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Leadership during ‘interesting times’

October 28, 2023 Melanie Hawken

by Lionesses of Africa Operations Department

The last few weekends we have returned to a common undercurrent in many of our articles written almost weekly since early 2020, namely the tremors hitting the world and rushing towards our beautiful businesses (our most recent here and here). From Covid warnings in early articles, or the Ever Given container ship blocking the Suez Canal (here) it’s been almost a continuous fear of the next thing to hit us, up to the present day, where supply chains are still stretched; inflation and interest rates are high (and very ‘sticky'); US$ debt of many African countries still too large and with higher interest rates now impacting our daily lives, all US$ being sucked out of the economies to pay the growing interest bills; global warming is of course omni-present and looms over us…it seems to go on and on. With all of this we could certainly be forgiven for looking at these storms and simply shutting up shop and finding a shady spot under a Baobab tree from which to rest out our days.

But we are Lionesses, a shady Baobab tree is not for us, we drive on! However what often happens during such periods of volatility is that we get too engrossed in the here and now, in the immediate, so busy in the putting out of fires and the storms approaching that we take so much more on ourselves, forgetting that above all we have to be leaders not ‘bosses’ and in dark times, especially during dark and uncertain times such as these, our staff look to us and exactly for - leadership.

So this weekend, let’s take a moment out of your hectic schedule - it’s time for a pit-stop to check on our own leadership skills, because only you will be able to inspire your team to believe that these global storms will pass and the light they see with you at the end of the tunnel is sunlight and not as many will be fearing - yet another train racing towards them. Only you can do this.

How?

  1. Take a step back and check your Vision. Is this still central to all you do and are you still showing your Team this Vision? Not just beautifully written on a wall in your office, but take a moment to talk to your Team about this and why this is your Vision, to really explain.

  2. Do you have a strategy to reaching your vision? Do your Team know this?

  3. Do your actions align with your vision - have you recently been cutting corners in trying to reach this - such as dealing with a supplier you know to not treat their employees well, or with no care of the environment or communities? If your supply chain does not align with your values, will these values continue to shine through to your products and to your customers? These issues do matter. Integrity matters more that you can ever imagine.

  4. ‘Integrity matters more that you can ever imagine’ to you, to your suppliers, to your customers, to your investors…to your TEAM. Where is your moral compass, has it erred slightly off course (it does happen if you don’t often check your ‘North Star’).

  5. Your Team? How many times do you praise their work, celebrate their Teamwork? Do you only celebrate the large wins - even the small wins need some recognition, we all need smiles to get through the day.

  6. How do you motivate them? Money alone makes for nervous bedfellows. (Can we write that?) (sigh…you just did - Ed.)

  7. Does your Team celebrate its diversity? We are all different, thank goodness - life would be very boring if we were all the same - learn from your Team and encourage them to learn from each other. None of us have had the same lives, learnings or experiences, seeing things through different eyes is essential and as Leader you should encourage this. When the South African Springboks won the 2019 Rugby World Cup (this weekend they are in the Final again - GO BOKKE!), it was decided to have photos of their loved ones made into the numbers on their backs. A central player, Makazole Mapimpi who had come from a very poor background had no photos other than of himself, as all his family had died. When the Team found out, this became a major part of their Team and their drive to win, as they all rallied around him.

  8. The next we like to call - Who is the Adult? Next time you see some one driving with their seatbelts, but their children without ‘because it’s just too difficult to get them to wear them (!)”, ask who is actually in charge. In the case of seatbelts, and other such strategic (life or death) decisions there is only one option. YOU dictate. But note ‘strategic’, being in charge does not mean taking all decisions - you must delegate many of the other non-strategic  ones, not only for your mental and physical health, but also  to teach leadership in others - if we are not here to encourage, teach and watch others learn and grow, what is leadership?

  9. This building leadership in others is a major part of our own leadership. Major.

  10. Communicate clearly (you knew that was coming!). If you mumble no one will hear you. Be clear in what you want, to whom you have delegated certain projects or roles. Be clear. Also please keep it simple. People have to also see that those to whom you have delegated, also have the responsibility.

  11. All should know that you make decisions in the best interests of the company, sometime this means that they are decisions that might not be nice for some, but through being ‘fair but firm’, you are building your company that will (you hope), continue to give jobs, pensions and build communities for the many not just for the one.

  12. Encourage dissent in meetings (yes!). Meetings should be safe places for individuals to voice their opinions, not shouted down or ridiculed. Again there is a tendency during dark times to yell, “My way or no way!”, and rush forward. This is highly dangerous. Of course a decision has to be taken, but everyone’s view must be respected prior to this decision. One of the most dangerous side effects of meetings not being ‘safe spaces’ is that Group-Think gravitates to the strongest individual or ‘in-crowd’, and then often moves further to the nearest ‘pole’. “…to be a responsible member of a professional team, employees sometimes may need to exercise professional skepticism.” (see here)

  13. Control meetings - everyone will thank you. Cut the number and cut the time. That might be counter-intuitive to the above point that meetings need to be safe spaces for all to be heard, but there will be some who just love the sound of their own voices, ensure you cut them to the point. Then once an agreement is reached, stop discussing it and move on. As all of the greatest sales people know - once you have sold, find a reason to leave, in fact probably best to politely leave with contract safe in the pocket rather than continue to chat and possibly talk yourself out of the deal (yes it happens!). Same with decisions, don’t linger. Time is not on our side these days.

  14. Listen. Too many listen to reply, not to understand.

It goes without saying that leadership comes from within us, it is not a tick box exercise (no matter how much the above seems to be!), and indeed we could go on and on drilling down into the minutiae of leadership - but that would not be leadership, but micro managing. If all you can do is quote a management book, your Team and Employees will quickly see through you. It has to come from you.

There is an old Arab curse: “May you live in interesting times”, a curse because interesting and volatile times are really not to be welcomed, we wish to build our businesses at a time when we can rely on certain things, like the value of our money, or the quality of our political leaders - but sadly that is not 2023 it seems - there is no doubt that we are living in ‘interesting times’ at the moment. That is exactly why our own leadership has to be of the highest quality. There is no place to hide, no inflation-free booming economy within which to hide any mistakes. The tide has gone out and as Warren Buffet likes to remind us - that is when we see who has been swimming naked.

With that in mind we are constantly drawn to the words of the former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard in the book she co-wrote with our very own, former Nigerian finance minister and now WTO Head (and honorary Lioness), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, called: ‘Women and Leadership: Real Lives, Real Lessons’ which draws from interviews with a group of eight women leaders (here).

“People want to know that the person leading their [company] is tough enough to bring them through, but they also want to see that the leader gets it, understands how anxious, confused and worried about the future they are.”

-Amen to that.

Stay safe.

In Team Lioness Tags Leadership
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