Are you a bad or a good staff to work with? Employees can make or break a company. Read to find out (productivity killers) Overuse of one’s a mobile phone for private chats and errands while at work. Reporting late at the workplace. Unproductive groups. Being ignorant about how the company creates and delivers value. Some organizations like government entities may survive despite bad employees because they do not have revenue generation pressures. Even if the entire team came late at work, the money will be on the account as taxpayers will foot the bill. The only challenge such a…
I am Sorry, for coming late
“Avoid starting meetings with ‘I am sorry for coming late.” There are many opportunities one gets when they keep time. I love early morning appointments. It is an opportunity to understand the company and the behavior of staff. I arrive earlier at about 6:20 am. I am usually outside when the first person arrives to open the office. This gives me an opportunity to access the reception and observe who comes in at what time and what they do immediately they arrive at the office. Some staff comes with energy and a sense of urgency, with clarity of priorities for the…
ISO certification training fraud in East Africa: be aware
There is a new ISO training fraud that is not easy to detect. About the fraud scheme A person approaches a local membership body and signs a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to provide official International Organization for Standardization (ISO) training services through the local membership body. Under the MOU, the local membership on one part provides marketing and mobilization services while the person alleging to be ‘Authorized ISO Trainer’ undertakes to provide official training of the ISO standards and thereafter issue ‘official ISO certificates’ to all participants. The promise is ONLY the end of training certificates issued by the…
Be close to power
If you work with someone, respect them. Respect is about keeping promises and commitments. A discipline of consistent behavior. If you promise to attend a meeting at 10 am, keep the time. Keep your phone on all the time. Stop the wrong mindset of being unavailable on Saturdays and Sundays. Someone has considered your opinion on a weekend. That is a good thing. You need to mature and think about the bigger picture. The closer you are with the high-table, any high table, the better. Focus on being closer to power or folks close to power. In a large company,…
In memory of Samuel F. Owori, past CEO of ICGU and the #1 Rotarian from Africa of our time.
Mustapha B Mugisa had a one on one interview on his life’s lessons and below are the excerpts of the insights you need to excel from this maverick executive who was a high achiever at a global level. 1. Briefly, who is Sam F. Owori? How did you start and where? Am generally transparent. Born in Tororo 75 years ago at Kisoko, a famous place in terms of education. My father was a Head master of Kisoko Primary school. At that time, it was the main school for the Eastern region including Western Kenya. I used to see old boys…
A proposal that wins business
What is your proposal success rate? If you are a partner in law, accounting, an engineering firm, or any practice that involves selling intellectual property, tracking your proposal success rate is critical. You can use a simple formula. The number of winning proposals divided by the total number of proposals submitted in a given period – weekly, monthly, or annually. The leading experts have more than 90% proposal success rate. Writing a proposal is an investment. It costs time, money, and imagination. You don’t want to send a proposal to every small opportunity that you here about. You don’t want…
