisations had no idea what the role of a manager was. Managers in organizations were perceived as individuals with clear desks and the privilege of reading the newspaper in the morning. This role was unclear, and no one knew what these so called managers were supposed to do. We realized that being a manager was not the only important thing but that leadership competency played an even more important role in some cases. Louis Allen has never separated management from leadership.
Many researchers embarked on scientific research to identify what these roles are and over the last four or five decades we managed to understand more and more the complexities and challenges of management-leaders. We realised that the job goes beyond dishing out instructions to "subordinates". This job has become a conceptual job where managers have to manage and lead people, manage processes, evaluate and improve technology and systems. It is definitely not the application of technical or operational work. Management is a conceptual job that requires a different set of skills.
It is this conceptual ability that made me think. How is it possible that we have 4 decades of research under our belts, a "clearer" idea of what management-leaders should be spending their time on, but they are still operational, technical and fighting the proverbial fires every day? How is it possible that the majority of managers still fail to engage people in their jobs and their organisations? How is it possible that the majority of managers still do not succeed in motivating and retaining the key talent in their organisations? How is it possible that our managers still do not have the ability to create a value system for employees which they can relate to? How is it possible that a majority of managers fail dismally in creating clear vision and direction for employees? Our management-leadership is in chaos.
Where is the gap then? What are our management-leaders not doing? We should be able to lead and manage the people in our organisations to becoming value adding corporate citizens. We should be able to increase the level of engagement and commitment of our people and get them to believe in the values of the organisation. We should be able to lead them to experience the success of achieving results constructively, and not be managed by fear of those managers who abuse their positional power. We should focus less on the political dynamics of our jobs and more on getting people to work,to add value and to get rewarded for what they have achieved.
In many cases we as managers have lost our ability to apply management basics. The answers to these questions might seem very complex but the reality is that for every question there is a very simple management solution.
Louis Allen Southern Africa has decided to make more effective use of technology available to have electronic conversations with our alumni, existing and potential clients and those that have a vested interest in improving this crucial element in organisations. We will have conversations about management related issues which our management-leaders are facing in organisations. We can help to improve the management capacity of organisations internationally and therefore make them more effective. We also hope to create a place where we can discuss and find answers for these management challenges, especially the challenges that have not been researched or published. I believe there are many of these out there..
I am looking forward to have these conversations with you.
Many researchers embarked on scientific research to identify what these roles are and over the last four or five decades we managed to understand more and more the complexities and challenges of management-leaders. We realised that the job goes beyond dishing out instructions to "subordinates". This job has become a conceptual job where managers have to manage and lead people, manage processes, evaluate and improve technology and systems. It is definitely not the application of technical or operational work. Management is a conceptual job that requires a different set of skills.
It is this conceptual ability that made me think. How is it possible that we have 4 decades of research under our belts, a "clearer" idea of what management-leaders should be spending their time on, but they are still operational, technical and fighting the proverbial fires every day? How is it possible that the majority of managers still fail to engage people in their jobs and their organisations? How is it possible that the majority of managers still do not succeed in motivating and retaining the key talent in their organisations? How is it possible that our managers still do not have the ability to create a value system for employees which they can relate to? How is it possible that a majority of managers fail dismally in creating clear vision and direction for employees? Our management-leadership is in chaos.
Where is the gap then? What are our management-leaders not doing? We should be able to lead and manage the people in our organisations to becoming value adding corporate citizens. We should be able to increase the level of engagement and commitment of our people and get them to believe in the values of the organisation. We should be able to lead them to experience the success of achieving results constructively, and not be managed by fear of those managers who abuse their positional power. We should focus less on the political dynamics of our jobs and more on getting people to work,to add value and to get rewarded for what they have achieved.
In many cases we as managers have lost our ability to apply management basics. The answers to these questions might seem very complex but the reality is that for every question there is a very simple management solution.
Louis Allen Southern Africa has decided to make more effective use of technology available to have electronic conversations with our alumni, existing and potential clients and those that have a vested interest in improving this crucial element in organisations. We will have conversations about management related issues which our management-leaders are facing in organisations. We can help to improve the management capacity of organisations internationally and therefore make them more effective. We also hope to create a place where we can discuss and find answers for these management challenges, especially the challenges that have not been researched or published. I believe there are many of these out there..
I am looking forward to have these conversations with you.
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