Women are missing at the Board Level – Choose to Challenge

We have a problem. Over 80 – 100 millions young women are missing globally every year. 

How does this relate to leadership? 

Whatever is happening in the larger system shows up in the smaller systems. Whatever’s happening in the wider society, it is happening in our workplaces. 

Women are missing and dying in the wider society and they are missing and are dying at workplaces. 

What do I mean by that?

We can look at a registration in the University of the West Indies. In 2017 women comprised 68 percent of enrolment across the Caribbean. Yet when we look at the highest ranks at the workplace, it doesn’t seem as if women exist. In fact, they are missing. 

A 2018 Deloitte study showed that only 14% of board seats in the Caribbean were occupied by women. That same study showed that only 1.7% of board chairpersons were women.  Globally 17% of board seats are occupied by women and 5% of board chairs are occupied by women.   

We are missing. 

We are dying. 

We have a problem. 

Our women are missing at the board and executive levels, even though we occupy most of the managerial and supervisory positions in organizations, 

it’s a huge issue for me and it is a huge issue for all of us.

Men and women are unaware of the gravity of the situation. 

I was facilitating a strategic planning session with an executive team and the members of that team proudly stated that in that company there was no problem with female leaders. The executives boasted that more than 50 percent of their managers were, female. I invited the executive team to look around the table and as they did, they realized that of the 20 executives around the table, only three were female. That is, 15 percent of the executive team will female. 

• How do we treat women in our organization? 
• How is it that we are good enough to be managers and we’re not good enough to get into the boardroom?

Women go missing when we enter organizations and we have horrible experiences. Almost every woman I know has a tale of an unwanted or uninvited sexual advance, or heard an unnecessary comment about their physical attributes whether or not the comment was directed towards her. Some tell stories of men brushing past them, and one woman told me her superior locked the door behind them and proceeded to physically attack her.

Women go missing, when we take maternity leave. Some organizations go so far as to police the amount of children that women can have over a stated period of time. It wasn’t too long ago that local banks, stipulated that women can’t have more than two children and five years.

Women lose their place when they choose to actively participate in their children’s lives, when they choose to attend school functions or when they choose to not work overtime. They are not given promotions and they are not given the sexy projects.

Then we wonder why the brilliant young women who walk into our organizations don’t shine. 

They don’t shine because they don’t feel safe. 

They don’t shine because they are afraid to be seen and they do not want to be heard.

They don’t shine because they want to stay invisible 

They don’t shine because they want to stay in their lane 

They don’t shine because it’s really scary to step out. 

How do we change this? 

I want you to think about it 

I want you to think about it in your organization and think about the reasons why these women are missing. 

Women die many small deaths when we suffer several small indignities that add up at the workplace. 

When we are subjected to mansplaining – when men take their time to explain to us in condescending tones to tell us exactly what we know. This makes us feel terribly small and we slowly die.

We are killed in offices when we do not get credit for our work. I’ve sat around the executive table and pitched an idea, that no one heard. Then a man repeats my same idea and he gets credit for it. 

Of course we die when we are harassed. 

What remedies are there at your workplace to make sure that this brilliant woman who walk through our doors does not go missing or die slow deaths?

It sounds really dramatic and it’s not. 

I will ask you female readers, have you died any small deaths at the hands of your male colleagues?

Male readers, have you ever been the reason why a young woman in an office goes missing? 

What are the remedies for this?

We don’t have to look for as a country for solutions.

India, Israel, Pakistan –  have mandated into law that there must be one female board member for publicly listed companies.

Australia and Norway mandate that females must constitute 30 percent of boards.. Around the world, governments have mandated quotas for female representation on both state/ public boards and companies that are listed on the stock exchange. 

What would it be like if all governments mandated female quotas for boards? 

I think it will send a strong message about female equity. 

It will send a strong message that there is no glass ceiling 

This will make sure that a lot of women are not missing, that they are seen and heard. 

There is a call for harassment policies to be put in place in organizations and for these to be enforced that women are not penalized for blowing the whistle.

Women be each other’s keeper. Don’t turn a blind eye when you know someone is being harassed at the workplace. If you see it happening, blow the whistle, speak up, speak to the person who is being harassed and create safety for other women. 

Women. When it happens to you, speak up. You are probably not the only person to whom it is happening.

Men, I know that they are those of you who support women, you exist. Then you need to act. You need to stand up. You need to say, hey, she said that when ideas are stolen, You need to ensure that your female colleagues get the credit for what they have done. 

Women, those of you who are on boards, throw down the ladder to others when there is a board position open, recommend another woman, share your networks, share your opportunities and help young woman enter the space. 

In organizations we learned from covid-19.

We can allow mothers to work from home, especially those with young children or we can implement flexible hours.

We women are smart, we are intelligent, we want to work. So stop putting limits on us. That’s my show for today. Let us stand up, raise our hands, to raise our voices and choose to challenge.

I invite you the annual Gestalt Leadership Conference, which takes place on April 29th, 2021. It is a virtual event. The theme is Leading with Equity. Learn more and register at maxineattong.com

5 Tips to Lead with the Use of Self

Today I am reflecting that leaders can lead using ourselves and that leading from whom we are is possible the most powerful leadership tool that we have and possibly the only one that we will ever need. 

When I think about the self, I’m thinking about the self as the physical, spiritual and emotional being. Leaders can integrate those three experiences to lead our teams effectively.

Yes, it sounds a little strange, but walk with me and hear me out. 

 I refer to myself as the CEO of this entity called Maxine Attong. Whatever I’m doing, I am first leading this entity and then leading others. 

When I think about the self, I think about two aspects of self. 1) personality and 2) self belief

My offer is not a psychological self. I will leave that for the social scientists.

‘m going to explain how these two aspects can impact upon our leadership. I’m also going to share some tips of how to engage this idea of self to effectively lead.

PERSONALITY

Personality is our way of thinking, how we are feeling and behaving. This includes our moods, our patterns of thoughts, our attitudes and behaviors.

What is your personality?
Does your personality change according to where you show up? 

Most of us belong to different groups, social groups, and professional groups. If we trace our interactions in those different groups and how we navigate each we will realize that we probably show up differently in each group.

We show up in professional settings differently from how we show up with our very close friend groups or how we show up with our football team. The language that we use, the emotions that we show and the attitudes that we display are different. 

A lot of my coaching clients share that they wear a mask when they get to work. 

They put on their professional mask and their persona changes when they walk through an office door. They leave a part of themselves somewhere on the commute to work and pick it up on their return.

• At the workplace, the attitudes and beliefs that you display, how much of that is you? 
• Under this veil of professionalism, what parts of you have you sacrificed?
• What part of your genuinely true, funny, creative, highly intelligent selves are you not showing up with? 
• What are you leading with under this mask, this personality that has been tailored for a particular environment?

What essence of you is missing? 

The invitation is for us to understand what mask we are wearing and to determine how it has impacted upon our leadership.

Consider that the strongest essence of who you are may just be missing in your leadership. The call is for us to establish

1. What mask we are wearing?
2. Is that mask serving us in the realm that we’re entering?
3. What other elements of ourselves can we inject into that mask to make a difference in our leadership? 
4. How do you lead with a mask on? 

SELF BELIEF

.This is trickier than the mask because our self belief determines how we look at the world and how we make meaning of what is happening in front of us.

For example, most of us have learned how to behave, how to treat and think of other people from whomever we’ve been listening to. The voices of the people who loved us, the people who raised us, the people we have experienced all play in our heads and heart.

Have you ever questioned if these voices are still relevant? 

Think about it. You learned a lot from your teachers, who were 10 to 30 years older than you. Now that you are in your 30s, in your 40s or your 50s are those voices still relevant? 

The way that our parents saw the world, the things that they experienced, what they told you about people who look a certain way or who behave a certain way, is any of it still relevant? 

The world has changed so much in the last 20 years. 

If our self belief is hinged upon what we learned from those voices is our self belief relevant? 

How do those self beliefs show up in our leadership in terms of how we behave and how in terms of our attitudes and most definitely in terms of the way we treat other people?

Oscar Wilde said, “Most people are other people.”

 Who are you when you show up? 

What is your personality when you show up and what is your self belief? 

A BEAUTIFUL GARDEN

Consider this a story.

A woman tended her garden with beautiful flowers, every morning. One day, she became ill and was bedridden. Her son, who loved his mother dearly and knew how important her garden was to her, made a commitment to this garden until she recovered.

Each day he watered the flowers, and cleaned the leaves. 

After three months his mother recovered. 

He excitedly said, “Mom, I took care of all of your plants.”

When she saw her garden she began to cry. 

Her garden was in ruins and she and she yelled at her son. 

He in turn was confused. He said, “Mom, I took care of your garden. I cared for each and every flower and each and every leaf.”

His mother then said to him, “The life of a plant is in its roots. They are invisible. You forgot to water the roots and the result is visible in the complete devastation of my garden.”

It is easy to tend to the flowers that we bloom and or leaves. As leaders we have to pay attention to our roots. We need to examine our self-belief and our personality to ensure healthy roots,

I will share five tips on how to lead with ourselves from the root of whom we really are.

1. Understand and know ourselves. How can  we understand other people if we don’t understand ourselves? We need to understand our virtues, our vices, our attitudes, our perceptions, what makes us tick, what makes us mad or what makes us sad. Most of us know our strengths and weaknesses and this is just the tip of the iceberg, because that is about skills and competence. We need to know whom we are deep inside. We need to be aware of what motivates us, what drives us, our limitations, what we believe about ourselves. We need to go deeper and understand our inner critic, that voice that says you’re not good enough and where this voice came from.  It is critical for us to us to know what where our self belief emanates from.
2. Honor your story. You have a particular story that makes you unique. Tell your story in a positive way to yourself. You are not a victim because you have survived and you have thrived. Tell your story in a powerful way that makes you claim that narrative in a way that removes all shame and eliminates any suggestion that you are not good enough in this story. It doesn’t matter what was done to you, and by whom. What matters is that this is your story and you honor your story by seeing it in a really, really positive way. Yeas you can do this and tell the truth.
3. Understand your emotions. Do you know why you’re jealous of some people? Do you know what makes you sad or do you even know what it is to feel sad when you’re feeling sad? When we understand the emotional range of whom we are we unravel a huge piece of whom we are. 
4. Empathize with yourself – I’m still learning to have great empathy for myself. It’s very easy to project and have empathy for others and to walk in their shoes and to give them the benefit of the doubt and treat them as if they are coming to you with best of intentions. What would it be like to do this for yourself? What would it be to look at yourself as the little child who resides inside of all of us. What would it be like to deal with ourselves with great empathy and believe that we are operating every day from our best self?  How about giving yourself the benefit of the doubt? 
5. Pay attention to your emotional and physical sensations  When I understood myself, my emotional range and I began to have great empathy for myself, I began to zero in on the emotions of other people . Then I realized that I am a mirror for you, just as you are a mirror for me. The physical and emotional sensations that I have when coaching an individual or facilitating a group allow me to be better and more effective coach and facilitator.

Leading with the use of myself was one of the most powerful lessons that I’ve learned over my leadership journey  

This is my lived experience and so I ask leaders to understand and accept  themselves.

What are you walking away with after reading? Which of these tips do you want to try? What has been you experience.

Drop me a comment I would love to learn your story.

• Leaders, let us understand our flaws, our brilliance, that we are perfectly imperfect, that we make mistakes, and that we have sparks of brilliance. 

My intention is to fuel your leadership spark so that together we can co-create in the systems that we live work and play within.

Our 4^th annual Gestalt Leadership Caribbean Conference – Leading with Equity is on April 29 2021. This year we are discussing Leading With Equity. This is a virtual event.

Register at maxineattong.com5

Leadership is Promoting Work-Life Balance

As Community spread continues the possibility of us returning to work from home with varying scales remains high.

We have spent 3 months practicing work from home and most of our teams are now ready and equipped for this reality.

As I continue to host group coaching sessions with leaders and teams, most teams are concerned with the their work life balance and ask how to maintain this as they go forward. 

As work from home becomes institutionalized, it may be difficult to actually perceive a separation  between our work and our personal lives.  Our workplaces have now encroached our lives.

We no longer have to leave home to go to the workplace and we can no longer close our doors on the workplace.  Our dining room table is now an office desk, our kettle is the work coffee station and our co workers noisy radio is replaced by the sounds of the children’s cartoon.

Those of us who have sworn never to take home work, now have work as permanent and prominently features at our homes. It seems that the balance has been tilted on the side of work since it now resides with us at home.

There are two aspects of this for me.  There is the work and the life, that we are being asked to hold in balance. I want to separate them before I rejoin them so that we can deal with either as a separate piece before bringing them back as a whole .

Lets deal with life

What was the quality of your life before the Coronavirus?

Were you happy, proud, disappointed with your life before the Coronavirus?

The stay at home and the other effects of Corona would have compounded and shown you exactly what is the quality of your life.

A lot of us live our lives with distractions, which  is not a bad thing. They may look different from person to person and they keep us going. For some of us it may be the exercise, for others liming, for some travelling.  What’s yours?

During covid we had to stay at home without distraction and face ourselves. We had to look at the man/ woman in the mirror and we got a long hard look at our reflection.  For the first time in a long time, we saw how we related to ourselves and to our families and our loved ones. Maybe we liked what we saw, maybe we didn’t. We were forced to acknowledge our way of life and not all of us wanted to keep looking.

Part of our lives is also the relationships that we share. Cabin fever is a real thing and for some of us we learned that we didn’t know and in some cases we may not like the people with whom  we lived.

We realized that with the bustle of life that we were not spending quality time with each other and we needed to relearn each other.  This may have been rewarding to some.

I saw a hilarious and horrifying tweet thread that suggested that people were horrified at their spouses workplace ego.  Some people recognized that they were living with the office bully or living with the brownnoser.  We have never seen how each other work and now we may have had to recalibrate our opinions of others based on their work behaviour

That’s a lot of reveals in a short space of time, which did not always help our life.

In response to the messiness of life very often we turn to work. It makes perfect sense.

As humans we do what brings us pleasure and for a lot of us our work is joy. Work is also predictable we more or less get what we put into the job. Life on the other hand is messy, involves other people and plans often go awry.

It’s a no brainer about where to invest our time, work gives us a more immediate and  much higher return on our time investment.

At work, we realized that there is a difference between accessible and available. Team members may be accessible and they do not need to be available at all times.

Most leaders confused the two thinking that because they knew where team members were that they could call on team members whenever they wanted. For most leaders this was a teething problem, they were new to managing teams remotely and thought this was the best way forward. over the last 3 months some leaders realized that staff were in fact being responsible and doing as they required and eased up on this behaviour.

Yes I am aware that there are some leaders who are still closely monitoring their teams.

I don’t think this is a phenomenon of working from home. I think that in those teams there was always a lack of trust and the remote working is highlighting  the situation.  These leaders either have no trust in themselves as leaders, or don’t trust that their teams will follow their lead or don’t trust their team members.

I have not heard any leader complain about the lack of productivity during the work from home and most team members have said that they have achieved more than their expected results.

Lastly leaders, What is the culture of your office around work?

Some workplaces celebrate long hours and think that people who put their personal or family life first are losers.

Some offices promote missing family events as signs of loyalty to the office not realizing that life is being destroyed.

Some team members sacrifice family time and relationships on the altars of high performance and leaders applaud these decisions as evidence of dedication.

At these workplaces long hours, weekend work and tight deadlines are considered hallmarks of success. 

Now that we have examined work and life dear reader what do you preference your work or your life? What is the reason for your preference?

A 2001 study in the UK said that work life imbalance was more likely to be reported, by those working longer hours. It was also more likely to be reported by those in managerial positions and on a higher income; by women rather than men and by those with dependent children; and by multiple-job holders.

On the positive side, those who reported that they worked in an organization with a friendly climate, where more human resource practices are in place and where they have more scope for direct participation and autonomy, reported less imbalance. 

This report gives us some tips

Lets start at the top and be deliberate about the culture that we are building around work and life. 

What do our cultures promote? We need to ensure that our workplaces do not penalize fathers for wanting to see their children being born or that women don’t lose their spots because of maternity leave.  We also need to have a culture that does not penalize people who want other things.

Leaders we need to  encourage team members to take their holidays to attend family functions and to take breaks from work.

We need to stop thinking that if I can do it they can do it as well and understand that each individual has different needs and different levels of contribution to make.

We need to be flexible.

We need to highlight the need for routines with our team members. Encourage them to plan and take scheduled breaks.  Retain the morning 10-minute coffee break, the lunch break and the bathroom breaks. Remind them that the breaks offer a good time to check in on their children. We should be monitoring for those exceptions as well.

Lunch-time can offer opportunities for socialization through lunch and learns and families can be invited in.

Leaders encourage team members to find their rhythm and point out when their routines are also not working. 

We can demonstrate what routines look like by scheduling meetings at the same time each week and having work deadlines .

We also need to ensure that team members work a certain number of hours a week. 

As community spread widens, we need to be physically distant  and we do not have to be socially distant. 

Leaders reach out to team members and and check in both with those who live alone and those who live with others.

Some clients host zoom hangouts during which team members have a coffee together and shoot the breeze.

Leaders we need to plant the seeds and remind staff that there is more to life.

This may seem like a ticklish topic since we often think that Money is the main factor to the quality of life. Before I go on let me ask. Have you ever gotten a raise and 6 months after expenses just seem to rise to match the raise? Yes that happens with most of us.

What’s the quality of life that you are allowing yourself? What are you doing that takes away from or adds to your quality of life?

This is not about how much money you have it is about the people who are around you, you doing the things that you love unapologetically and the amount of happy or sad in your life.

What makes your heart sing? When last did you do that?

Many of  us at some point in time we give up the things dearest to us in pursuit of the career and then we are left feeling that something is missing.

As I progressed in my career as an accountant I gave up my love for writing and I felt the imbalance in my life.  It is only when I restarted writing and published my two books that I felt resonance in my t became balanced life, since I operate daily with what makes my heart sings. 

Those who have regained your heartsong you know what I mean. For the others who haven’t take some time to think about that one thing that you did that you were just happy doing and reintroduce it into your life.  A sure way to maintain some balance.

On an individual level, let’s get help in every way that we can. It could be something as simple as buying frozen dough instead of making bread or ordering groceries to pick up instead of going to the stores or getting help to clean the house.  In whatever way we can lets make our living simpler and easier.

We also need to take care of our emotional mental and physical states by being aware of how we are doing. We need to slow down and pay attention to ourselves since it is ourselves that will bring us through. 

We know that work from home is in our future.  The second wave of covid will see many team members retreat to their homes. Beyond covid some employers will  realize that there are cost savings and promote work from home as the way forward.

Work life balance suggests that we hold the two in balance on a daily basis.

I have the image of a seesaw with work on one side and life on the other. Some days the seesaw tips in favor of work and on other days it  tips on the side of life. Think of the fine balancing act to hold the two sides of the see-saw at an equal level. It feels almost impossible to do so and this is what we struggle with. There is an unseen tension in holding the two sides even, it is difficult to maintain the balance.

Let’s try another image.  Think of the sea saw and move the life and work away from their separate ends and bring them together in the middle of the see saw.

Now work and life together become the pivot on which the see saw easily swings.  Feel the release of the tension. I know it sounds too easy.

Consider that life is a continuum in which there is a feature called work. It’s not either or it is part of our life. It’s just one of the multiple realities of our life and we hold it in perspective and in context to our lives.

I would love to know how you manage your work life balance.

Drop me a line at my website www/Maxineattong.com or via linked in or ig.

My intention  is to fuel your leadership spark so that together we can bring change to the systems that we live in.

 If you have any topics that you want discussed or any questions answered then visit my website and send them to me

At this time I am hosting free 30 minute online sessions with teams to discuss how to promote work-life balance. If you want to host a free online session for your team then Contact me on on my website at maxineattong.com, linked in or Instagram at Maxine Attong.  You can call or send me a whats app to 8687247642 or an email at maxineattong@gamil.com

Thank you for reading

Leadership is Helping Teams deal with Stress

We have been reeling from the resurgence of covid 19 as more people have been tested positive.  Community spread is on and  contact tracing is in play. 

This has fueled a state of uncertainty for most of us  as we are wondering what will happen A lot of questions are emerging

• Are we going to have another lockdown?
• Can the economy survive another lock down ?
• Can I survive to stay at home?
• How do I keep safe?

As  community spread widens we will become more and more uncertain.

We have all been in the public spaces and seen that there has been a relaxation on the safety protocols.  We see masks being worn below the nose, around the neck or  on the chin. It’s pretty funny except that it isn’t a laughing matter.

We were looking forward to the creation of a new normal instead we are in a period of suspended reality. 

We can use this period of suspended reality to stop and think about what transpired over the last four (4) months before we move on.

The invitation is to have a discussion with your teams so that they understand that their feelings, issues and challenges were valid and experienced by others.

I have hosted these discussions with teams and team members usually express deep gratitude and relief after those meetings.  Closure is needed so that we can move on. Today I am sharing one perspective on that and you can mimic this with your teams

For a lot of us Corona was a time of grief as we lost our footing and our way of life. There were things that we missed and missed out on because borders were closed and we stayed at home.

Most of us experienced one or all of the five stages of grief – denial, anger, negotiation, depression and acceptance –  during that time 

Let me explain

Some of us were in Denial. At first most of us didn’t believe that covid was a severe threat. There were a lot conspiracy theories floating about and others grappled with the idea of staying at home believing that it was part of a larger plot to control our way of life. 

As  the threat became real some of us became angry. We were angry with the Government for the decisions that were made, we were annoyed that our favorite bars and restaurants were closed, vexed  that  we couldn’t exercise, and mad that our plans were thwarted.  At some point in time we asked, “Is this fair?” “Why is this happening?  “Who is to blame? “

Slowly some of us tried to  negotiate. Maybe if we stay at home, the threat will be lessened. We hoped that if we stuck to a routine did some fun things that we wouldn’t miss what we lost so much. We tried to make  juice with the sour situation

Eventually some of us became depressed.  We couldn’t deal with all the loss.  We were sad and slowly we couldn’t be bothered.  Why change clothes and not wear pajamas, why not eat what we love, why bother to exercise? We missed our way of life and some of us we withdrew even more..

Finally some of us embraced the fact that we were  going to be okay. We accepted the new routines and we decided to do things differently.  We decided to not fight and accepted the inevitable and it became much easier to deal with it

Even with acceptance we realised that we still had moments of denial, or of anger or of feeling down.  That’s because the stages of grief do not work in sequence.  Acceptance is a muscle that takes awhile to build and as we build it we are susceptible to the other stages of grief.

We have gone through a lot of change over the last 4 months and now we are being tasked to change again.

We are going to grieve again.  This time with some additional concerns and anxieties.   We don’t know if our coworkers have been playing it safe. We don’t know if they have been creeping out to Covid parties and if they have been going out without masks. 

As the case of infections rise we are wondering about the people who have to travel to work and how safe they are and by extension how safe we are.

All of this adds to what we commonly call stress. Working from home has been stressful and returning to work is now equally  stressful.  

I  have been chatting with various teams and they all share the same sentiment. We are stressed and we are burnt out. 

 Leaders I know that the stress for you is also magnified.  There are five (5) more months to complete all the actions from the Strategic plans.

How do we help our teams cope with the stress from the grief so that they can be effective?

The word stress is used to describe a lot of emotions.

We need to be clear about exactly what the emotion is and what has  triggered the emotion. The trigger could be in the present time or maybe related to  something in the past.

 Covid  created stress in the present time for some of us because we have anxieties about getting ill or losing income.

Some of us may be stressed because our movements are restricted  and that may remind us of being a teenager again when our freedom of movement was curtailed.

Once we establish the stress trigger we can link this to a feeling. What is the emotion that this stress brings? Are you sad, frustrated, angry hurt?  Name the emotion and link it to what exactly is happening. I’m really mad that I’m being told to stay at home it makes me feel like a teenager all over again and that makes be both angry and sad.

Locate the feeling in your body because each part of our body reacts differently to the emotions that we have. We often feel fear in our stomach. Sadness is often felt in our chest and anger can cause our bodies to tremble. Connecting the body’s reaction helps us to confirm the emotion and release the emotion as and when we feel it. The language is unfamiliar but trust me as we begin to make the links it begins to make sense. As it makes sense the mystery is removed and we can begin to take targeted action.

What actions can we take to deal with stress?.  I am going to give you a few .

Try this with me. If you are seated,  then uncross your legs and plant your feet firmly on the ground., stick out your chest beyond your stomach and straighten your back. Yes it immediately makes a difference

We can go deeper with the breathing as we inhale we push out our stomachs and as we exhale allow the stomach to deflate.  We can make noises as we exhale. This allows us to take in more oxygen into our bodies and that helpers release the tension.

Native people never wore shoes, because they understood that we were of the Earth and that we needed to be anchored by the earth as often as possible.  It took scientist until 2016 to discover that walking barefoot is a stress reliever. Walking barefooted reconnects us with the earth and grounds us to deal with the vagaries of the day. 

As much as possible, get out in nature and let mother Gaia heal you. A hike, a walk in the outdoors, a visit to the beach allows us to be in nature and  to connect with the earth.

We need to sleep for 5 hours or more.  For those of us who are insomniacs we need to  track our behaviour to see what contributes to our lack of sleep. I don’t drink caffeine after noon, it keeps me up.  

I know that we have a lot to do but consider once per week doing nothing. Sounds like a sin doesn’t it? We can mimic the  lifestyles of creatives. They have spurts of creativity followed by  periods of drought. It’s a natural cycle of harvest and rest, winter and spring and we can build that into our routines. When last did you rest? 

Take an absence from screens. No TV,  no whatsapp, no email and no social media for at least 4 hours a week. The longer that we can do without it the better for us.

For me the best stress reliever is my daily journal. I ask myself questions, process feelings, determine what’s really annoying me or making me sad. I make lists of the things that I need to achieve. It’s my time that I get to work out things. It’s my personal space. It’s not something that I ever read again. I do it to get rid of feelings and thoughts so that I am clear to move on with the day.

The final tip is gratitude. The world is so crazy we need to just remind ourselves that there is still good in every day. Even if there is nothing good. I am grateful that I can open my eyes and see another day and that I have a phone and maybe that I have my sisters and some friends who will take my calls.  Sometimes I’m grateful for a little, sometimes I am grateful for a lot and always grateful.

There is no end in sight of covid-19 and we have to cope with what is in front of us.

Leaders I am very aware that you have a greater burden to bear.  I invite  you leaders to have these conversations with your staff, not only for them but for you as well.

Today I met with a team for an hour. After the conversation one of the leaders cried. He said it was the first time since covid that someone actually asked him how he coped with all that happened and how he was coping with being back at work. He said that it was one of the rare occasions that he felt supported by his team.

Organisations are made up of people. We may have to be physically distant for a while longer and we do not have to be socially distance.  Let us reach out to each other and have the conversations 

My intention is to fuel your leadership spark so that together we can bring change to the systems that we live in.

 At this time I am hosting free 30 minute online sessions with teams to discuss how to deal stress. If you want to host a free online session for your team then Contact me on on my website at maxineattong.com\, linked in or Instagram at Maxine Attong.  You can call or send me a whats app to 8687247642 or an email at maxineattong@gamil.com

Thank you for reading

Leadership is Transparency

Business Dictionary defines transparency as a “lack of hidden agendas or conditions, accompanied by the availability of full information required of collaboration, cooperation, and collective decision making.”

There is an indelible link between accountability and transparency.  Accountability produces transparency; transparency promotes accountability.  You cannot have one without the other.

Can a leader be accountable without being transparent? No

Can a leader be transparent without being accountable. NO.

Realistically, no leader can be 100% transparent.   Any leader who is 100% transparent will be irresponsible. Leaders must use wisdom to choose when to be open and transparent.

As leaders, we often know the strategic plays that the organization is going to make and we cannot tell staff about them. We can say the what’s of strategy we can’t say the how. We can share that we want to double income in the next year but we can’t say that we are buying a company to achieve the target. The deal will be dead in the water before the agreement is made.

There are many decisions that we cannot share so that our business remains stable and continues to thrive

As leaders we need to state when we cannot be transparent. My standard answer is, ” I am not at liberty to answer because of the need for confidentiality”.

As with all things transparency calls for leaders to hold a balance and think about what they are accountable for and to whom they are accountable.

I have worked with leaders who preference their teams’ need for transparency over the organizational need to keep matters confidential. These leaders announced decisions to their team members to build loyalty while hijacking the organization.

When one team has information that other teams cannot access, it sets up an imbalance in which the team in the know is seen as more important or receiving preferential treatment. Other leaders who are holding confidence are viewed negatively by their teams as they seem to be withholding information.

The leaders who spill the beans need to come clean. Do you tell all because of your ego? What else would be worth breaking confidence?

Leaders need to think of where their obligations lie – is it with staff or the leadership team – at any point in time. This is not about us vs them it is about recognizing the sensitivity of issues that needs to be disclosed.

The meaning of transparency does not shift, the leader has to make the call about the purpose that is being served.

Now that I have placed that caveat, we can talk about transparency in terms of providing information that will allow accountability.

I will talk about  transparency as it relates to the leader, in relation to the team that they lead and in relation to the organization.

Leadership Transparency

Leaders what is your intention for your leadership? When we are clear about what we want we can tell team members about it. Our intention shows in everything that we do or say. So instead of team members guessing what we want ,we say want we want.  This helps everyone to get aligned. The leader has put his cards on the table and everyone is aligned.

Transparency in Teams

What would it be like if we understood the agenda of each team member? It would go a long way to building transparency for your teams. This conversation will

• Allow a common understanding amongst the team.
• Build trust between the team members
• Lead to understanding motives and behaviour.

When team members are clear on each other’s agenda they may step up and support each other. I have seen team members volunteer for extra duties to allow persons to spend time with family members or allow people who needed the money to work the overtime.

All team members must understand the targets, the roles and responsibilities of other team members for transparency to exist within teams. Work processes are understood and efficiency is promoted. Everyone understands how what he or she does fits in to the team’s contributions and how others contribute as well.  Team members should be aware of each others qualifications and certifications. Sometimes team members are contentious about bonuses or salaries when they have no idea of what each other is doing or has done.

Transparency in the Organization

At the organizational level I welcome the day that salaries and salary ranges are common knowledge for all roles. This will go a long way in promoting transparency and accountability.

Most organizations cannot reveal this information because leaders are aware of the disparity in earnings that are not always backed by credentials, or years of service or  performance. Until your company is comfortable with stating salary and salary ranges of all employees then you know that there is no parity and no transparency.

To be or not to be transparent is a dilemma that many leaders face.  My rules of thumb for disclosure to both internal and external are

1. Will revealing this information remove the organization’s competitive advantage?  Answer Yes then don’t disclose
2. Will withholding this information cast doubt and confusion or be viewed as a cover up? Answer Yes then disclose
3. If 2 years from now a reasonable man looks back on this situation,  will he understand the reasons for non-disclosure as ethical or rational? Answer Yes, then don’t disclose

Leaders, unless it is a strategic decisions that will be revealed when the pieces fall in place we need to think about it.

Team members want to hear bad news about the organization from the organization. They do not want to read about it online or hear about it from others.  They do not want be shocked as well as they want to save face.  While leaders are deciding what to disclose, they need to think about team members and how they will feel by being blindsided by negative press. Some questions to consider during these situations are:

• What is the impact of not telling the staff?
• How can we build trust if we do not state what happened?
• Who are we obliged to speak to when situations like this occur?

Sometimes the loyalty that we have for the organization and each other as leaders makes us want to draw a fence around issues and keep the situation under wraps.

We are pretending that the need for us to come clean, to internal and external stakeholders goes away it doesn’t.

So leader What are you pretending not to know?”

No one worries about transparency until something goes wrong.  To make it easier to build the transparency muscle we can practice being transparent with positive things that are happening.  It will make it easier when we have to be transparent with negative situations.

When leaders set a tone of transparency then the organizational culture becomes more open, communication becomes easier and it supports accountable behavior for both employees and leaders.

Some ways to build transparency are

• Allow team members access to you to ask questions and understand what is going on. Yes it requires constant communication.
• Conduct regular meetings with your team. These meetings are to follow up on work and deadlines. This way everyone knows what is going on what everyone else is responsible for.  Team members begin to appreciate each others contributions.  Give feedback on performance in these meetings – congratulate and help team members to work through challenges that come with failures.
• In these meetings allow time for questions from the team members about what is going on in the organisation. Give information that is sanctioned. Distinguish when it your opinion vs the company’s decisions.  Be responsible and do not break confidentiality.
• Encourage honest feedback about the company, its strategies or actions or whatever you may consider important. Online surveys can be used.
• Have regular communication tools – newsletters, email from the CEO that will keep all team members on the loop
• Practice stating intentions out loud, so that others on your leadership team and team members begin to understand what transparency looks like. Then do as you say. For example, My intention for giving you feedback is to reduce the errors.  This assumes that you are clear on your intentions.
• Take the time to get to know your team members and meet with them one on one. This helps you to understand their personal agendas and promotes openness.
• Host regular town halls to report on the company’s progress to everyone at the same time. This is best hosted by the CEO or top leader.  In this forum state challenges and opportunities with the caveat being that some things are confidential and cannot be shared. Take questions and comments from the floor.  Do not reprimand persons for asking difficult or challenging questions
• Help persons who struggle with transparency by holding them accountable for being transparent.

Transparency builds and fosters better relationships since trust is present.

As always this is part of your leadership journey.

Becoming a more transparent leader takes time and effort. It will also take time for the benefits to spread throughout your organization.

Reader what about you? What do you need to be transparent about so that others can hold you accountable?

My intention is to fuel your leadership spark so that together we can bring change to the systems that we live in.

At this time I am hosting free 30 minute online sessions with teams to discuss how to deal with accountability/ transparency in their organizations. If you want to host a free online session for your team then Contact me on my website at maxineattong.com\, linked in or Instagram at Maxine Attong.  You can call or send me a whats app to 8687247642 or an email at maxineattong@gmail.com

Leadership is Accountability

Leaders are called  to be accountable especially when things go wrong.

Sometimes the responses to the call indicate that leaders don’t quite understand what accountability means.

Leaders are great at taking responsibility. They are great at fulfilling their ongoing duty to complete the task at hand directly or indirectly.  That is the end of responsibility.

Accountability is what happens after a situation occurs. It refers to the leader’s response and her/ his ability to take ownership of the results of a task.

So quick way to remember. I am responsible for completing the task, I am accountable for the outcome of the task and I take ownership of all that follows after.

There are 4 levels of accountability

Level 1: No accountability.

No one takes ownership of any results good or bad and there is no consequence for any behavior.  People can come to work late, deadlines are missed and customer service sucks and nothing happens.  Leaders turn a blind eye or stand by and watch.

For example, Patrick comes to work late everyday.  No one speaks to him about it and he keeps coming to work late

Level 2: Top-down accountability

The leader is responsible for the performance of the team members and holds team members to account for what they have done and what they have failed to do.  For instance, when Patrick was late it was my responsibility to talk to him about his late coming and hold him accountable for it.

Leaders need to hold all team members to the same standards. There may be a tendency to hold some team members to a higher or lower standard of accountability because of relationships shared, or sympathy or an ambition for another. When the standards are different for different team members this sets up dissonance in the team as the seemingly preferential treatment does not go unnoticed

Level 3: Peer-to-Peer Accountability

Peer-to-peer accountability occurs when the leader shares responsibility with the team. Ideally when Patrick is late, I as leader will not be the only one to address him. His peers will remind him about his late coming and the impacts of it on the team.  They may also help him resolve the issue. The assumption is that this feedback will mean more to him since it is coming from his peers.

The leader’s job then becomes ensuring that the tone of these conversation promotes the team and does not devolve into a negative or toxic situation

This is a form of peer pressure and as with peer pressure it can backfire. Team members may pressure others not to complete tasks, or volunteer for projects or accuse others of being a brownnoser.

Level 4: Self-Accountability

Leaders and team members both accept personal accountability. There is no peer pressure, team members  can look after themselves instead of each other, and leaders do not have to bribe, beg or cajole for persons held accountable for outcomes.

Persons who accept personal accountability do so because that is who they – accountable human beings, and they have a higher standard for themselves.

In this scenario, Patrick comes to work on time because he has adjusted his schedule, to ensure that he comes to the office on time.

The truth is that no one can make another person accountable.

In the short term reprimands may seem to work but over time team members will revert to the way that they want to be.

When I held Patrick accountable for his late coming he promised to come to work early.  After 2 weeks Patrick was back to his usual trick of coming late.  Until he accepted personal accountability for his late coming nothing would change.

What level of accountability do you see in your organization?

What would you like to see?

I think we need to be make a distinction between internal and external accountability especially when the failure to be accountable has impacts beyond the boundaries of our organization.

The Catholic Church, is a well known example of an organization that failed to hold its team members accountable to external stakeholders.  The Church held priests accused of wrongdoing internally accountable for misconduct.  It reprimanded the priests, sent them to lesser parishes , stripped them of title and paid fines.

The Church erred in not extending its accountability to the wider population that was impacted by the crimes. The crimes that were committed were beyond the boundaries of the organization,  as a result, external parties needed to be involved in any resolution.

The error was in limiting the offending priests’ accountability to within the confines of the church

Unfortunately the church’s actions has been mirrored in many organizations – internal accountability and no external accountability.

I have seen this play out when team members who have embezzled funds are told to pay the funds back, without interest, and are kept on the job without ever facing  criminal charges.

I’ve seen this play out when senior executives are asked to resign with a promise of a sterling recommendation and without a blemish on their records.

We hold the accountability within the organization but we are unwilling to involve external parties. We think about protecting reputations by not having public disclosure or involving the legal and statutory framework.

As a result, when these events become public the organization loses credibility and its reputation is sullied. The leaders are seen as promoting bad behavior, protecting  people and are accused of  having a boys club that takes care of its own.

If  we want to build accountability at the lower levels then the organization  must demonstrate that there is zero tolerance for breaches at the highest levels.

We need to hold people accountable both within the internal framework of the organization and within the external legal and other frameworks of the larger system that the organization exists within.

What leader is brave enough to break with tradition and stop the cover ups?

What leader will ensure full accountability even when this involves external frameworks?

In organizations with loosely defined core values, haphazard policies and procedures  it is difficult to hold people accountable.  If there are no rules then people will create their own.

Leaders make assumptions that team members understand and can apply the meanings of core values, and that they should know what behaviors are acceptable. Leaders need to state explicitly the behavior, the standard of behavior and the values that team members will be held accountable for and then enforce it.

Things will always happen and when they do leaders need to deal with them immediately.  The call for accountability must be swift and as close as possible to the event.

Things take time.  If this is a new habit then it will only come with constant reinforcement. Leaders need to communicate the need for accountability and the duty for accountability.  This is an ongoing discussion that should be repeated when tasks are assigned.  Patrick I am assigning you this task and you will be held accountable for the outcome.

The words won’t mean much without consequences so ensure that you as leader are willing to go the distance. If there are no consequences for the breaches then no one will be bothered to be accountable. Patrick was unwilling to change his late coming, even with flexi-time he was still late. Eventually  I had to report Patrick’s late coming to Human Resources to ensure that I went the distance to hold him accountable.

As leaders we need not cover-up or protect the breaches of accountability. We need to expose them and let the remedies take their course even though the outcomes may be unpleasant for all.

Sunlight is the best disinfectant.

We must be willing to expose the lack of accountability to get accountability.

The call is for leaders to hold all team members accountable.  We do this through our internal policies and procedures and having constant communication around the issue. We also need to ensure that the consequences are also matching to the events. We need to commit to involve external parties when events are outside the boundaries of the organisation.

Dear reader what about you?

What are you covering up to protect the family or the community?  

What needs to be aired for people to be held accountable?

My intention is to fuel your leadership spark so that together we can bring change to the systems that we live in.

At this time I am hosting free 30 minute online sessions with teams to discuss how to deal with harassment in the organizations. If you want to host a free online session for your team then Contact me on on my website at maxineattong.com\, linked in or Insta gram at Maxine Attong.  You can call or send me a whats app to 8687247642 or an email at maxineattong@gmail.com

Thank you for reading.

Leadership is Zero Tolerance on Harassment

I’ve spent the last year working with some brilliant entrepreneurs who literally started their company in a bedroom.

Working with them has been a learning experience for me since I work mainly in corporate.  As I worked with that client I concluded that regardless of the environment, the leadership needs are the same and all leaders are faced with the same challenges. 

One of the first revelations with this client is that they did not see themselves as leaders hence they did not act as leaders.  Even though they, made decisions, set direction and executed strategic plans.

They resisted the word leader. As a result, they did not lead. 

There were no policies and procedures stating what was unacceptable and acceptable and  no one understood their boundaries.

The result was that while the organisation was successful, the staff felt that they were in a whirlwind and everything was topsy turvy.  I’ve seen this many times in organisation. Managers don’t see themselves as leaders, executives don’t see them as leaders, supervisors don’t see themselves as leaders. Therefore no one leads.

Leaders have a responsibility for the tone of the organisation and do this via code of ethics and standards. Sadly the words often don’t quite resonate.

Leaders when we allow jokes that discriminate about gender, race, identity sexuality or any topic that is derogatory in nature, it says something about our organisation and a lot about our leadership.

Yes I understand that we love to joke and that we are just having fun, but let me ask you this.

• How did you feel when you were the subject of a little joke ?
• How did you feel when you are at the receiving end of derogatory joke?

I’m pretty sure that you either got defensive, faked a smile or went on the attack.

Why then do you allow this toxicity in your organisation?

Yet we wonder why some team members don’t speak up – it’s because they don’t feel safe.

We wonder why some team members never achieve their full potential – it’s because they feel battered.

And we wonder why some team members that we have big plans for resign – it’s because they could not grow in your environment.

When we ignore the winces, the sudden retreat of people from a room, the quietening of voices, the fact that only some people always have the floor we need to start observing and asking questions about what is really happening in the team.

• What makes the quiet people not talk?
• How is it that these brilliant people whom you hand-picked have nothing to say?

And most importantly What does my silence as a leader condone?

Of course it goes without saying if you leader are the one always making jokes and teasing, then you are part of the problem.  If all of your jokes tend to be personal in nature then you are the problem and your team does not feel safe with you.

Of course team members won’t complain, of course they all laugh, of course they mimic your behaviour but while you are throwing your head back and laughing because you are so funny, you may be missing the body language that indicates that not everyone is having fun.

It’s not that team members can’t take a joke. It’s that that’s not what they came to work to do.

Leaders often ignore complaints about harassment of any type. 

Leaders often say that there is a zero tolerance for sexual harassment yet predators are promoted and enjoy perks.

I have heard leaders say, “This boy wouldn’t change,” when referring to a 40 plus year old man who has had multiple relationships in the office.  I’m never sure if they are shaking their heads in awe or  with a sense of pride in the male prowess, it never seems to be in disgust.  Leaders we need to stop and think about the message we are sending to the wider organisation.

Simple questions to change the narrative.

• Is that man / woman so hot that every woman or falls for him or her?
• Are the people in the office so desperate that they all date this one person?
• Is he/ she lying?
• Is he/ she sullying the character and reputations of others?
• Is he/she forcing him/ herself on others?

Leaders tend to turn a blind eye to these persons who date multiple persons in the organisation because the other narrative is not pretty. 

Yet this is what we MUST do.

We have to  consider the possibility that the multiple daters are not always on the straight and narrow and there may be questions both about the veracity and the permissions in their relationships.

It is sad the extent of sexual harassment that goes on in office places.  It is appalling the number  of leaders who have slept with team members  .

We know the narrative of people sleeping their way to the top, but it takes two to tango.

Leaders take a cold hard look at yourself.

That young man or woman could not sleep his or her way to the top unless a leader slept with them.

Power is a real thing and power makes everybody sexy.  Let’s not be fooled.

We may not be attractive, our power makes us very attractive.

Do you really think the best use of your power? Your position is not for you to try new positions.

My personal belief is that any leader who has sexual relationships with anyone who directly or indirectly reports to him or her  is at fault, especially when these relationships have started in the office.

The higher this leader is poised in the organisation the more unethical and wrong I view the behaviour.  Let me explain why.

The power dynamics of the situation will make most people say yes to the leader’s advances. 

A team member’s livelihood, may depend on the income.  A team member may be flattered by the attention, this is a stroke to the ego – the big leader likes me. So many thoughts swirling and they can’t get it straight.  Most will say yes to the leader.

I’m sure by now you are thinking of the serial daters, the multiple offenders and the professional harassers who reside in your organisation.

Leaders you may think that whom people date in the office is  not your business but if not yours then whose is it.

(Caveat – We all know that couple whose office relationship blossomed into marriages and children.  Most times, the members of that couple did not serial date people in the organisation.)

What as a leader can you do to limit this behaviour in your organisation?  

Here are some actions that leaders can take to limit this behaviour

Many years after joining a company, I was sharing time with a senior leader. He asked “Did Jerry ever bother you?” I replied, “No. I’ve heard about his reputation but he never bothered me”.

To which he replied good, because when you joined the organisation I warned Jerry, Jack and Jill to leave you alone.  What would it be like if all leaders told the serial daters to  simply leave new hires alone?  That would go a long way to delimit that behaviour.

We have seen the pattern.  We know who the serial daters are in our company.   When I joined a new team I was told several times to watch out for certain guys.  While I did not initially understand why, I paid particular attention to those guys.  When they made advances I knew it wasn’t about me it was about them

Leaders limit the harassment and jokes. This is an easy fix.  Let it be known at your next staff meeting what is unacceptable.  Yes people may groan but there will be many persons who will breathe a sigh of relief.

Develop policies and procedures around harassment.  This  includes– bullying, name calling, sexual and issue a zero tolerance statement.  Host discussions on what is harassment so that people understand what it means.  Allow time for reflection and encourage team members to use the language and tell others when they are being offensive.  In the first instance, everything will be offensive as people are learning about it.  Eventually it will normalise and everyone will learn what it means,

Leaders listen and accept complaints. We tend to make excuses for the offender and often ask the aggrieved to grin and bear it.  Our language is never so plain but when we put the burden of tolerating on the aggrieved that is exactly what we are doing.

We are not to ask the complainant to justify or explain why she or she feels that way.  We can engage both parties in conversation and set limits on what is acceptable and unacceptable to the aggrieved. At the same time stating that any form of victimisation will not be tolerated.

Set up an anonymous harassment reporting channel that is monitored external to the organisation.  Put the management and decision making about these issues in the hands of a neutral third party that resides external to the organisation.  This will give people the confidence to make complaints

Leader you may be going against the grain of the organisation to have these conversations with your team. Some leaders will disagree with you and not want this raised.  You know that sweeping it under the rug will not make it go away.

Leaders have courage, your team members are depending on you to create and maintain a stable environment.

Leader of course the lens falls on you.  You need to self-examine and determine when you may have been the offending party.  We leaders need to reflect on how the path we have walked may have negatively impacted others.

Leaders we need to have zero tolerance for any type of harassment.

For too long we have harboured multiple offenders, serial daters and professional harassers within the walls of our organisation.

We may not privately condone their behaviour but we have never publicly denounced it.

This is one of the little things that we do not talk about that deeply and negatively impacts our organisation ability to move forward.  How do we create a great future without addressing this?

Dear reader what do about you?

Who in your family, in your community,  in your church have you seen displaying these behaviors or have heard whispers about?  What are you doing about it?

When we stay silent we are aiding and abetting the persons who perpetrate these offenses.

My intention is to fuel your leadership spark so that together we can bring change to the systems that we live in.

At this time I am hosting free 30 minute online sessions with teams to discuss how to deal with harassment in the organizations. If you want to host a free online session for your team then Contact me on on my website at http://www.maxineattong.com, linked in or Instagram at Maxine Attong.  

Check out the podcast Leadership Unlearned 

Leader as Change Agent

2020 has been the most interesting year in my lifetime.  This has been the year of change. All unprecedented, all unplanned all major.

During this year, new words have become part of our lives – quarantine, self-isolation, social and physical distancing – and  a mask is now both a fashion accessory and a necessity.

On the social front, we have seen a request for unlearning of traditions and a time for re-examination of history, economics and politics. All that we accepted previously is being challenged in the name of equity, equality and justice.

2020 may seems like a never ending tornado of events that threaten to sweep us all within it and land us in quite a different place from where we started.

2020 says,  Change is coming.  Change is here.  Change is our new constant.

The truth is that small changes were always happening, there have been pandemics before, and there have been Black Lies Matter protests before. The difference is that our world has shrunk. We are more connected. Events are no longer isolated, whatever impacts your humanity is going to impact mine.

Whatever happens to one of us affects all of us , we can no longer deny our connectedness. Therefore we are going to continue to face massive and rapid changes in short periods of time.

We have watched as Sophia, the human Artificial Intelligence robot was turned on in 2016. Sophia is marketed as a “social robot” that can mimic social behavior and induce feelings of love in humans.  From her inception date we have seen Sophia learn, adapt and change,

By 2023, the fifth-generation wireless network 5G, will be used.  This will usher in the era of Augmented Reality where the way that we experience the world will change.  We can shop by seeing ourselves clothed in the desired clothes.  That technology will unleash the use of bots in almost every sphere of lives.  The struggles that we are having today with bandwidth and working from home and integrated technology will be things of the past.

With those scenarios we anticipate even more crises and change, therefore even more need for leadership to navigate this new environment.

With the power and weight of their organisations leaders are poised to bring and effect change in a real way. Leaders can truly make an impact.

Post COVID most of us were forced to review our business models and ask ourselves what is the way forward?

Before we move forward we need to also ask are we satisfied with the way things are.

Change often comes with the dissatisfaction of the status quo.  Leader what do you want to change in your organisation?

I was chatting with a team about leadership and the floor was open for questions.  A young man asked, “Maxine how do I become a good father if I have never had a father figure.”

This was truly a beautiful question because he understood exactly what leadership was about.  In that moment, he looked at his family model and was dissatisfied. He was aware of what was lacking and he wanted to lead differently,.  He was aware that he lacked a suitable business model that he could emulate, In that moment, he willingly stood up to take  personal responsibility for the leadership of his family unit

I gave him the answer that I offer to all leaders and to you reader, “As leaders we need to be what is missing in our systems”. 

We need to be like that brave young man and say I do not know the way forward, but I know what is missing in this family.  The result is that he has a number of options. If this father did not provide financial support then he needs to provide financial support, if his father did not provide advice and guidance then he needs to be this resource for the family.

There is no one answer, since what is missing in your organisation may be different from what is missing in mine.

This is the invitation for all leaders. The simplest thing to ask is, “What is missing from this organisation?” And then to provide it.

The answers are easy when we think about the traditional factors of production. For instance if capital is lacking then we take a loan or sell shares, if its  skill or competence then we can hire the skilled labour. We can implement state of the art technology

But what if what is missing is leadership? Then do we change it? Can we change the leaders? 

This is a big question that organisations need to answer. It is an even bigger question for persons who occupy positions of leadership. One that each leaders needs to honestly answer.

Very often we all know that leadership is not quite what we want it to be in our companies and we are all waiting on someone to fix it.  Maybe we are waiting on the the Chairman and the board of directors or maybe they are waiting on the appointed managers and executives to make a change.

Maybe you are timid with your leadership.  You worked hard to get here and will do anything including nothing to keep your hard earned position.

You may be near to retirement and you want to secure your pension.  Besides you are tired and just want to go home.

Perhaps  you are new to leadership and you don’t want to rock the boat. You notice all the leaders with more tenure seem to be blind to what is needed,  so you are playing along, at least until you establish your position.

Or maybe you are in the middle of your career. You don’t want to make trouble and you are concerned about your reputation,  if you play it safe you will be safe.

While all leaders protect their position and do not change what needs to be changed nothing gets done.  Each year the company implements brilliant strategies yet there is a general malaise and no real change happens throughout the company.

In a post covid world, where every thing that we know it has been challenged, this is your opportunity for you push for changes. .

What do you want to change in your organisation? What is missing?

Leader, you can create change in their organisations.  You are the change agent in your organisation.

Change is contagious, systemic, starts with small steps and in this way cannot be predicted,

Malcolm Gladwell in his book Tipping Point suggests that for change to occur the effect must be contagious.  The idea must be planted and spread.

He suggests that you have to know your audience to determine how to make information sticky for them. This  may require using market or scientific research to tap into their interests or subconscious motivation.  Gladwell  also gives an idea of the person that we need to co opt to spread change in the organisation.

• Connectors who occupy many different worlds, and can bring these together
• Mavens who are knowledgeable and trustworthy sources of information. Their words carry a lot of weight.
• Salesmen who use the right words and possess an inherent energy, enthusiasm, charm, and likability that makes people want to listen to them.

Change is systemic. We have seen that changes that occur in other parts of the world reach our shores. Be aware of the impact that the change will have in both the target and other areas.  A change in strategy may require a change in policy and procedure for the strategy to work.  The implementation of new technology often requires a change in job description as well as a change in the business process.

Spend a bit of time thinking about the obvious impacts of the change as well as the subtle areas of the change.  This will also assist your idea to be contagious.

We often think of change as doing something big.  That’s part of being human we thing on a grand scale.  The novice painter wants to be the next Da Vinci.  He is unsatisfied with this small strokes he want to create a masterpiece immediately.  This novice painter puts so much pressure on himself that the magnitude of the task at hand stops him in his tracks.  Nothing happens.  He gets demotivated.

Leaders don’t be daunted by your small efforts at change.  It only takes a spark to get a fire going.  Your small effort on a daily basis will add up

The systemic nature of change when combined by the complex nature of our world, makes it seem that change happens overnight. It is often difficult to identify exactly when the change began.

We can ask ourselves did the BLM protest start because george Floyd lost his life when the cop kneeled on him? Or did the protests start because of the systemic injustices?  Or did the protests start when slaves were emancipated but not freed.

At times it is difficult to say what happened.  It is the small steps that add up until Gladwell’s tipping point is reached

Things take time.  If we want to make change it is to start where we can. It is to make the change with others who are like minded so that we can spread the contagion.

When frustrated remind yourself that what you are trying to change has been embedded within your company’s DNA, therefore it will take time to erase it,

Leaders as you determine what you want to change I encourage you to think what you are hoping for.

You are going to invest time and energy and money to make a change so before you make a move I ask you to consider this question

*”What is the one thing that you can change that if changed will change everything?

This is where you want to put your efforts,

Consider the obvious and the subtle results of the change.  Consider that the changes will impact the lives of many team members, their families and their communities will also be affected.

Lots to think about if you are a leader

In summary

• Change needs to be contagious.  Recruit the right people to help spread the word
• Small bits add up
• Things take time so don’t be haunted by the change you want to make nd how long it takes.
• And you never know where the tipping point is so don’t stop going.

We can also ask ourselves the following questions

• What is missing in my family and my community?
• What can I provide for what is missing?
• What is the one thing that we can change, that if changed will change everything?

 

My intention is to fuel your leadership spark so that together we can bring change to the systems that we live in.

At this time I am hosting free 30 minute online sessions with teams to lead the conversations about change. The intention is to bring about the healing and help team members to alleviate that pain the hurt and the sadness and the confusion that is felt at this time

If you want to host a free online session for your team then Contact me on linked in or Instagram at Maxine Attong.  You can call or send me a whats app to 8687247642 or visit my website

Thank you for reading

*This questions is an adapted from the book the One thing by Gary Keller

Leaders, Create the Best Possible Future for Organisations

In this blog, we continue to examine the best possible future. 

We looked at the best possible future for leaders at an individual level, and we spoke about the best possible future for our teams. 

In this blog I look at the best possible future for our organisations.

We will answer the questions – What is the best possible future for our organisations?

This is a real important question for me since it can make a huge impact on how we move forward as a country. Regardless of the unemployment rate most of us are employed or partly employed in some public or private sector institution. Those of us who run our own business rely on contracts from these organisations and others rely on the disposable income of these employees to purchase our products and services.

The choices that organisations make will impact all of us. Their choices will have a ripple effect on the economy and the rest of us. The answer to this question will tell us what jobs are available, what services are needed and the quality of life that we can enjoy.

To answer this question let’s start at the top.

Does you organisation have a Vision Statement?  How old is it? When last did you check it for relevance?

I walk into many organisation and in most I see a well-crafted vision statement prominently displayed in the reception area.  

Yet when I ask teams what’s the vision of the company, the question is always met with silence.

It’s true few know their company’s vision  What about you? Can you easily recall your company’s vision?  Does it really matter?

The truth is that most organisations are not driven by Vision on a daily basis. For most people the vision of the organisation is remote, a thing of the past, something created by a few most of whom are no longer in the organisation, t that is no longer relevant,

Vision statements do not have to be this way.  One of my clients literally starts each meeting with a statement about its Vision.  They are embedding that vision on a daily basis. And of course you can as well.

If your company has not looked at its vision for the last 5 years then its time for a relook.

Think about it if it was irrelevant before corona then it’s s pretty much a thing of the past and facing extinction after Corona

Now is the ideal time to think about what is really the way forward for this company.?

Some organisations are already embracing the opportunity,

On Monday a client called and said Maxine at this time we really need to figure out what we stand for as a business.  I agreed with him.  The last 6 weeks introduced that company to a different way of being, a different way of serving clients and a totally new way of working. 

Most of us are in similar positions.  In the last 6 weeks, we have gathered new information and data, we have situations that played out and we still exist.  We are in a different game, we changed our mind-sets to survive, we became flexible, we made decisions on the spot and kept adjusting until we got things working and kept them working .

Now we can examine and institutionalise the things that worked while scanning for new opportunities.

This is also a great time to review strategies, objectives and goals that were set for the year. Are these what we need going forward and of course what relevance do they have?

I know a lot of organisations are considering work from home / remote working as the way forward

I have been told that home-schooling and taking care of younger children do not go well with working from home, since parents have to do double duty at the same time.  This will not be a permanent situation since schools will reopen in 3 or 6 months time. It isn’t that far ahead

It is easy to calculate the millions of dollars that organisations will save in rent, infrastructure and providing amenities like tea, coffee, toiletries and uniforms by having more staff working from home. Staff are not without savings as well, as they don’t have to commute and they can do more work without the distractions that are in the office.  

 The most common complaint I have heard from persons who work at home is that there are too many meetings and that they are constantly being interrupted and inundated with immediate meeting requests or phone calls.  They are not being left with enough time to attend to tasks since they are always on call.

If organisations want to reap the full benefits of work from home going forward then they will need to figure the management of resources remotely and not micro manage and place unrealistic demands on workers.

Some tips for leaders to manage remote staff are

For staff that return to the workplace we have to reconfigure spaces to ensure physical distances are adequate and that open spaces are modified to allow for safety.  We have to devise our internal protocols for safety from sanitisation to the wearing of masks and the use of common areas.

 

• Set deadlines and objectives
• Schedule regular meetings to follow up and to monitor the progress of work. 
• Limit the random calls
• Use the technology to track log ons and log offs,
• Leave staff to do the work.
• Trust that staff are working
• Give them the time they need to deliver.  . 
• Check yourself and your behaviour towards staff.

Remote work or working from home also called for a re-definition  of business processes and highlighted the state of our technologies.

There is the opportunity for

• Every product or services to be sold via a full online store, complete with automatic stock updates and inventory ordering and estimated delivery times
• Every company that writes cheques to embrace online banking. 
• Every company that saved money by not purchasing all of the modules in the technological solution that runs your business to invest in the full solution to optimise your business.

Beyond the technology we also got a chance to look a the process by which we take inputs to convert to outputs.

• We regret that some roles are redundant
• Some job descriptions need to be modified, 
• Some organisational structure does not promote efficiency
• There are bottle necks and other non value added activities in many areas.
• Some necessary skills competencies are missing
• We don’t need supervision for the process to work.

I love processes because they

 

• Identify the limits that we put on the team members
• Reinforce the way things are done here
• Reveal the structure of the organisation
• Show how we allow or don’t allow for creativity
• Show the assumptions that are made
• Tell about the culture of the organisation. 

(Processes are also the subject of my first book – Change or Die the business process Improvement manual.  Check it out on Amazon when you have some time.)

I know that changing the process can change the waythat staff is deployed, the structure of the organisation and the way that it operates.

To break it down I recommend that we

• Institutionalise work from home for the jobs that are a natural fit and adequately resource these jobs
• Invest in the technology to have business online or digitise the business.
• Relook at our Vision statements.  They may no longer be relevant
• Review business processes
• Set new objectives and goals for the rest of the year

These are some of the building blocks for organisations going forward.

We still need to consider what is the possible for our organisation

I am inviting you to fix the things that are fixable a to get ready to enter this new wave and new time where the focus is on the people within the organisation. 

We used to think about organisations as mechanistic entities, the sum totals of many parts moving to create this big machine that churns out products or a services.

The invitation is here for us to look at organisations as relationships.  Adults who constantly relate to each other as they solve problems and achieve objectives

Researchers have also noted the shifts in leadership over the last 40 years.  Leaders were thought to be more directive, and adopted a command and control approach.  They told us what to do.

Now leaders are being asked to be inspirational

 As Kevin Roberts of Saatchi and Saatchi puts it, “We already moved from management to leadership. And we are about to go beyond leadership to inspiration. In the 21^st century organisations have to achieve peak performance by creating conditions that allow them to unleash the power of their people- not leading them not by managing them but by co-inspiring them.

Leaders then extended a more participatory approach to leadership.  In this way they began inviting others to decision making .

Now leaders I am inviting you to the blank canvas and asking you what future are you creating for your organisation.

My suggestion is that we create the future with our team’s with open heart, open mind and oipen will,

We are required to have Open mind –

At this time we have to consciously let go of the past, let go of what is no longer needed or no longer working.  We begin to ask new questions and paint new scenarios.  We review the lessons of the last 6 week and be brutally honest about our future.  We invite all levels of staff into the conversation so that we can get new perspectives to begin to think about the future. 

We know that we can adapt as situations emerge.  We have a prototype of how to deal with the unexpected and how to create opportunities when everything has changed.  From reviewing the way that we did it, we can learn and be ready for the next time. .  We are to take a look with fresh eyes at what is happening around us and keep the flexibility to take advantage of situations as they occur.

We can set aside our limiting assumptions about ourselves, the people that we work with and our companies to embrace the new

We can lead with an Open Heart. 

What do we need to change about the company so that people will be inspired to be creative and to adapt innovation?

Perhaps we need spaces or chat rooms dedicated to with conversations about change, creativity and innovation where there is open dialog without criticism.  Maybe want to create scenarios to get new ideas going.

Whatever our plans we realise that need to judge less and be slower at drawing conclusions. We need to be more present and be authentic in our leadership. We can be vulnerable stating what we don’t know and inviting team members to create with yus.

We can begin to develop the adult to adult relationships.  We can relate to the humans that work with us and lead from places of humanity.

With open hearts we begin to think about leadership not as a position that we hold but as a privilege that we hold for the upliftment  of others.

Open Will – We focus in on the people that we work with since they are our biggest resource. 

 We begin to move beyond our company to the larger idea of the greater good.

This goes beyond the parameters of the organisation and allows us to think about the ecosystems that we impact upon. We see the difference that our leadership can make to the lives of the people that we work and the communities and families to which these people belong.

We begin to see the enormity of our task and as Bernard Mitchell says the divinity of our task   

We are now  being asked to step into i, .to step consciously and intentionally into leadership. 

We collaborate internally and externally to create the best possible future for our world.

Open mind, open heart and open will. 

This idea raises the sense of loss – What am I being asked to give up and of course what will others gain. 

Yet for us to move ahead our companies, just as our our countries, can no longer be seen as operating in isolation. .  On this blank canvas we are invited to co-create with others, co-inspire others and be what is missing in our wider systems.

Many of us work and rely on organisations on a daily basis, therefore organisations are the perfect place from which change begins. 

Our leaders are men and women of influence who can intentionally create better lives for the persons who work with them, 

Your leadership can determine the way ahead for families for communities for organisations and for countries,

Think  about it – What is the best possible future for your organisation?

My intention is to fuel your leadership spark so that together we can bring change to the systems that we live in.