Folly

Folly is not a function of age, but it is predisposed to youth.

Allan Bukusi

The Word of Life

I used to think that the word of life was about a book. No, the word of life is a spirit alive, an attitude, a way of life and a knowledge of God.

Allan Bukusi

Lessons I learned from limping organizations!

LEADERS BEWARE: LESSONS LEARNED FROM LEADING LIMPING ORGANIZATIONS

It is not often that important life lessons are drawn from the runners up or losers in a race. It would seem ironical that instead of focusing on the successful, this article suggests that there is much to be learned from the “laggards” and failings of the not so successful organizations. By sharing lessons from the not so successful and the failings of the rest of the runners, we can actually improve the average performance of all the runners in the race. These findings may not be enough to win the race, if there is such a thing as a race, but they will enable every other organization to examine its performance and empower leaders to focus on priming their organizations for stellar performance.

CASHLESS

The first quality of failing organizations is a weak resource base. Organizations that have very little in their coffers are very weak and powerless. These organizations can say a lot of things but are unable to do very much. These organizations may have great plans, but without resources these pipe dreams are nothing but hot air. An organization must make it a primary business to build resources to the point that it can do what it says it wants to do. Unless you are a turnaround artist, and turnaround artists are always backed by well resourced sponsors (or they have the sense to build a solid capital base before making costly changes), you are not going to hack it. Many times leaders go into limping organizations thinking that a fresh leadership team with sufficient charisma is enough to secure future success. The issue of resources and resource sources, capitalization/recapitalization must be addressed first before any meaningful leadership activity can make a difference.

ABANDONED LEADERS

The second thing that hit me in every case of failing leadership is that membership of those organizations abandon their leaders (for whatever reason). The fact that the leaders have been abandoned means the organization remains a mere shell of an organization. While this may sound bad and unreasonable of membership benefiting from the services of leadership, it is not as bad as having no cash or resources to run the day to day operations of a business. Nevertheless, abandoned leadership becomes the scapegoat and target of agents and agencies outside the organization. In fact abandoned leadership is “magically” held responsible for all the “past and future” failings of the organization. This unfortunate state of affairs is deplorable because while the organization exists for the membership and the benefit of service receivers, leaders are blamed for its failings. It is assumed that it is leaders who are responsible for the delivery of outcomes in total disregard of service providers, the environment and the contribution of the receivers! If you find an organization with abandoned leadership this is not the organization to join or takeover, unless you have the capacity to take over the business without injuring your person. However, organizations with abandoned leadership are very cheap to buy and extremely expensive (loss making) to sustain or revive! From a leaders point of view there may be too much at stake!

WEAK ECONOMIC ENGINE

One of the glaring components that you will find in limping organizations that could do better is the continued existence of an outdated business process. The process may have delivered sterling results in the past, but has been overtaken by the times, technology and techniques of the day. The challenge with this feature is that it requires a complete organization overhaul to have the business conform to the current trend, methods, and available ways of doing business. Archaic business processes my are effective, but they tend to be inefficient and incapable of winning new business or market share. If the business you are taking over has a weak economic engine, it will take time and a large amount of capital to fix.Most times the only way this can be done is by replacement.

SELFISH MEMBERSHIP   

The last quality you should consider before taking over a limping organization is to consider its vision, mission and “natural evolution”. I remember booking a training venue in a limping hotel and the sales agent telling me “this organization has been sold several times over, but it has been unable to get away from its political roots”. The organization was founded by a politician who used it to hold political meetings. Many owners later the managers were unable to “uproot” it from its political tradition into a business conference venue. The organization had built a culture that had become a fixture with its physical assets. Anybody taking over the hotel with a new vision was bound to come against its tradition. However, while tradition can be a very mean thing to change, some organizations come into existence for all the wrong reasons. Either they were coerced into existence or formed to get over an obstacle. Once the obstacle is overcome, these organizations lose their reason for existence and become wandering nomads boasting of some historic success that they can always point to. Such organizations are hard to lead because they have a very selfish vision. They look inward and rearward instead of outward and forward. They are selfish rather than selfless. They serve their own interests rather than the interests of others. It does not matter what kind of leader takes over this limping organization it will always return a second rate performance!      

CONCLUSION

While organizations may become and continue as limping organizations for various other reasons, lack of resources, abandoned leaders and lack of vision tend to be the last nail that seals the status of the organizations future. Young, inexperienced and enthusiastic leaders cannot be blamed for trying their hand at leading such organizations desperately in search of new leadership; however, nobody would dare risk giving these “new” leaders a chance to lead a successful organization. What matters perhaps is not that leaders should avoid such organizations, but that leaders taking over limping organization with intent to turn them into leading organization should know how to go about it. A limping organization cannot hope to get on to the winning track without the requisite resources, a supported leadership team and a service oriented mission.

Allan Bukusi   

The Entrepreneurs Prayer

Lord, Please!

Send us workers!

Who love what they do and do what they love.

Who know that we must all give an account for the work we do,

Who work first for you, the people and then the money!

Who see opportunities in problems and don’t make problems of opportunity.

Who appreciate hard work, service and sacrifice as the key to good success.

Please do not bring us employees who are a burden to hire and a misery to fire. Do not bring us those who steal, take and will not give, break things, are dishonest and gossip about others, have no heart for what they do and act with venom and guile. Reveal them for who they are and save our companies and customers from the rot of these robbers.

And Lord,

Bless those who work for you in all they do. Bless them with health and wealth and well being. Increase their borders and may they not tire even if everyone else rebels, give them strength to remain faithful. And Lord may these receive your reward today in the land of the living so that the testimony of your goodness will be seen and the wicked will not boast that “ He did good, but his God forsook him and he died a fool”

Allan Bukusi

Today's success is yesterdays investment.; tomorrows survival is today's occupation.

Today's success is yesterdays investment.; tomorrows survival is today's occupation.

Allan Bukusi

I never thought I was in bondage; are you?

I have just taken some time to reflect on “bondage” and the kind of baggage we carry around that can weight you down for many years. The baggage may not be a bad thing it could be it may be just weighing you down. There are some things you wish you could do and have never done. And you never seem to find the time to do them. You want to build a house, teach your children to swim or visit someone you love, but just don’t seem to make the time. These things weigh you down. There are hurts you carry for many years and the person that hurt you is not even aware. They become your personal assets you carry around while the person who grieved you walks free oblivious that you are carrying a load of them in your life. This is not life!

Some time ago I came to realize that I too am carrying burdens just to look good in the sight of others or just because I think it is the right thing to do. No doubt there is the right thing to do, but there are also the wrong things to do to make things look right. We need wisdom to work things out and know when to let things go. What are the indications that you are carrying burdens you need to examine? Do you harbor fear, grief, un-forgiveness, hurt, regret, bitterness, unending wish-lists, self righteousness, hate, anger, immorality, good or bad success, secret cravings, promises...  does your conscious continuously prod you in a given direction or need to attend to something. Perhaps it is time you started listening. Not all these things are bad, but the fact that they are never satisfied to my mind turns them into burdens, bondage and weights that you must carry with you and stop you enjoying all the blessing you have today.

Notice it is not other people I am talking about. So do yourself a favor every few months and do an offloading of those painful/ dead weights you can do nothing or won’t do anything about and release yourself to once again to live free. The procedure it up to you. You may have to contact some old friends or you may just have to deal with you. Sometimes you may just have to do what you need to do and get it out of the way. In all cases you will need to pray for Gods wisdom to be free indeed!

Allan Bukusi

Is this Servant Leadership or just Slavery?

While the need and the demand for servant leaders seems to be on the rise, there is a disturbing trend in which servant leaders are treated as little more than bond slaves of the people they lead. In these instances followers subject their leaders to humiliating demands and then withdraw all support for the leader, but still expect the servant leader to go out of their way to accomplish the followers’ wishes at their own cost. Leaders who do not meet the mark of servant delivery, as judged by the followers, are deemed to be failures and are subject to unqualified disdain from those who have a skewed understanding of the leadership function.

The call for servant leaders is couched with innocent phrases like “we need someone who will work for us” or “save us from this aggression” or “we need someone who can help us meet our goals”. Reading these sentiments carefully will reveal a very self driven motive devoid of any collaborative agenda. In reality these followers are looking for a way to absolve themselves of all responsibility for their own success. Woe to the leader who takes up leadership to serve the peoples interests in these circumstances. Upon entering office the gentle wishes of the people suddenly turn into demands, expectations and morph into non-negotiable performance indicators. If the leader fails to secure the success of the population he or she is disqualified as a servant leader.

A careful reading of Greenleaf would characterize a servant leaders as; Listening.  Empathy.  Healing, Awareness., Persuasion, Conceptualization,  Foresight,  Stewardship,  Commitment to the growth of people and  Building community. These characteristics no doubt demand and draw on the submissive qualities and the other-centered traits in a leader. However these characteristics neglect to define the role of followers in achieving social and corporate goals. This model and attributes the accomplishment of corporate goals solely to the person of the servant leader and release the followers of any wrong or culpability of failure to achieve corporate objectives. This definition of a leader fails to acknowledge that leadership is in fact a social construct and a corporate social responsibility where followers proactively participate in the leadership process and commit resources to achieve a common goal.

The more mischievous and less knowledgeable followers are inclined to believe they have no responsibility for their own success and easily abandon their leaders to pursue noble corporate goals without lifting a finger, paying their dues or pulling their weight to achieve the desired results. It is the disloyal and unfaithful following that withholds their vote and turns their leaders into personal slaves. They blame the leader passionately for failing to succeed on their behalf and denounce the leaders’ efforts to facilitate the common good. The principles of Servant leadership are inspiring, but there is a defining line between service and slavery.

Allan Bukusi