You have been engaged as a consultant to lead a transformation project, where do you start and how do you give confidence to the client that the project will be delivered as planned? The starting point is to define and confirm the project outcomes. You want each outcome to be precisely defined in terms of measurable indicators. For a marketing intervention, instead of writing increase sales, it is better to write “grow sales from the current US $40m to the US $50 million after the project.” That way, you can break down the project and ask the right questions. For…
Great leaders think like great Chess players, part 1
It is easy to become a great leader with knowledge, even basic knowledge, of the game of Chess. For some reason, I gained access to a board game early in my life. But for some reason, we learned how to play draft, and not Chess. Unlike Chess, Draft is a basic game that lacks rigor, creativity, and strategy. Though I was so good at it. It was the wrong game! That is where nature makes a difference. The mentorship to young ones about the right moves and career choices to embrace. You can imagine my exasperation and disappointments, when later…
Improve one week at a time. Attain your targets
Join my private accountability services for your leadership growth. You will see progress. This is not about passive motivational talks. You must be willing to invest your time, money and effort to progress. We agree about your personal growth ambition, at the onset. We agree on how your choices to win. You decide on one. We specify activities you will do to start moving closer to your ambition. My work is to guide you, hold you accountable. Provide you with resources and real-life support so that you move in the right direction? Are you ready to start thriving? If yes,…
Never surrender your control
Never surrender your control. The biggest challenge as an entrepreneur is trying to lose control over the critical aspects of your business like talent acquition and retention, customer relationships and quality service delivery. Any business leader must identify areas where they must win. Thereafter, invest to win. And then protect the win so that it is sustainable. In your family for the example, if you are the husband or the head of the family, you must identify the top 2-4 things which you must control. Once you lose control over those areas, you lose your family, and everything will fall…
You improve what you measure. Here is why micro-monitoring ticks
Regardless the size of your business, you must practice micro-monitoring to avoid small challenges and misses from becoming huge. You want to implement a system where issues are identified instantly and rectified. Unlike micromanaging where you ask people to do something and show them how they should do it and the money they should spend, in the process you undermine their own intelligence and their ability to provide you with innovative ideas to grow your business. With micro-monitoring, you tell your staff your expectations of them (targets) and ask them to give you a work plan showing clearly the key…
Winning at the work place
What is wrong with the young people? Where exactly did you get this boy? I am disappointed. During interviews, we asked him: can you work under pressure? He said, yes. And that he likes work that requires him to put in more effort. On coming to work early, he said that since his childhood, he has been going to class by 7:00am! He is used to waking up early. He even joked that unless you want me at 4 am! We were all happy that you had identified for us a great employee. He not only had great marks in…