What skills do you bring on the table? What is the value of the skills you bring on the table. Getting a job is one thing. Keeping it is a different ball game. Many people join companies and forget about acquiring skills that are relevant and responsive to the emerging needs of the organization. Great team members keep asking themselves, “if I do not come to work tomorrow, what will the organization miss?” Asking and answering this question helps clarify the value you bring on the table. Don’t try to compare yourself with other staff in which case you may…
If something is yours and you deserve it. Get it
Do not beg for something that rightfully belongs to you. If you have agreed with someone to undertake an assignment in return for payment, ask for your pay upon successful completion of your part of the bargain. Relentlessly claim what rightfully belongs to you without fear. Do not feel ashamed to demand what you deserve. Go get it. That is called self-esteem. A case in point A parent asked me to help train his two son aged 22 and 25 in being confident especially when dealing with others and in public speaking. When they visited my office, I had set…
Tool #9 of 104 tools if you don’t forgive, it only hurts you
I grew up with a single mother. She is one of the most hardworking and focused people I know of. In early 1990s, life in Munteme village was tough. It is around this time Uganda experienced one of the worst famines. The country was still undergoing political changes. In 1983, we had been told, was a year of scarcity. People died of famine. People had seen first hand the pain of living on an empty stomach. So how did famine hit again just seven years later? That is a question for our national planners at the time to answer. As…
Want to be an effective CEO? Don’t let people wait at the reception…
When I was working in a bank way back in 2002, I often made people wanting to meet me wait for hours at the reception as I completed my desk tasks or internal meetings. After twenty or so minutes, I would come to meet them. Of course I would find them so bored and unhappy about the mistreatment for the long wait. Those close to me would advise me never to keep them waiting again. Others would just get to business. Fast forward to today, people are poor time keepers. And it is so annoying. If you are a CEO…
What is your worth?
“Pay me according to your company salary structure”, she replied to a question by one of the panel members at the end of an oral interview. Few employers want to give jobs to candidates that are not sure about your market value. It is difficult to add value to the business if you don’t understand your value. The ability to sell yourself is the number one priority for any individual. How do you study and attain a master’s degree, learn about pricing and marketing and fail to estimate your personal worth? Recently, an upcoming entrepreneur approached me for help price…
Who is rejecting you? Accept and move on
Rejection does not mean you should also despair. Most of the time, those who reject you open the way for you. Despite the rejection, you need to have a positive attitude to move ahead. Take the case of a millipede (ekigongoro in Runyakitara). Its defensive attitude is to stop and guard. Whenever a millipede is disturbed or poked, it instantly coils itself up. In the process, it loses time and its advantage to get to its destination. Time, once lost, is never regained. It is not about the rejection. It is what you do when you are rejected that makes…
