A CONFERENCE YOU DONT WANT TO MISS ! ! !

 

Learning and development is perhaps the most powerful agency of BUSINESS growth, change and development available to every organization. By investing a few hours reading a book on recent trends, skill and developments on a business process like marketing, production or leadership, Directors, CEOS, Managers, Supervisors and Executives are able to come back with new ideas to resolve business problems within a short time – WITHOUT EXTRA PAY! It is this remarkable HUMAN CAPACITY to LEARN and DEVELOP new CAPACITY that is so often ignored and lies dormant in many BUSINESS organizations. However, the L&D practitioner has the knowledge and skills to awaken and power the process of organization development and, given a chance, will drive a business to new levels of performance by simply empowering the already existing human resources potential. So why do I want you to attend this conference?...  Because you will get answers to these important questions THAT will help you transform the FUTURE of your business;

1.      Where does L&D sit in the context of global industry and the national economy?

2.      Why will a business that does NOT invest in L&D fail in the short term? and

3.   What strategies can L&D practitioners use to drive transformative business development in a VUCA world?

The answers to these questions will help you empower your staff to heightened levels of performance, help you appraise your business potential and raise your business performance. These answers will help you maximize your chances of successfully navigating the complexities the VUCA world we live in. See you there!

REGISTER HERE for the Strategic Learning and Development Conference:  https://bit.ly/sldc26 

Don’t get tooooo... Comfortable on the Job!

 

 

“Comfort in employment can become the enemy of prosperity.”

Many people pursue employment as an end in itself. This is a gross error of commission, but the fact that you have a salary every month can lull you into a comfortable slumber zone of pretend contentment … Especially if the job pays well and does not require you to do any “extra” work or “gigs” to enjoy the lifestyle you have chosen. When you are in the comfort zone it is very easy to forget the purpose of employment, which is to create wealth for yourself, your family and posterity. If you find yourself telling yourself, “at least I have a job”, I dare say you are in the comfort zone. What you are actually saying is, “tomorrow will take care of itself”. This makes you relax any effort you might have made to create wealth and a measure of prosperity for yourself. Prosperity does not come served on a plate with a salary and employment on the side. Prosperity takes action and initiative to create tangible wealth from the income you earn on the job. Comfort on the job can lead to failure to pay focused attention on how to create personal wealth during employment. Comfort in employment is actually an enemy of prosperity and wealth creation. Comfort in employment implies that you have stopped thinking about your prosperity - and left that job to your employer (who never forgets it!). Your employer however, is not thinking of you, he is thinking for himself and will retain you as long as his interests are met. If your last job came to an end, and you have no wealth to show for it, you were living in the comfort zone. Don’t let it happen again!

Allan Bukusi,  is the author of ; How to Prosper in Employment and writer of the series of articles under the theme; 2026: Year of the African Employee challenging employees to prioritize creating personal wealth early in their careers.

What's your Employee - People Strategy?

 

What’s your Employee - People Strategy?

You have most certainly heard of “business” strategy and “financial” strategy. But you may have to think a little harder to remember if you have heard of a “people” strategy. You are not alone in this space. Many organizations have people, but hardly develop a sustainable people strategy that enables the organization to grow with its people. The people strategy of most business revolves around a “use and dump” procedure. The procedure begins with a) create job description, b) get a suitable person to do the job, and c) if they don’t do the job dump them and try someone else. In the eyes of the company, the person is an item of production rather than a strategic investment. The a,b,c hire and fire procedure does not guarantee the organization a developing future. It leaves an organization stuck in its (old) ways and leaves employees as hapless victims of a vicious use and dump cycle of employers who do not have a people strategy.

Let’s double back and cover some theory here. An effective people strategy begins with a well-crafted, documented, communicated organization strategy articulating the corporate goals of the business. Let’s call it a strategic plan. If the strategic plan sits on the shelf, like it does in many organizations, there can be no hope of an operational people strategy ever coming to light.  The strategic plan serves to dynamic articulate the dynamic roles people play as the organization advances to its goals. This means as the goals advance the people must also advance through training, capacity building to take on new updated challenges. If the people are not ready for advancement the business cannot advance. Indeed, unless the people advance the organization will remain the same. Your people should be driving the strategy not just implementing it. The secret is to put the horse in front of the cart (strategy) and not the cart in front of the horse. A business strategy cannot implement itself, it requires empowered people to drive it.

So what does a good people strategy entail. First is the understanding of business strategy by employees – quite apart from job descriptions and contracts. Second, cascading of roles and responsibilities flowing from the strategy. Third, equipment, empowerment and training of people to execute the activities that advance corporate objectives rather than carry out routine tasks that mark production as opposed to progress. Fourth, implement a people performance alignment process that aligns employees’ contribution to the advancement of corporate goals, strategically prepares people to address environmental change, and keeps the workforce on the cutting edge of strategy execution at all times. The African employee needs more than a job description to spearhead corporate goals. let them know where the business is going and you will be surprised how much more value they can produce. A people strategy will help you turnaround your employee performance, but more importantly, it will help you achieve your corporate goals.

Allan Bukusi,  is the author of ; How to Prosper in Employment and writer of the series of articles under the theme; 2026: Year of the African Employee challenging employees to prioritize creating personal wealth early in their careers.

Introducing - The New African Employee, Gen XMZ!

 

 

 

The New African Employee, Gen XMZ!

        The word “new” has at least two major interpretations. The first can be described as, “something NEW as opposed to the OLD”. This implies that the passage of time has outdated an item, depreciating it and making it of little use or application in future. It comes with the attendant mischievous whisper that “old is bad” and “new is good”. Then there is the second interpretation of NEW meaning; innovative, enhanced, advancing in additives, form, components and capability. There is a sense in which the old generation of African employee, born at the advent of the Television set, is being put on the shelf as a local limited production model. The new employee is globally connected, socially mobilized, attends weekends at Old Trafford and Arsenal, has seen more of Dubai than their ancestral village of origin, speaks several AI generated languages, and has more access to information technology than all other generation on earth combined (from the beginning of time). However, a fusion of the old and the new can also qualify as NEW.

        Interestingly, the generation X, Millennials M and generation Z find themselves in the same workspace by heritage more than out of design or intent. The key word here is tolerance. And that is a very good place to begin. The new African employee has three shades when tackling the responsibilities of getting work done. Somehow these shades do not communicate very well, but they all have extra ordinary strengths that make the new African employee a powerful prototype for the world ahead. This new African employee draws on the stability of Gen X, and the alternative resourcefulness of Gen M, and the dynamic flexibility of the entrant Gen Z capacity for short term engagement. Gen X know HOW it is done, Gen M ask WHY it needs to be done and Z knows the fastest way to get whatever needs to be done – done!   

        Imagine the power of three generations in one. Thus creating; the new African employee XMZ. The new African employee (Gen XMZ), first; knows how to get the work done this makes them powerfully entrepreneurial, second they also know why it needs to be done which makes them very efficient with minimal wastage of energy, and third, the New African employee is exploring, innovative and extremely adaptive and versatile. Today’s employers need to make a lot of changes in the workplace in terms of workspace, job design, goal setting, role integration, productivity mapping, work process planning and performance management metrics to accommodate and harness the global power of the New African employee. Everyone, please put your hands together to welcome the new employee, Gen XMZ, in the workplace.

Allan Bukusi,  is the author of ; How to Prosper in Employment and writer of the series of articles under the theme; 2026: Year of the African Employee challenging employees to prioritize creating personal wealth early in their careers.

An Employee Attitude of Gratitude is not a Platitude

 

An Attitude of Gratitude is not a Platitude

Not everyone is comfortable equating the two words; “Employee” and “Gratitude” in one sentence. The mental and soulful debate is one of agony as employees feel that the employer is the one who should be grateful and should feel very privileged that they have, “ME” as their employee! When you look at the employment statistics of people looking for jobs vis-à-vis those who have jobs (80/20), the numbers might trip your conscience a little to think about the depth of this statement. Truth be told, I am not a good judge of your character so I leave that to you to decide whether you will carry the statement in agony or submit to its reality. However, as usual, I do have a story you might want to consider since this is the year of the African employee and we need to investigate the concept in as many depths and perspectives as we can before the end of happy new year.

A little while ago a CV (resume) appeared on my desk. And it did look promising, but not quite complete. It had all the essentials like many other CVs that float through corporate HR screens. But this one was not quite AI created. So I downloaded the CV and contacted the author requesting permission to place it on a database. The response was immediate – and- gracious, full of appreciation. That immediately caught my attention and returned to the CV for a closer look. To cut a long a long story short, the projection of that individual’s character, on paper, propelled them to the top of the application pile. Second, you may know Frank. He lives in the USA. He sent me a gift, “The Attitude of Gratitude” by Keith Harrell. I thought he would send me a laptop or something like an, “out-of-date-latest-phone” from the USA, but no. It was a simple audio on how thankfulness and an attitude of gratitude can get you through closed doors and opens doors to opportunity, offices, invitations in all sort of weird contexts. Harrell says, an attitude of gratitude has nothing to do with your circumstances or anyone else. It is all about you.

Now, I have to end this, because I am beginning to ramble. But, I want you to look around the office and among your colleagues. Who gets attention from the boss? Who gets selected for assignments in the work teams? Who is the person everyone would rather be with than the wet blanket that sits next to you each morning? Who gets selected for promotion? Who makes the most of what they get and seem to be moving happily on in life even though they are at the bottom of the corporate food chain? The grouchy or the gracious? I will bet my bottom dollar (I will keep all the other dollars) that it is the gracious.  I suggest you do what you have to do – now, today and not tomorrow. Thank you.

Allan Bukusi is the author of ; How to Prosper in Employment and writer of the series of articles under the theme; 2026: Year of the African Employee challenging employees to prioritize creating personal wealth early in their careers.

Let's talk about your Income

 

Let’s talk about your Income

What exactly is employment income? First off, most employees would say it is their salary, wages or pay they get for doing a task, a job or professional assignment given by an employer. This is certainly not wrong. It is part of it, but what would you say if I told you that it is far from all of it.

Let’s start by de-constructing the word IN-COME. From the employees point of view “in” amounts to everything that is availed and is accessible to them during the term of employment. The word “come” has a connotation of anticipation and guaranteed expectation. In the case of a wages, it is a routine event like the time of day or “pay-day”. The employee expects that on the 30^th day of the month, they will be paid a wage. The fact that wages are routinely available, regular and expected inflows means they can be planned for, budgeted, projected and even cashed out in advance as capital value. This regularity allows banks to secure employee loans and cash out on employee capital (wages) in advance. But cash is not the only element that flows to the employee.

Other incomes that flow to the employee include; experience, expertise, exposure and no small amount of business and enterprise education, from peers, the boss, the market and customer engagement. The other inflows that come with income are insurance, an occupation, training, meals, transport and other valuable inflows that would not be available to the employee had not been hired. A shrewd employee does not just count his income as cash, but as all the material value, plus social and economic capital he can be able to walk away from his employer. Notice, just like a lending institution takes your salary as a security and surety for a loan, if you do not take full advantage of, and plan for the use of your earned capital made available to you on the job, others will freely enjoy the benefits of your work.

The lesson here is that income; earned material and socio-economic capital, should be carefully planned for and not carelessly dispensed otherwise it is possible to earn an income for the length of the contract and never accrue any capital for your personal development. Let me take a stab at using financial terminology and say that your net worth should increase with every salary you earn otherwise you are wasting your income and capital resources.  

 Allan Bukusi is the author of ; How to Prosper in Employment and writer of the series of articles under the theme; 2026: Year of the African Employee challenging employees to prioritize creating personal wealth early in their careers.

Dear Employee; Please think like an entrepreneur

 

Dear Employee; Please think like an entrepreneur

But why should an employee think like an entrepreneur? Is that not the employers job? Well I suppose that is true. But suppose the employee actually learns to think like an entrepreneur is there any chance that they might just become an employer as well? I think the possibilities in this line of thinking are endless, but far from worthless. So let’s discuss why the African employee is ideally positioned to think like an entrepreneur and become an employer!

First the employee works in an enterprise. That makes him part of the enterprise. And, if you get my meaning, anyone joining an enterprise must be an entrepreneur otherwise they will not survive in the enterprise. If you join a football team, I would expect that you would know a thing or two about football. If you take a keen interest in the game and listen carefully to your coach, one day you could start your own team. Even if it is in the little leagues. What I am saying is that all employees are exposed to enterprise in employment. Every employee has an opportunity to learn as much as they want about how the game of enterprise is played. Sadly, many employees leave employment without a clue of how or what it takes to run a business. The best place to learn enterprise is not in an MBA class. It is in enterprise! On the job! Best of all ,as an employee you get paid to learn. Which brings me to my second, may be third point.

Employees get paid to do the business of the employer. Now that is not a very hard statement to interpret. It means the employer is making use of the employee’s entrepreneurial skills to get his (employer) work done. Before we go on let me state as a matter of fact that, THERE IS NO ROBBERY IN THAT. You (the employee) are paid an agreed wage in exchange for your contribution to the enterprise. There is no shame in that. But that, in my books, also makes you an entrepreneur. It is just that you may never really have stopped to think like one. You may have gone about your job so routinely and passionately that you have never stopped to consider that your job is in fact an enterprise. If you do it well, you earn a business income. Do it poorly and you get fired. Isn’t that what entrepreneurs and employers do. Employers do not accommodate poor or ghost workers in their enterprise. They only hire productive entrepreneurs. Allow me to be cheeky here and mention that some employees work so poorly that they would never hire themselves to do any work for them. Now that you are beginning to think like an entrepreneur let’s consider my fourth or next point; thinking like an entrepreneur.

So what does it mean to think like an entrepreneur and what are its benefits? This will require a little imagination. Something all employees have otherwise they would not be employed. Supposing we considered your job as an enterprise that is part of the employer’s larger enterprise. And that you have employed yourself to do that job. To do that job well you have to think like an entrepreneur. In other words, you employ yourself to do the job. As an employer you will only pay wages for a job is well done. As an entrepreneur you will demand that the job earns you an income and makes you a profit which you take home to invest on your own small enterprise. With time you could be able to leave the job and grow your own enterprise using some of the core knowledge and skills you learned from your employer. I have lost count of my numbered points, but I think you get the message.

By dispelling the viral myth that employees are one type of people breed and employers are another, we have come to the understanding that the only difference between an employee and employer is that one is expected to think like an entrepreneur, while the other, more often than not, does not care to learn from the best, nor think that way at all. By the way I have invented nothing new in this essay. You, the employee, provided me all the material I needed to put it all together. I think that is enterprise. Next, I think lets talk about income... And if you like these series let me know what else you would like me to talk about.

 

Allan Bukusi is the author of ; How to Prosper in Employment and writer of the series of articles under the theme; 2026: Year of the African Employee challenging employees to prioritize creating personal wealth early in their careers.