Internally focused Personal development focuses on you developing your personal skills, knowledge and attributes- however the primary beneficiary for your personal development is you. It’s about you becoming better either at what you already know or just personally filling a perceived skill gap within yourself. It does not mean that a client does not benefit, however they are a secondary beneficiary in the process.

An example of such development can be for example, Time Management when you are not a time management expert, which benefits the employee but not necessarily the employer/client directly.

Externally Focused personal development focuses on you developing your skills for the direct benefit of the client/employer. This can still be a skill, knowledge or attribute- however the primary beneficiary for this personal development is the customer or employer. An example of such would be say customer service training or if you are a marketing specialist for example, advanced branding or product knowledge. In essence this would mean developing a competence that would reposition your specialty or add to your skill set that you can offer directly to your employer & client.

The difference between the two is that the skill that you develop in the latter case can be sold or packaged for the client’s benefit. A lot of employees do not know the difference between the two and therefore end up prioritizing “wrong” development at the “wrong” time.

If your purpose is to grow your reputation, get a promotion, develop and grow specialist credibility or generally increase visibility to the client or employer – you will want to focus on externally focused development. If your purpose is to increase efficiency internally in the way you work with your client or just want to do your work better, you will go for internal personal development. Ideally you would want to focus on both, however with consideration of your overall goals and where will you get your biggest impact of the learned skill.

Of course life is really not this easy, so this piece serves to give you a guideline I have found works when people ask me about advice on what personal development to undertake.

So what are you going to develop? Internal, external or both? The choice is yours! Happy and successful New year!

Internally focused Personal development focuses on you developing your personal skills, knowledge and attributes- however the primary beneficiary for your personal development is you. It’s about you becoming better either at what you already know or just personally fulfilling a perceived skill gap within yourself. It does not mean that a client does not benefit, however they are a secondary beneficiary in the process.

An example of such development can be for example, Financial Management when you are not a financial management company, which benefits the entrepreneur but not necessarily the client directly.

Externally Focused personal development focuses on you developing your skills for the direct benefit of the client. This can still be a skill, knowledge or attribute- however the primary beneficiary for this personal development is for the benefit of the customer. An example of such would be say customer service training or welding skill or at a more complex level becoming an attorney or an architect. Any of these skills can be developed then “sold” as a new product in your business.

The difference between the two is that the skill that you develop in the latter case can be sold or packaged for the client’s benefit. A lot of entrepreneurs do not know the difference between the two and therefore end up prioritizing “wrong” development at the “wrong” time.

If your purpose is to grow your business, develop and grow customer base or generally increase visibility to the client- you will want to focus on external development. If your purpose is to increase efficiency internally in your business, ensure operations are smooth and maintain and keep your current customer base- you will go for internal personal development. Ideally you would want to focus on both, however with consideration of your overall goals.

So what are you going to develop? Internal, external or both? The choice is yours! Happy and successful New year!

I am looking forward in anticipation to their school results- although that is less important a measure as a change in thinking and way of being that I have seen in these people who perform such a critical but thankless role in our country. At this rate- I only really expect the exam results to change at the end of 2012 when the behaviours of efficiency are embedded.

I also got to work with some of the legendary leaders in corporate South Africa and across the continent- seeing their shifts in consciousness as they start getting to “what really matters”, as they start dealing with the sense of their “legend” and legacy.

At the same time I was also dealing with my own legacy- from initiating the use of cellphones in banking in this country in 1999 and establishing small business in one of the leading banks in South Africa in 2002/2003. Becoming the first black chairperson for the South African National Youth Orchestra Foundation in 2009 and helping to turn around a bankrupt 47 year old institution into a flagship heritage institution. I established the first Centre for Work-Based Learning in 2011 in Hatfield, Pretoria- what I vision to be the university of the future. Getting to address 2 million South Africans as part of a great TV Empowerment project, which took me back to my roots in Soweto was certainly a highlight of my year. Working alongside Bob Proctor & Dr John DeMartini (Co-Authors of The Secret), and other highly influential local south africans to make a difference in individual consciousness of ordinary South Africans. (Megan Hudson & Andrew Horton are legends! Thank you)!. These reflections kept me going. Certainly there’s lot more work to be done!

At the same time I learned Lessons in humility as I joined the South African Public transport system and learned to “make it work”! I am now addicted! I got to be healthier than I have been since December 2006. While my health was improving I learned to deal with mortality as death creeped ever closer to me and mine- nursing my grandma whose health suddenly deteriorated, my mother, my sister, a personal near death experience, two of the principals on our project dying, losing an uncle, a close friend passing on and eventually losing my grandmother 20days before Christmas. All these reminders of how precious but precarious life and health are.

So as the year ends- for me this is as much public celebration as I will do, since there’s lots of work to be done in this Africa that I care about. The shift in mindsets and consciousness that is required is becoming more and more urgent.

And as I sit and watch The Color Purple and wondering if our attitudes on fundamental things have changed! We eschew old ways, but have nothing to replace them with!

I also wonder if we are willing enough to change the fundamentals. My sense is while we chase the illusion of change; we keep as much as possible the same. White people still rule the world, black people are still slaves (even if it’s in their minds), Africa is still the world’s doormat, and women still belong in the kitchen- albeit in stilleto’s. Recycled music, “classics” remain to remind us of “how things used to be” and anything that looks remotely paradigm shifting is considered threatening and is quickly smothered and stifled (cf: alternative explanations on HIV/AIDS), You know better than I do what is happening with Obama now and other conscious messengers out there. 

A sober perspective as I approach 2012- necessary I believe, for the change I wanna see in the world! To all my friends, clients and colleagues. I wish you happy celebrations! Lots of work to do in 2012 as an epoch year!

Below is a list of 10 ways I came up with to improve cash flows- from the obvious to the obscure. It’s importat to know that managing cash flows is managing both the IN-flows and the OUT-flows. these tips are focusing on both.

1) Implement a robust accounting system – Many entrepreneurs are happy to visit their financial statements once or twice a year or when they are in trouble- most of the time focusing on the delivery. Remember what you can’t measure you can’t manage. So make sure that you know what your cash flows are at any given point in time.
A budget report every month at least is useful to check variances from projections and to see patterns of your revenue, costs and your bank account specifically.

2) Manage your Itenerary – I have found that “travel” is one of the more obscure of the costs of running a business, especially at start up. Most of the time we don’t measure it accurately and as such we are surprised at the end of the month or end of the year to realise how much petrol and other travel costs we have spent. Manage your travel costs by managing your itenarary. Optimise your trips and if you can, make sure that most of your trips have at least an income generating reason to it.

3) Manage your diary – A few years ago I had an aha moment, when I realised that most of the appointments I had in my diary did not generate income. So 80% of the time i spent in meetings were not related to direct income generation at all- they were talk-meetings! Now every month I assess my diary and i check what percentage of the time I spend is income generating.

At least 60% of my meetings should lead to an invoice of sorts. Depending on the business you do, this is one of the things you can look at in managing your diary and that of your staff. How much time do they spend in tasks that generate income or tasks that support tasks that generate income?

4) Manage your Communications costs – Do you know how much you spend in your cellphone every month? This is one cost that can sneak up on you at the end of the month and you might be shocked to realise you spend a whole lot more than what you budgeted for. Especially if you are on the Pay-as-you-go system: If you calculate all those small top-ups, you will realise that they add up to thousands of rands per month. Yet, at that time all you have budgeted for is the landline costs.
So manage both and have a separate line item in your budget for cellphone costs, bandwith for internet as well as the telephone line. Remember, what yo can’t measure, you can”t manage.

5) Employ & reward talented sales staff – A lot of entrepreneurs seem to pack their organisations with talented operations staff and not enough sales staff. Remember that at the end of the day you still have to sell a product to increase your revenue. An investment in two or more sales staff- who actually take a structured approach to selling your prodcut/service will go a long way towards improving your cash flow. Pay them well- with a portion of their salary made up of commission
based income where possible.

6) Diversify your income streams – When I was a first year Commerce student, the concept I latched on to very quickly was the concept of diversification as a business strategy. I’m glad to say, years later it’s still one of the better strategies of stabilising and improving your cash flows. Ask yourself this: What else can you sell to your customers that they need? What seems to complement the service you already offer? For example- if you run a gym, can your clients also use a massage service?
Look at seasonality- what’s in season that you can sell? My great grandmother was a pro at Diversification- the goods she sold at the taxi rank were varied and carefully chosen- so that everyday of every month except weekends, she made a couple of hundreds of rands to supplement her pension income. She had different fruit in winter as opposed to summer..well you get my drift. It’s sounds obvious, but it’s also easy to overlook!

7) Submit your invoices on time – Being paid late can put pressure on your finances. In fact, it’s one of the major challenges for entrepreneurs. I have learned to read clearly the terms and conditions of my contracts with clients and know when I am supposed to submit. Set a day aside to review all your invoices and make sure that they are accurate and submitted on time. This reduces delays and protects in the event of a dispute should your clients not pay you in line with the terms and conditions. Make time to follow up to make sure they have been received or request acknowledgements.

8) Hire a debt collector- Sometimes in spite of our best efforts, our clients still fail to pay us. It is tempting to try to collect this bad debt yourself. But is it the best use of your time? If you are like me you probably want to spend a larger percentage of time making money than following up unreachable debtors. So get an expert to do this for you. It will cost you a small percentage of the debt collected- Thin about it, is it better to write off a 100% of money owed to you- or to recover some percentage of it at least?

9) Learn to read your cash flow statement – This sounds like a joke, but it’s always fascinating how many entrepreneurs neglect or just skim over their cash flow statement- while paying attention to the Income Statement and Balance sheet. The cash flow statement shows you in a structured way, what your overall cash movements have been over the financial year- have they been towards investing activities (e.g acquiring or gettting rid of investments), Operating activities (towards the generation of revenue) or Financing activities (paying or acquiring loans, for what?). Try it, once you understand your cashflow staement- it makes for an interesting summary of where your cash goes to during the financial year!

10) Form relationships across the value chain – People tend to relax their rules for people they know, like and respect. So endeavour to create relationships and maintain them than being contradictory and unapproachable. Great relationships with suppliers can give you that diiscount which improves your margin, and the relationship with customers will increase loyalty. Running a business is a people thing- it doesn’t matter what your specialism is!

As I said these are some of the practical ways that has helped me and others to improve my cashflow-Can you think of a few more? Do Share!

Any action is better than inaction and talk, I always say. So in many ways I admire the action of the youth that decided to mark their disapproval of rampaging greed that is in our beloved South Africa.

With all of that I found myself wondering how much of that will create a revolutionary shift in position. It perhaps raises the level of consciousness- I however feel that it’s the actions that you take once you are aware that cause the best shifts. Grand gestures have their place when well-positioned. But it’s intentional, goal directed personal actions of well-placed individuals that make a difference. At least that’s my philosophy based on years of observing successful people and nations!

Economic Emancipation is indeed our struggle, a very relevant task to be tackled head on – but I think underlying this is mental slavery! The Commission for Employment Equity released the Employment equity figures yesterday and we can see that a shift in the last 17 years is negligible. While the Banks are threatening to cancel the Financial Sector Charter “and replace it with something more workable”. These I see actions of people that own factors of production being resistant to the interference in their economic superiority. Now if I owned factories and mines and all the land- would I just give it up because legislation tells me so? Because youth demand it?! I doubt it!

There has been immense improvement in housing, electricity and water supply as well as infrastructure supply- all this says the government has worked very hard to put infrastructure into place. And legislation like the employment equity act, the BBBEE Act, etc. have been enacted. Agencies like SEDA, NEF, KHULA, etc have been setup- so why does it still not work?

What I feel is required now is personal Action in our small spaces to create the shifts we want to see. If somebody asked me what are the 5 key actions I would take following the March to Economic Freedom- these are the actions I would prioritize:

-          Get out of debt: debt is one way in which we are inextricably bound to misery and poverty- both at a Micro and Macro level. If we each could take personal responsibility to get out of debt, we could collectively free ourselves to focus our resources on creating wealth- both personally and for the country.

-          Start Saving: While Absa is one of the largest banks on the continent today, it started as a community chest (Volkskas) with a strong internally driven social agenda. We need to leverage on our collective spirit, which is inherent in all of us-and put money behind it. A community Chest that is independent of the government is a key to addressing some of the critical empowerment challenges we are experiencing.  

-          Buy Black: We need to shift our mindset from “white is right” to the mindset that “We can Right!”. Let’s support each other’s businesses AND hold each other personally accountable for service delivery. By Allowing money to circulate amongst ourselves, we start creating wealth for each other- the secret that has made other nations wealthy and powerful (think Chinese, Jewish, German, etc..)

-          Challenge your beliefs: While this is not easy, it’s a powerful mechanism to shifting collective consciousness. Apartheid’s Psychology was to destroy our sense of togetherness. Divide and Conquer is a powerful war tool. So two beliefs that Apartheid thrived on were:

o   We are each better than the other (Zulus are better than Vendas better than Xhosa, etc)

o   We are not good enough (“..They need training, they cannot think in 3 dimensions, they need us white people” etc)-

You know deep inside that you are a powerful individual with a strong instrument called a brain! Now act like you believe it!

-          Arm yourself with knowledge – when words like “nationalization” and “economic freedom” and “beneficiation”, etc are thrown around, do you know what they mean? Do you know where they come from? Do you trust the source? Or do you just go with the crowd? Most importantly do you understand your history? I am constantly amazed at how blasé the young people are about their history- the sad part is- if you don’t know your history- you are bound to believe that what you hear or think is new- when it has been said and done before! How can you come up with new solutions if you don’t understand what has been done before? Read Mo Afrika!

In conclusion, I admire the courage of the youth for taking a stand. I however encourage a more courageous action, which is “dare to deal with the person in the mirror as an instrument of change! Beyond grand gestures. After all in the Setswana Philosophies they say “Moremogolo go betlwa wa taola, wa motho o a ipetla” and “Tau ga e ke e ja ngwana e sa mo tsala“. Loosely translated this means- it’s all in your shoulders- you create yourself first- no one will do it for you!

Pula!

With all of that I found myself wondering how much of that will create a revolutionary shift in position. It perhaps raises the level of consciousness- I however feel that it’s the actions that you take once you are aware that cause the best shifts. Grand gestures have their place when well-positioned. But it’s intentional, goal directed personal actions of well-placed individuals that make a difference. At least that’s my philosophy based on years of observing successful people and nations!

Economic Emancipation is indeed our struggle, a very relevant task to be tackled head on – but I think underlying this is mental slavery! The Commission for Employment Equity released the Employment equity figures yesterday and we can see that a shift in the last 17 years is negligible. While the Banks are threatening to cancel the Financial Sector Charter “and replace it with something more workable”. These I see actions of people that own factors of production being resistant to the interference in their economic superiority. Now if I owned factories and mines and all the land- would I just give it up because legislation tells me so? Because youth demand it?! I doubt it!

There has been immense improvement in housing, electricity and water supply as well as infrastructure supply- all this says the government has worked very hard to put infrastructure into place. And legislation like the employment equity act, the BBBEE Act, etc. have been enacted. Agencies like SEDA, NEF, KHULA, etc have been setup- so why does it still not work?

What I feel is required now is personal Action in our small spaces to create the shifts we want to see. If somebody asked me what are the 5 key actions I would take following the March to Economic Freedom- these are the actions I would prioritize:

• Get out of debt: debt is one way in which we are inextricably bound to misery and poverty- both at a Micro and Macro level. If we each could take personal responsibility to get out of debt, we could collectively free ourselves to focus our resources on creating wealth- both personally and for the country.

   

• Start Saving: While Absa is one of the largest banks on the continent today, it started as a community chest (Volkskas) with a strong internally driven social agenda. We need to leverage on our collective spirit, which is inherent in all of us-and put money behind it. A community Chest that is independent of the government is a key to addressing some of the critical empowerment challenges we are experiencing.

• Buy Black: We need to shift our mindset from “white is right” to the mindset that “We can Right!”. Let’s support each other’s businesses AND hold each other personally accountable for service delivery. By Allowing money to circulate amongst ourselves, we start creating wealth for each other- the secret that has made other nations wealthy and powerful (think Chinese, Jewish, German, etc..)

   

   

• Challenge your beliefs: While this is not easy, it’s a powerful mechanism to shifting collective consciousness. Apartheid’s Psychology was to destroy our sense of togetherness. Divide and Conquer is a powerful war tool. So two beliefs that Apartheid thrived on were:

   

  • We are each better than the other (Zulus are better than Vendas better than Xhosa, etc)
  • We are not good enough (“..They need training, they cannot think in 3 dimensions, they need us white people” etc)-

  You know deep inside that you are a powerful individual with a strong instrument called a brain! Now act like you believe it!

• Arm yourself with knowledge – when words like “nationalization” and “economic freedom” and “beneficiation”, etc are thrown around, do you know what they mean? Do you know where they come from? Do you trust the source? Or do you just go with the crowd? Most importantly do you understand your history? I am constantly amazed at how blasé the young people are about their history- the sad part is- if you don’t know your history- you are bound to believe that what you hear or think is new- when it has been said and done before! How can you come up with new solutions if you don’t understand what has been done before? Read Mo Afrika!

In conclusion, I admire the courage of the youth for taking a stand. I however encourage a more courageous action, which is “dare to deal with the person in the mirror as an instrument of change! Beyond grand gestures. After all in the Setswana Philosophies they say “Moremogolo go betlwa wa taola, wa motho o a ipetla” and “Tau ga e ke e ja ngwana e sa mo tsala“. Loosely translated this means- it’s all in your shoulders- you create yourself first- no one will do it for you!

Pula!

After waking up in a rather chirpy state, ready to face the new day, my mood was quickly sullied by the comments that follow the story- one after the other in judgment based on the little “facts” they had in the story. Working with diversity management I should not have been surprised by the comments- but as a human being and a South African, I am saddened by the tenor of the comments.

Saddened to read these comments where people make a judgment without facts. But mostly what It shows in how far we are from “being on the same page” as a nation. I happen to have spoken to the drivers directly- and I know that they are paid a pittance- with a lot of them being paid less than R8k per month- while competing bus services like metro bus and Putco pay at least R12k. Suffice it to say I was shocked at those salaries! I was reliably informed that there has been ongoing negotiations on this since June 2011 and when I listened last week, I felt that this will possibly escalate into another strike- in fact when I saw this headline I thought it was about the strike I have been expecting. Of course it’s easy to point fingers from an observation tower and judge from our bigot-colored glasses!

If only we had proper journalists that would bother to do proper investigation before rushing to publish a story they know nothing about. “the details are sketchy!”- so why report it if you don’t have all the details!

I sometimes wonder if the media is used deliberately as a divisive tool, to fuel the hatred that already exists amongst us! Mxm! So sad! Sies South Africa! Sies op jou! Rha!

*wiping a silent tear*

This piece was inspired by a young and upcoming musician friend of mine. He expressed resistance to the concept of people referring to him as a brand after he gained popularity in one of the reality shows, catapulting him into national awareness. I wondered how many people I work with hold this perspective about their personal brand presence- and what it means if you are not aware of this brand power.

A Brand refers to a sign of recognition, a mark, and an identifier. While brands are mostly associated with products, they also refer to humans and animals.

With close to 7 Billion people in the world, it helps to be identified and recognized- not just by yourself but by your beneficiaries and benefactors. Especially if you have a purpose to fulfill. The higher the recognition factor the higher the effectiveness of the brand- be it a person, animal or inanimate thing. With Millions of cellphone designs in the market- the ones that manage to “brand” themselves and make them self stand out get the most benefit, get the highest use. Blackberry and Nokia have managed to brand themselves through highlighting certain characteristics that are of use to us- and we buy them.

The same applies to people- the more recognized or distinctive you are, the more effective you become towards fulfilling whatever your goals are, be they philanthropic or commercial. You cannot run away from branding- it happens whether you like it or not- you are branded somebody else’s child, a member of a certain religion, a member of a certain race, a member of a gender grouping- and so it goes.

You can either acknowledge that or manage it- or you can passively allow people to tell you who you are.

It might help to acknowledge that we are all a product or a service to someone. To our parents we are children- a product of their “love” or “sin” depending on circumstance, to our friends we represent some use- be it a companion, a helper, somebody that bring laughter, etc. To our employers we are factors of production- our hands, our minds, our feet, etc.

Acknowledging that we are of some use or service to others and then taking control of how you get used rather than being used haphazardly is what personal mastery is about- and brand management is a result of this personal mastery. Former Miss South Africa and now business mogul, Basetsana Khumalo, talks about how she took advantage of her rise to fame as a 20year old model to build a powerful brand of womanhood close to 20years later. And part of this process was being clear about who she is, what she is about and where she wants to be, then followed by WHO she surrounds herself with.

Hector Motau, former radio DJ and now sought after Motivational speaker and MC said something to the delegates in one of my workshops that I will never forget: “where purpose is not known, Abuse is inevitable” quoting Dr.Myles Munroe- It was nothing new- I have been coaching to help people find their purpose for years, but he managed to brand it such that it’s succinct and to the point for me. It is now one of my oft used quotes. And that’s the essence of Brand management in a bigger context of Personal Mastery.

Now, there are a lot of Branding examples in the last two paragraphs, making my point on many levels.

So here’s a question for you- are you in control of your brand?

• To keep in touch with my friends, acquaintances, clients and colleagues: what goes on in their lives and work.
  
• Social reflective space on events of the day in life and work
  
• Keep in touch with what happens in my areas of interest:
  
• Virtually connect with people I have not seen in a while or have not yet met but appreciate and/or admire
  
• Promote and highlight my business activities to my clients/colleagues and friends – all in one space
  
• Do research- I ask a question and usually someone has an answer
  
• Acquire services and skills – I have met people here that have supported me on my business and life, even clients!
  
• Made surprising new acquaintances – the stuff that happens in inboxes is the stuff of legend!
  
• Exercise my creativity – No matter the value of it- I end up coming up with reflective pieces like this one.
  

It’s virtually my desk by the water cooler.

I tend to agree with Kojo Baffoe, Editor of Destiny man Magazine, that Facebook is more personal, while Twitter is more…well…functional. We were talking about what I termed Twitter-elitism that seems to exist, where some of the twitterites (or is it twits?) engage in some serious Facebook bashing! For me Twitter, Facebook, Linked-In, Blogs, etc. are a suite of social tools that serve different functions for different purposes. Hell even twitter has a Facebook page!

I suppose it’s only what you make of it, and perhaps a function of personality. I have never been the type of guy to wait for things to happen. And I have always leveraged on technology to get things done, from my Casio electronic typewriter as a kid in the mid 80′s (I still have my typed personal goals sheet from this era believe it or not! And I used it to write my first newspaper article) to my first foray with computers in the late 80′s, introducing the use of spreadsheets and databases for accounting purposes in my department in the Mid-90′s, My first electronic newsletter to a database of 120 odd DJ’s and entertainers (which later went online as yahoo introduced yahoo pages), then my first business was desktop publishing and computer training in 1996. Then introducing cellphone banking in the late 90′s and now the social networking platform.

I may not be pioneering anything in this space as I did in the past but I do believe that like any other tool, social networking has its uses…even if it’s to tell your friends that you are having soup that day! It’s a modern day soap opera meet reality internet!

What are you using your social networking platform for?

So we had aunts and uncles who it turned out later were not even related, but all of them were part of the family. I was reminded of this recently when I was interviewing for an MD for one of the companies I chair. The Director at the recruiting Agency I commissioned to search for us offered her office to me for an interview-and left to find something to do. You have to appreciate that the interview was in the late afternoon- around 4.30- and I am wont to hold long interviews, so for two hours we went. By 6pm we were worried about where she could be because usually at that time most people want to conclude and go home. We took a break to check where she was to find her sitting at the guest’s lounge reading a magazine. We apologized for holding the space for so long and she insisted that if we still needed to use the space we can continue.

Now I know that this is possibly not very “special” but in a manner of speaking it is. It demonstrates the principles of hospitality that I have learned to be pivotal in what has come to be branded as “ubuntu”, which in my opinion is just a way of being with the world that is truly human and accommodating. In Setswana there’s an idiom that goes “moeng e tla re je ka wena”, loosely translated that we get to feast because of our guests. My grandmother would save good china for the guests than for us, she would bake when visitors came, etc. It made me wonder how often are we as leaders accommodating and hospitable. How often do we give our best to our guests? Looking at the nature of customer service in this country right now, I believe this is exactly the mindset that is missing. The mindset of going out of your way to accommodate the client and make sure they feel welcome and are important.

One could say this opens up an opportunity for abuse- but there was balance in this wisdom as there is balance in nature- each tenet has a supporting tenet that maintains a homoeostasis. So a corollary to this idiom was “moeng o dinaka di maripa” (the guest has shorter horns) implying the guests were expected to behave with some decorum and not abuse their hosts hospitality.

How often do we take time, today’s leader’s most precious commodity, to listen to staff or to do performance management properly? The tenet of Humanism is unconditional positive regard for others and while a lot of the leadership principles that we learn from the MBA’s of the world talk about this- it’s a tenet that seem very difficult to grasp in a world that is driven by individual pursuit and selfishness. While it has been proven by countless research that more engaged staff and relationship orientation and giving/serving (as opposed to taking) underpin successful leaders- organisations continue to hire and encourage leaders to work on the old, unsustainable frame of being. In a world that embraces rationality, this seems paradoxically irrational! And paradoxically what is dismissed as “old” wisdom continues to stand the test of time.

From a more global perspective, it makes me sad when I realize the xenophobia that plagues Africa’s children, in total ignoring the principles of accommodation and hospitality. Where instead of recognizing the value that each brings into this country, living to let live- we believe the stories that serve to keep us apart and selfish. While we fashion ourselves against the west …we forget that nowhere in the west are there homogenous nations that succeded.

I believe these are the principles that are going to make Africa successful and competitive. Imagine how it would be if everyone accommodated everyone, and you did not have to worry that your needs will be attended to therefore you have enough time to worry about another, that your staff did not have to worry about being taken care of, so they give their best to you…Just imagine…

I appreciate your time…Thank you for accommodating me