It is common these days to hear leaders and managers say that: “their organizations cannot function properly without the right people”. Sometimes, we also hear organizations saying that “people are their highest or biggest asset”. As leaders and managers, a key question to ask ourselves is: how do we make the most out of that biggest asset in our organizations? How do we get our employees to deliver more for the customers – since organizations exist to serve the customers? The truth is that it is very easy for organizations to act as though people are their greatest asset meanwhile such organizations may not have the right foundation in which to maximize the potentials or the capabilities of their workforce. That right foundation by which leaders or managers make the most out of their team members comes through empowerment.

The dilemma often times comes from how managers understand what empowerment means and how it has robbed organizations of its successes. Some leaders and managers still see empowerment to mean giving employees or people the power to make decisions that they ought to have made themselves. As a result of this understanding, some organizations find it difficult to engage the hearts and minds of their workforce. These leaders and managers’ misguided understanding of the word empowerment have made them to appear as if they are giving power to their workforce to drive results – and without those powers or approvals making progress might be a herculean task. Another believe stem from the fact that some organizations are already accustomed to the command – and –control structure, an feel that empowering workforce will mean taking powers and controls out from them.

A true fact unknown to some leaders and managers is that people in the organization already have or possess a tremendous amount of power within them. What do I mean? They already have powers that reside in their experience, in their knowledge, exposures, and even internal drives. They already have full prepared powers that they will bring to any organization they chose to work for. But unfortunately those powers in terms of knowledge, influence, exposures, what they can do, and their positions are not utilized for the growth of organizations. Sometimes, they are allowed to go dormant unknowingly. Importantly, organizations need to have a re-think on how they view empowerment. They should begin to see empowerment as creating of an organizational environment that will unleash the knowledge, experience, and motivation that reside in people in that organization. Organizations should stop seeing empowerment as a way to wrestle for power.

From my experience as consultant and trainer, for empowerment to be entrenched as a culture in organizations – and not just a lip service, it requires a major shift in attitude. And the fundamental place that shift will emerge from is in the heart of every leader. One of the roles of leaders and managers is to ensure that employees utilize their experiences, skills, exposures, and also their contacts in a way that will make their organizations to be more successful. Talking of contacts for instance, some employees might have very important contacts that can be highly beneficial to the organization, but without being empowered or encouraged they might not let it out. So the key to empowerment is the ability of leaders and managers to get people in their organizations to “let the powers” they have out for the good of their organizations. So empowerment is liken to letting people in your organization bring their brains to work and allowing them to use their knowledge, experience, and skills to build a formidable organization.

Employees on their part should not misconstrue empowerment to mean as though they were given the free rein to do as they please and make all the key decisions about their jobs. They should not fail to realize that the price of freedom is a sharing of risks and responsibility. But importantly, an empowered culture requires even greater accountability from every employee. Finally, empowerment breeds accountability, the earlier organizations realize that the better.

We would be glad to have your views.

Before now, organizations may afford to do things their own way and in their own time. It was also incredible seeing some of these organizations back then thinking they were fully in charge of events and situations in and around their industry (they were literally saying in their minds-no cause for alarm, we are in control). Because of their ‘perceived’ size, strength and positioning, these organizations find themselves too ‘big to fail’ and alas start breathing the ‘air of invincibility’.

The hard truth is that with the rate of change and disruptions in the business world of today, it is not advisable for any organization to still have the ‘air of invincibility’ or ‘too big to fail’ mentality? It is not safe for organizations to think that they are invulnerable to failure or losing marketplace positioning. Whenever I share with leaders and participants in our Leading Strategic Change and Innovation program, I always let them know that Change is a shift in the external world and not from the internal. If those shifts in the external world are not managed strategically in the best interest of the organization, there might be a looming danger. A general case for all organizations is that change happens to all of them. But the speed of adapting to the change differs from one organization to the other. This is why Rupert Murdoch quote used above is highly relevant in our today’s world.

Interestingly, it is no more a question of whether an organization wants to push itself hard or not in adapting to the changing world, now it is a must do. Like we have all known in the time past that some things in life are inevitable and are bound to happen, so also is disruption in our organizations. So, one message I want to drive home in this insight is that ‘disruption is inevitable in our organizations’. It has come to stay. In the recent times, one of my favourites quote is the one from Budi Sadikin (the CEO of Indonesia’s Bank Mandiri), he said “we have to keep disrupting ourselves; otherwise we will be disrupted by somebody else”. With my experience working with CEOs and business leaders across various industries, I have found out that some business leaders’ major problem is that they allowed disruptions to catch up with them and eventually overtake them. They were simply not ahead of the game.

I was in a forum the other day, and the speaker said something that got me thinking. She mentioned about three global and formally respected companies that failed and said “these companies are now used as case studies”. Remember I said initially that no company or organization is too big to fail. Funny enough, you might even be No.1 currently in your industry that does not guarantee longevity if changes from the outside exceed the internal or inside changes in that particular organization. Individually, we know such companies and we also use them to cite examples, but then, the only way we will be different and better than those failed companies is when we run fast with the changing world.

Final note: To succeed in these difficult times will require leaders of organization to push hard and run fast. Like Budi Sadikin said, let the disruption start internally for organizations, that will help them prepare and get ready for the changing world as opposed to allowing disruptions to jump on them from the outside. No matter how big an organization might be, an outside and unforeseen disruption might mean the end of business for some and to others making them irrelevant. Since the changing world has come, pushing hard to adapt to that changing world is non-negotiable. Always remember that what brought success to your organization yesterday might not be relevant again today – so we need to move from “this is how it has worked to “how can it work today” in the midst of uncertainties? Finally, the business world of today has become so funny and interesting that small companies that are fast are beating big companies that are slow.

We would be glad to have your views.

During one of the partners meetings in San Diego, with our late founder of Haines Centre for Strategic Management - Steve Haines, he said something that resonated with me, and helped me understand the need not just to measure what people are doing but to also monitor them. He said, “People don’t do what you expect but what you inspect”. This quote eventually became a reminder and my deep foundation in driving results. In addition, I suddenly realized that business failures and poor performances could be minimized should managers and leaders begin to inspect their desired results from their subordinates from time to time.

Interestingly, about few years ago, a manager might not see the need to inspect his or her trusted subordinate, believing that he or she will naturally deliver results. In this case, the manager expects results (and is often times disappointed). One might say, but it can still happen in today’s world. True, it may be possible, but the rates of changes from the outside world and even shareholder’s expectations have made us to have a re-think. Now, no organization can afford not to inspect and monitor what people are doing. The era of waiting until an assignments, tasks or projects are finished until we get feedback is gradually fading away. We need to constantly ask “what is going on?”Asking that does not mean you don’t trust the ability of your colleague doing the assignment, it simply means you don’t want to leave anything to chances. It also means that you want to see results delivered instead of reasons or excuses for failures.

Every organization should have a way of measuring their performances at intervals. Not at the end of the journey- but in between the journeys. Sometimes organizations are too patient (even if you are, your shareholders are not). They wait until the end of the journey before measuring their progress. If we don’t want to end up somewhere we didn’t plan on, we must re-evaluate how we measure our progress during the journey. My message is, start to measure your goals on a weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly basis towards your overall destination.

Measure what’s important, not what’s easy. We typically measure factors that show we are making progress towards our destination. Sometimes leaders measure the easy things, like financial information, without considering the other areas that need to be monitored during the journey. There’s nothing wrong with evaluating financial information; it is important to the journey. But it shouldn’t be the only thing we measure. You will need to determine what areas make sense to measure your journey’s success. I also understand that sometimes it is tempting and probably makes more sense to measure only the financials – but that should not be the case.

What to Measure?

Consider these areas for possible measurement:

• Customer information
• Employee satisfaction
• Supplier/partner feedback
• Operational excellence
• Financial success
• Applied innovation

Choose measurement areas such as these, not just one area, to give you a good balanced, overall picture of your success. Any organization that measures these areas all together will not achieve anything less of success – and this is guaranteed. Importantly, you must measure your progress on a specific, ongoing timetable. It is the difference between staying on the road and making changes only after you’ve driven into someone’s wheat field and crashed the car.

In our various organizations, measuring regularly will show:

• 1. How you know you’re being successful—are we moving towards our destination?
• 2. How we know we are in trouble—are we on the road or on the shoulder?
• 3. What corrective actions to take if we are in trouble—what adjustments do we make in our steering and speed to reach our destination?

Final notes: Asking your subordinates a simple question like, is everything okay, can open up a line of communication that will eventually impact positively on performance. Often times, we might be disappointed when we sit down and expect results to come just because we surround ourselves with trusted or competent people. One of the best ways to avoid disappointments (with your expected results) is to constantly inspect what your people are doing, that way you are always in the picture – knowing what is working and what is not. So, don’t just expect results to come rather inspect the results you want to attract.

I am Uju – your trusted advisor.

We would be glad to have your views.

When there are opportunities and different choices to choose from, people and organizations tend to choose the best. What happens when there is no opportunity or probably options available to people or organizations to choose? I mean when you are left with no option. I have been privileged to ask more than 200 people during my training programs this pertinent question: what do you do if you don’t have an opportunity or choice that will help you to achieve what you want? The answer(s) I got from these people and from some organizations I have posed the same question to made me to realize why most people and organizations are not achieving their desired results.

You really want to know what they answered. Coincidentally, they all answered almost in the same line: they will hope for the best. So, hoping for the best has suddenly become what most organizations are adopting especially in difficult times. We need to ask in our different organizations, is hoping for the best a reliable strategy for organization’s growth especially when the odds seem not to be very much in their favour. Organizations may be quick to ask: is it wrong to hope for the best when their businesses are not thriving, the economy is not looking up, fewer opportunities on their way, and generally when things are not working in their favour? From their point of view, they want to be optimistic. My answer to them always is: in difficult times, hoping for the best is not enough. Why? Millions and millions of organizations are hoping for the best in tough times, but the “best” is always masked and might not go to anyone expect those intentionally doing their best. Like Dr Martin Seligman will say, “If the cost of failure is high, optimism is the wrong strategy”.

The irony is that even organizations that have not evolved any game plan, core strategies or have not taken definitive steps towards achieving their desired results will still hope for this “same” best. The truth is: the best does not come to organizations who are mere positive or who are wishing for the best. The best will come to organizations that can match their desires with equal amount of time bound actions. It will come to those who despite all odds will go the extra mile when others are quitting. The best will come to those organizations who value every customer they have and will do all in their hands to constantly amaze them. The best will come to those organizations who do not allow the change on the outside to exceed the change on the inside. There is no better time to pay attention to this Jack Welch quote more than now: “If the rate of change on the outside exceeds the rate of change on the inside, the end is near”. So, when organizations merely sit down without being strategic and hope for the best, they are simply making their end nearer.

Organizations are failing more than ever before because, they always assume some magical effect will turn around their situations. Such organizations believe that by hoping for the best, the “best” will graciously and calmly come to them – that is mere optimism and it does happen less of the time. In order to achieve higher and sustainable results for the remaining part of the year, organizations and individuals would need to move from mere optimism to Optimal Thinking. The difference is that mere optimism will say, ‘our organization wants the best for Q4’, while Optimal Thinking will ask, ‘what can we do to achieve the best for our organization in this Q4, what are our options’? What can we do differently in this circumstance? Etc. In challenging times like we are, organizations should avoid wishful thinking and should evolve implementable game plan for achieving success.

Final note: You might be wondering what then can an organization or someone do if there is no choice. Remember, I said earlier, if there is a choice, choose the best. Now there is no choice. What will individuals and organizations do when they have no choice? Very simple, they should be the best. Same goes to everyone reading this insight, instead of hoping for the best, be the best, make the best to come.

We would be glad to have your views.

It is common these days to hear leaders and managers say that: “their organizations cannot function properly without the right people”. Sometimes, we also hear organizations saying that “people are their highest or biggest asset”. As leaders and managers, a key question to ask ourselves is: how do we make the most out of that biggest asset in our organizations? How do we get our employees to deliver more for the customers – since organizations exist to serve the customers? The truth is that it is very easy for organizations to act as though people are their greatest asset meanwhile such organizations may not have the right foundation in which to maximize the potentials or the capabilities of their workforce. That right foundation by which leaders or managers make the most out of their team members comes through empowerment.

The dilemma often times comes from how managers understand what empowerment means and how it has robbed organizations of its successes. Some leaders and managers still see empowerment to mean giving employees or people the power to make decisions that they ought to have made themselves. As a result of this understanding, some organizations find it difficult to engage the hearts and minds of their workforce. These leaders and managers’ misguided understanding of the word empowerment have made them to appear as if they are giving power to their workforce to drive results – and without those powers or approvals making progress might be a herculean task. Another believe stem from the fact that some organizations are already accustomed to the command – and –control structure, an feel that empowering workforce will mean taking powers and controls out from them.

A true fact unknown to some leaders and managers is that people in the organization already have or possess a tremendous amount of power within them. What do I mean? They already have powers that reside in their experience, in their knowledge, exposures, and even internal drives. They already have full prepared powers that they will bring to any organization they chose to work for. But unfortunately those powers in terms of knowledge, influence, exposures, what they can do, and their positions are not utilized for the growth of organizations. Sometimes, they are allowed to go dormant unknowingly. Importantly, organizations need to have a re-think on how they view empowerment.

They should begin to see empowerment as creating of an organizational environment that will unleash the knowledge, experience, and motivation that reside in people in that organization. Organizations should stop seeing empowerment as a way to wrestle for power. From my experience as consultant and trainer, for empowerment to be entrenched as a culture in organizations – and not just a lip service, it requires a major shift in attitude. And the fundamental place that shift will emerge from is in the heart of every leader. One of the roles of leaders and managers is to ensure that employees utilize their experiences, skills, exposures, and also their contacts in a way that will make their organizations to be more successful.

Talking of contacts for instance, some employees might have very important contacts that can be highly beneficial to the organization, but without being empowered or encouraged they might not let it out. So the key to empowerment is the ability of leaders and managers to get people in their organizations to “let the powers” they have out for the good of their organizations. So empowerment is liken to letting people in your organization bring their brains to work and allowing them to use their knowledge, experience, and skills to build a formidable organization.

Employees on their part should not misconstrue empowerment to mean as though they were given the free rein to do as they please and make all the key decisions about their jobs. They should not fail to realize that the price of freedom is a sharing of risks and responsibility. But importantly, an empowered culture requires even greater accountability from every employee. Finally, empowerment breeds accountability, the earlier organizations realize that the better.

We would be glad to have your views.

We can hardly see any organization that does not have a well outlined budget in place. Organizations often rely on their budgets to guide them. It is not out of place to have a budget, but it is not enough to rely only on budget in driving the vision of the entire organization.

Most organizations have missed it. How? They have allowed the budget to drive the organization’s vision. Such organizations have worked day and night to develop a well outline budget but may not have realized the need to develop a strategic plan first. For the purpose of clarity, your organization’s vision and the strategic plan are what drive your budget, and not vice versa.

Organizations that are reactive in their operations have low level of planning effectiveness. They allow the budget alone to drive the plan for the entire organization. They also view planning as synonymous with financial objectives alone. Some other organizations are traditional in their planning effectiveness, and surprisingly are even better than the reactive organizations.

The proactive organizations have higher level of planning effectiveness, as they have a comprehensive strategic plan that is conducted for the entire organization. The proactive organizations also start out right at the beginning with a clearly – defined, organization-wide, shared, and integrated vision. Proactive organizations allow their strategic plan to drive the budget.

The budget must be seen as the means to securing the plan. If your plan exceeds your budget capabilities, then it will be necessary to find ways to secure additional funding or reallocate funds to carry out your plan. If this is not possible, then you will have to revisit, review, and recalibrate all of the initiatives planned for your next budget cycle and shift some initiatives to the next quarter or year planning cycle, if your immediate quarter or year’s budget cannot provide the resources for your initial plan.

This insight does not intend to undermine the importance of budgeting in organizations. I am also in support of the fact that all organizations must be realistic about their financial limitations; it would be organizational suicide not to take financial resources into consideration. However, allowing your planning decisions to be dictated solely by budget may not be in best interest of the organization.

Points to ponder:

• Organizations should prepare their budgets based on the strategic plan of the entire organization.
• The strategic plan should always drive the budget.
• The budget should not be a stand alone.
• Organizations should allocate appropriate amount of time for both the planning process and the integration of planning into budgeting.

Final note: The strategic plan primarily should be a guide for the entire organization. One of the key reasons for strategic planning is to create a tension and conflict between your future vision and the resources you need to complete key tasks to achieve it, versus your current way of allocating your budget. This tension and gap between resources is what can motivate you to make the hard choices of how you spend your budget; either on past, obsolete activities or future-oriented priorities. We should avoid the temptation of not giving adequate time for both the planning and process and integration of planning into budgeting. As organizations and leaders, we should not rush too fast into budgeting and leaving planning to hang loose.

We would be glad to have your views.

The lessons of the old fable of the “Emperor without a cloth” may not have been learnt by many organizations. Here goes the story. A tailor appealed to the Emperor’s vanity enough to convince him that he was wearing a new suit made of such priceless fabric that mere mortals could not see it, when in fact he was wearing no clothes. All the people in the kingdom were so intimidated by the possible result of contradicting the Emperor in his belief that they convinced themselves that he was wearing a fine new suit – they just couldn’t see it. Out of the entire kingdom, only one small child was brave enough to state the obvious, thus exposing the tailor’s fraudulent claim- and sending the emperor dashing for cover.

This situation happens in organizations on daily basis, and it won’t be an overstatement to say that many organizations have gone under because no one is telling the leader the truth. When leaders, CEOs, and managers have positioned themselves in a situation where people will only tell them what they want to hear regardless of the negative impacts to the organization, there is a big problem. There is no one that is perfect including the leaders or CEOs. More so there is no leader that does not require help and as such, when people are not telling them the truth, they are not helping them – they are setting them up for failures.

In the true sense of it, every CEO will want to make a decision that will help in growing the organization. A key question to ask is: would there be a time a leader will make a decision or take some positions that will not work in the best interest of the organization? The answer is yes. What then happened to the executive management team or the managers that were part of the meeting? They all played along the line of the CEO and did all they could to avoid telling him the truth, to avoid telling him the dark side of his decisions. But one might ask: are they people that had the meeting with the CEO to be blamed? In fairness you might not blame them if that has been the culture of the organization and the CEO sees truth telling to mean questioning his authority or intelligence. But whether the truth is told or not, something wrong is still going on with the organization.

Now, and sadly, the analogy of the Emperor without a cloth exists in both the public and private sectors. The key lesson for CEOs is that if as a result of fear or whatever reason, their people inside did not tell them their “vulnerability or nakedness”, the people outside (competitors) will see it clearly and will use it to work against your organization. One trait I would eagerly encourage CEOs and business owners to have is the ability to accept what is not working, what needs to be changed, what is detrimental to the organizational growth – and that comes when they encourage people to tell them the truth in a respectful way. Remember, the number one person in the organization to model this culture of truth telling and acceptance is the CEO. This is because whatever he does becomes the culture. And like I always tell CEOs in my strategic culture transformation programs that the CEO themselves have the most important role to play in setting the culture of the organization.

Not telling the CEO the truth when things are going wrong or when he or she needs it the most is akin to seeing him putting his or her hands on fire and telling him/her to push it more inside because it is cooler inside. Those that tell the leaders or CEOs what they want to hear, the hangers-on, the fawners, the sycophants are not your real followers – and do not care if the business survives or not. If it does not survive they will walk away and walk into another job, unlike a CEO of let say a bank, if the business dies, where will he or she walk into?

Final notes: Remember the words of Spencer Johnson, “honesty is telling the truth to other people”. As a CEO, Business Leader or even the President of a country, it is the honest men or women that won’t want your downfall, and the only avenue they have is by telling you the truth. So let your new mantra when seeking for a feedback be “tell me your mind, and don’t pull your punches”. Lastly when the punches come, accept it and build on it, and you will be an exceptional leader or CEO.

We would be glad to have your views.

One debilitating factor that has caused business failures in today’s organizations is “I don’t CARE attitude” exhibited by some employees. This “I don’t CARE attitude” is also reflected in phrases like “It is not my business”, or “it is not my father’s business”. The harsh truth is that regardless of any amount of money invested in transforming your organization - with this “I don’t CARE attitude” exhibited by some staff members, achieving a sustainable growth/ progress could be a herculean task. Proactive organizations have employees “that always care.”

A misleading belief or assumption has existed for a long time and that has been, “it is not my responsibility to take my organization to the next level - it is the responsibility of others”. Most employees do not take ownership of the business or where they work seriously. They think that it is only the CEO or the board of directors that own the organizations and as such would not be required to give their all. One of the goals of this insight is to inform all of us that we are all stakeholders in where we work (earn our salaries). There is nothing like superior or inferior stakeholder. All employees are stakeholders and as such should take ownership of the business. Taking ownership is a sure way to show that we want the growth and sustainability of our organizations. It is not by paying lip service. It is by taking actions to do things differently.

Many people are confused and sometimes do not understand what taking business ownership means. They have misconstrued the primary meaning. Taking ownership does not mean you have bought over the business/ organization or you are the CEO/Director, it simply means doing one’s duty as if you are the owner of the business. It also means doing all you can to ensure that the customer is not just satisfied, but will be a “free marketing agent” for your business. It means going the extra mile and doing things differently with the intent of delivering better result for your organization. It means being delighted to be in your place of work. Finally, it means taking care of the business same way you will take care of your personal belongings e.g car. It requires a paradigm shift – from me “it is not my business” to “it is my business”.

During one of my workshops, I asked the participants to name their best day of the week. Much to my chagrin, more than 70 percents said Fridays, and about 20 percent of participants said Mondays. The point here is that most employees do not even want to work; they want to close their eyes and meet Fridays. I am not against Fridays, but the fact is that someone who takes ownership of the business and who is committed will know that his/her success story will start on a Monday. Mondays should be every employee’s delight. The person will be keen to go the office. Surprisingly, most employees on getting to Sunday evening will start grumbling and saying here comes Monday again. That thought alone has set the stage for failure ahead of the week. Funny enough, that same person who has grumbled on a Sunday evening will never say at the end of the month, here comes salary again. The only way to justify our salaries is to take ownership of what we do.

Final note: Whether in a paid or self employment, it is not in our best interest not to take ownership of what we do. Organizations of today cannot afford to have employees who are just there to earn salaries without giving in their best. Every organization desires employees that will help them grow. It is true that when we help our organizations grow one way or the other, we are growing along sides. Some people used to think that it is only when they start their personal business that they will be committed. Even when an employee of today starts his/her business tomorrow, it is only the commitment that has been exhibited today that can be carried to the new business. Any how you look at it; you are doing yourself a favour by being committed to whatever you do. Finally, leaders should ensure that while the employees are striving to grow the organizations, the welfare of employees should be paramount and should not be taken for granted.

We would be glad to have your views.

Every well established company or organization is expected to have set of core values. These core values are highly important and are carefully chosen by organizations to guide and drive their behaviours. Sadly, most of the problems we face today in organizations like: accountability issues, commitment issues and integrity issues etc come to be because the established core values have been pushed aside instead of being seen as “non-negotiables”.

If organizations are guided or expected to be guided by their core values as explained above, what then guides or drives a leader? In the world of today, competence or learned skills might not stand a leader out in troubled situations. Not also enough to build a lasting relationship and enhance performances. This is because most leaders are building themselves up with the required skills and competency and as such require something more to stand them out and also guide their behaviours. What leaders need today that will guide or drive their behaviours is “personal values” synonymous to organization’s core values.

Some people might argue with this, but I have not seen a leader who has set of personal values and who also lives by them that have not turned out to be highly remarkable. I had a personal experience that reinforced to me the need not to compromise one’s personal values. On the 27th of June, 2015, I and two other speakers were billed to speak in the Ace Graduate School conference in Enugu. I have only known one of the speakers and did not know the third speaker. On that day, as soon as our 7am flight landed, I was “unnecessarily” in a hurry to get out from the airplane. In trying to get my bag from the baggage compartment, it slipped and tapped a passenger’s shoulder. Surprisingly, another passenger who was not affected by this incident retorted me: Why are you in a hurry to go? Why don’t you wait a bit for the line to clear up? First and foremost, the man who was affected by the incident had accepted my apology and was fine, so what is the business of this third party? Sincerely, it is not the other man’s business to get involved in something that did not concern or affect him. So when he said those things to me, two thoughts came into my mind. The first was “remember you teach people attitudinal change transformation”, and the second and most important was that “you cherish ‘relationship’ so much as one of your personal values. Immediately, I stopped what I was doing sat back in my sit, and said to him, “you were right”, I would have waited. He looked at me and smiled.

Here comes the shock of my life. Lo and behold, when we got out of the plane, the cab man who was to take me to the conference venue also warmly greeted the man who spoke to me on the plane. Do you know what? The man was the third speaker whom I did not know. Behold, we were inside the cab together going to the conference venue, and he said to me: you are a great man. That the way I behaved was exemplary. He said most people would have misconstrued him and end up giving him the insult of his life. Within me I asked myself a key question: what if I had quarreled with this man who I was going to share the podium with? I would have felt seriously bad and disappointed in myself. But more importantly, I would not have been be able to speak courageously and tell the audience my message of “how they can be the best”, when their facilitator could not even handle a minor situation on the plane. This is a big lesson for everyone.

When a leader is guided by his or her personal values, he would be able to surmount lots of challenges that would have gotten him/her or others into trouble. Same also for organizations, when they live by their core values growth and sustainability are accelerated. The only reason why I did not create an unwarranted scene on the plane (that would have backfired against me) was not because I was smart, or I had people management skills, but because I was more interested in fostering better relationships with people – driven by my personal values. As a leader or manager, do you have list of personal values that guide your behaviour and performance? If you do, do you see them as something you don’t have to cut corners with or settle for less? The world is looking for that leader who is driving results based on the right values, who sees his or her values as non-negotiables.

Final note: Everyday leaders, business owners and managers face situations that often times may lead them to compromise their personal values. When they are in that situation, some leaders compromise while others don’t. When personal values are compromised, our behaviours and directions are allowed to hang loose. We simply go to the direction of the wind and not where we ought to go. The truth is that compromising leaders would always end up having subordinates that will take after them. This explains why lots of organizations find it difficult to live up to their core values. When we compromise on our personal values it will be difficult to be guided by the organizational core values. Ultimately, the organization suffers.

We would be glad to have your views.

Often times, when I ask people in organizations to list their attributes or what classify them as a high performing organization, the list is always long. Organizations on their own also invest in so many things or areas they think will make them high performing at least by their own assessment. However, one key attribute – that is critical to innovation, transformation, growth, new discoveries and new ways of doing things has been kept off the radar all these years. And that is “creating a culture of questioning”. Intentionally, ask yourself, in our organization do we have a “culture of questioning” as part of our attributes?

In this era of competitiveness, a major advantage organizations will have over others is the ability of their employees (regardless of unit or department) to ask smart or thought provoking questions. Every transformation, innovation or initiative stem from understanding or knowing the right questions to ask. Conversely, most failures in organizations have occurred because someone was unwilling to ask questions about things going wrong, things he/she does not understand, things that show great concern (and if not resolved can cause serious problems). Yes, it is true that thought is what precedes change, but what is more important is to know that all thinking is stimulated by questions.

Does your organization have a corporate culture of questioning as opposed to depending only on answers? Frankly and sometimes, it appears better and more respectful to always provide answers to customers, managers and even business owners. This also explains why salespeople are quick to provide impressive answers too often and eventually do not win the business. The business landscape of today requires people who will not just provide answers, but know how to ask smart questions (and problem revealing questions). Little wonder Robert Focazio, (former National Vice President of Sales, AT & T) once said, “If you improve your questions by 10%, you increase your sales and productivity by 20%...and that’s being conservative. I understand, the urge to appear smart always drives us to seem to be providing answers where we ought to ask questions (or even listen) in order to be on the same page with our managers and customers alike. The CEO of Google (Eric Schmidt) knew the importance of having a corporate culture of questioning when he said: “We run the company by questions, not by answers”. My personal understanding of this is that great companies can only be built by asking questions that have not been asked before as opposed to providing answers that have already existed.

But someone might say, making our organization to have a culture of questioning is something we can just introduce in our organization and that does not require serious effort or investment. I think any organization that thinks in that manner has missed it, because asking smart question and asking it in the right way (to yield result) is an art that should be learnt by organizations. Organizational activities like marketing, hiring the right staff, problem solving, improved performance, negotiation, and improving the corporate culture etc can be greatly enhanced when employees have mastered the art of right questioning. Without learning the art, organizations might only be building up questions that will always backfire. These include lousy questions, dangerous questions, manipulative questions, prying questions, showing off with questions, asking at the wrong time etc. Having dwelt over the years with the above wrong questioning skills have not helped organization in any way. So what employees need now is a comprehensive guide that will sharpen their questioning skills – that way they will know what to ask, what not to ask and how to ask the right questions in almost any managerial or marketing situation.

Leaders and managers have a key role to play in creating a corporate culture of questioning. They are to create a questioning business environment where staff members will feel safe and able to trust the system and the people involved. By so doing, they will build a culture in which questions are welcomed, assumptions are challenged, and new ways to solve problems are explored. As a matter of fact, questions establish an inquiring culture in organizations, and such an inquiry and culture will build a learning organization.

Final Note: Organizations should develop a culture where asking questions is permissible, safe and desired. The old erroneous belief that leadership is all about knowing all the answers should no more apply in today’s business world. Leadership in any facet should be viewed as knowing the right questions to ask, and carefully listening to those answers. Every organization possesses an array of knowledge, wisdom, creativity, and energy, and the surest way to harness those assets is to encourage questioning as part of the organization’s culture.

We would be glad to have your views.