While delivering a client cultural audit report, senior staff at the client asked: at what point do the staff know they have to stop being managers and become leaders? Leadership is not inherited or natural. Leadership is learned. All you need is to understand the current challenges, communicate them so that people know. Create a compelling vision or ambition or aspiration that everyone can relate to. And have the conviction to rally people behind you to deliver that. Our football coach in the primary had an easy way of identifying leaders. He would get a group of 15 to 20…
“Fraud can’t happen here…!”
If your organization is like many others we encounter, the belief that “Fraud can’t happen here” is commonplace. Despite this belief, the media is awash with notices and pictures of former employees who are wanted by Police for theft of this, that, and the other. Other times, the notices and pictures are about individuals who ceased being employees of companies for reasons that are not disclosed! Fraud is on the rise, and more so, digital and cyber fraud. As reported in our project frontline report, in 2019, Summit Consulting handled cyber cases worth Ugx. 171,142,500,000 (US $46,888,356) with an average…
It all starts and ends with attitude and integrity
Attitude is how you react to what happens to you or what others do to you. A positive attitude helps you look at happenings to you or actions against you as a glass half full. A bad attitude will make you ask so many questions including why me? Why do people hate me? Why does the world always conspire against me? I love to tell the story of my rejection to sit for a Bailing Clerk Interview at BAT Uganda sometime in 1999. I was in senior six vacations and that job was my hope to progress to University. Throughout…
Growth is not glamourous
You cannot find road bumps, tight corners, or steep slopes if you do not go on a road trip. If you do not want to experience turbulence, you do not fly. If you do not fly, chances of tapping into a new culture, visiting new places, gaining fresh perspectives about new people, places, and food, will not be possible. Growth comes with discomfort. If you do not get out of your house, you may not get to know all the opportunities available. If you want to grow, get out of your comfort zone. “Get out of your house” is a…
Staying calm, amid tough times
Leadership is tested during tough times. It is easy to lead during days and years of plenty. But few people can lead during difficult times. Since February 2020, the world has been besieged by a deadly Coronavirus pandemic. The initial response was to curtail movements and enforce lockdown. But many people started dying in their homes from diseases like poverty, loneliness, financial stress, and general hopelessness. The lockdown had to be lifted. For many businesses, times are tough. Revenues continue to decline steeply, as customers churn or lack purchasing power. Costs of operations are increasing, as compliance costs raise. The…
To win with leaders, clarify the expected outcomes
You have been engaged as a consultant to lead a transformation project, where do you start and how do you give confidence to the client that the project will be delivered as planned? The starting point is to define and confirm the project outcomes. You want each outcome to be precisely defined in terms of measurable indicators. For a marketing intervention, instead of writing increase sales, it is better to write “grow sales from the current US $40m to the US $50 million after the project.” That way, you can break down the project and ask the right questions. For…
