My vacation to Europe for practical work experience in four companies in different sectors improved my perspectives on team and staff engagement, organisational psychology and leadership, and creating the best place to work.
Two of the key takeaways I will implement for my company’s clients and the leaders under my executive coaching programme are the need to allow employees to be themselves and how leaders, irrespective of their roles must be aware of the economic impacts of their decisions. Let’s call the first lesson, the psychology of getting the best from people and tag the second takeaway as effective leadership for bottom-line performance.
In this write-up, I want to behave like an employee (the readers are my employers) that is free to be himself in the workplace. I do hope you will not take this article as a form of praise-sing for BusinessDay newspapers. The brand of paper you are reading is beyond my little endorsement. Equally, if you are reading this, many thanks to Temitayo Fagbule, the chairman of the editorial board for not perceiving this as self-appraisal and to Frank Aigbogun for creating the platform for people to be literate economically.
All the company I studied as part of my practical work experience have one thing in common. The heads of departments, team leads, and business leaders have access and read business news and relate the information to their decisions. I was surprised that the team leaders I understudied in human resources, training and development, process management and all other functions could relate to the happenings in the business environments and the impacts not only on their roles but on the companies they lead.
This is contrary to my experience where a functional head without any bottom-line responsibility is an economic illiterate, yet he or she is the human resources manager for the organisation. Every leader I engaged is aware of the impacts of “deal or no-deal Brexit”, the influence of inflation of the consumer purchasing power, and most importantly is the effects of training, developing and engaging employees to be productive.
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The cost of disengaged employees is known to them, and these leaders are people-oriented in a collaborative manner for the best interest of the organisations they represent.
I was an economic illiterate in the past despite being a chartered accountant until necessity pushed me out of my comfort zone. I was a business manager in of the reliable banks managing a big conglomerate with over N150 billion annual turnover when the event happened. As someone new to the role, I was with my boss John and one of my colleagues to visit the Chief Finance Officer (CFO), Ally of the big customer, my number one in terms of size.
Ally is from Pakistan with deep-rooted experience in finance and general economic situation of Nigeria. John was so eloquent discussing the Nigerian economy from the effects of government policy on international oil prices and others with Ally. I was nodding as if I knew what was being discussed. In real terms, I was a number, not a person in the meeting.
Ally is fond of asking for John, demanding meetings with him and meeting with John was a learning avenue for him. I did nothing to improve on my knowledge of the business economy for one year, depending on my boss to take the lead in the discussion. Not until John was transferred that I realised my conscious incompetence to engage Ally in a meaningful economic conversation before my new supervisor settles into the job. I became jittery knowing that the failure to exude knowledge will not help my drive to improve my bank’s share of the customer’s business. Anything short of 50 percent of John’s knowledge of the economy will close the doors to Ally’s office for me.
What I did as the immediate smart move is what I want you as leaders irrespective of your functions to do. I subscribed to BusinessDay newspapers for one year and was looking for the past editions to read. Within two weeks, my first test of economic competence came. Ally requested to see me when he heard that John had been transferred to another region. He demanded I book an appointment for John to visit him before travelling to his new location. John did visit Ally and took the lead in the discussion.
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The final handshake between John and Ally was like a handover to me. The next day Ally started throwing questions to me as if I was John. Thanks to my preparation and BusinessDay newspapers. I gradually became an expert Ally could trust and rely on his advice to engage other banks. I transited to a new John, and this helped in gaining more of the wallet share of the customer’s sales proceeds for my bank. I did have a regrettable failure with this experience. I didn’t try enough to inculcate my newfound habit in my subordinates before I exited the job.
In the companies I visited in Europe, the understanding of the economy is a piece of essential knowledge for managers and leaders. Every decision is checkmated against its impact on the people, the brand and the value for the stakeholders of the company and the environment.
Leaders must understand the economy of the environment they operate, including the logistics of the business industry. These attributes are critical success factors for building sustainable business entities that stand the test of time and outlive the owners.
To all the people occupying leadership positions, especially our politicians in the presidency, senate and the house of assembly, the governors, commissioners to the special advisers and local government presiding officers, the knowledge of how things work and the economic implications of your actions are important if any impact will be made. If a public officer embezzles N5 billion for example, transferred it to Scotland to sit idle and help the Scottish economy, the people from whose commonwealth was stolen will not have the employment and quality of life the N5 billion could have generated if not stolen or mismanaged.
It is our leaders’ lack and shallow understanding of the economic, contracts and business dynamics with poor relationship management that have landed us a judgement debt of $9.6 billion to the UK firm, Process and Industrial Development Limited (P&ID). The failure to supply wet gas as agreed, ignoring business dispute process and making untenable excuses was as a result of our lack of capacity which might cost us about 20 percent of the nation’s external reserve and 2.5 percent of the GDP if $9.6 billion is paid to P &ID.
To my primary constituents, the business owners, organisations and leaders, the knowledge of the economics of people’s engagement, workplace effectiveness, transitioning your organisations to institutions, stakeholders’ management and the understanding of your business value chain, income and cost drivers vis-à-vis policy and other environmental factors will help you in becoming better decision-makers.
BABS OLUGBEMI
Babs Olugbemi FCCA, the chief responsibility officer at Mentoras Leadership Limited and Founder, the positive growth Africa. He can be reached on [email protected] or 08025489396
