Leadership

What do you want from new leadership?

Taura Khuluma Say it!!, , , , Leave a comment

I have just read a blog from one of my workmates, as part of a vast empire that is as vast as the commonwealth we are getting ready to welcome a new leader. We are n old organisation and some parts of us have failed to evolve with the changing times in the orginsation and this blog has captured the frustraton of working with systems that are our of sync with the norms of today. Here are the five attributes they would like from the incoming leader,

1) Compassion

We are entering a time of devastation. Our lives and businesses will be strictly defined by the world’s biggest problems that have grown beyond our control. Our next leader will have to be extra sensitive to the ‘real’ and ‘big’ problems growing around us and have the heart to re-evaluate our cultural priorities. The rules of building trust and understanding between people are changing. He or she will have to write a few of them.

2) Sense of urgency

Our next leader will have to find a way to turn this ‘Oil Tanker’ or ‘Dinosaur’ (pick your choice) much much faster. We are several generations behind in our technology. We can’t afford to build massive products that take years to deploy. Our internal decision making processes need to allow us to act faster. He or she will have to act fast, fail fast and learn fast.

3) Disruptive thinking

Our next CEO will have to be a big risk taker. We have to admit that some of our current business models are failing and will be irrelevant within the next decade. He or she will have to do strategic planning for much longer than five years, and make radical changes which may affect our short term gains, but will make us relevant and successful in the next 50 years. He or she should be ready to make a few enemies.

4) Tech Evangelist

If he or she doesn’t have at least 1,000 twitter followers, I will be disappointed. If he or she is not a LinkedIn influencer, I’ll cry. If he or she uses a BlackBerry, I’ll probably resign. Our next leader must be able to not just use technology, but use it to engage with his or her staff, his customers and future customers one-to-one on a daily-basis.

5) Unifier

Our next front face will have to somehow find a way to unify our scattered organisation. He or she will have to find a way to bring his or her people – from around the world, stuck in different departments, working in their silos – together and harmonize our global offer. He or she must be able to see beyond the limits of geography and act as a global thinker, a world problem solver.

The next generation cultural leaders are not made from the old political ‘ambassador’ mould. The emerging cultural icons are the young and dynamic mavericks who engage with billions of people on a daily basis making extraordinary connections between people from the far corners of the world.

the frustration is not with outgoing eadership but they wish for the new leadership to look at the current state of the organisation, its customers’  and employees’ needs in order to shape their leadership for the next five years. Coming from a country where there are questions about the state of leadership I started wondering if people could make up their list of 5 attributes in the next leadership, what would they be?

Defining customers service in Africa; route towards improvement in customer service

Taura Khuluma Say it!!, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Being a regular visitor to Africa in the last 11 months I have experienced varying degrees of customer service quality and concluded that getting “good” quality customer service is still a far fetched dream in almost all service encounters.

A few other travelling colleagues have been discussing how we could drive Africa towards universal good customers service as some research has identified Africa as a future destination for western companies looking to outsource customer service functions to African countries. There are several implications to finding a solution to customer service delivery in Africa, first of which is creating better experiences for customers and improving customer retention. Secondly if Africa is to realise the potential expressed in the above research referred then we need to have a marketable product by ensuring that every customer encounter with service delivery is positive, because you never know who your next customer might be.

It is my opinion that the process of improving African customer service provision must start with developing a clear understanding of how customer service is perceived in the Africa context. The lack of resources, imbalance between demand and supplier in many service encounters means that the supplier usually has an upper hand in most encounters thus removing the obligation on their part to be good to the customer who is dependent on them. This is in total contrast to environments where supply outstrips demand and so companies’ service provision is obliged to treat the customer as “king” in order to retain their custom. This reality of the service encounter in Africa reduces the customers’ bargaining power and potential to switch to an alternative source for either product or service. In the end the African customer feels obliged to accept sub standard customer service as a means to an end.

African private enterprise has substantially better service delivery than public service especially government services like passport offices, registration of births and deaths, medical service and any other essential services that a customer might expect from the government. Perhaps customer service personnel in public service offices do not even regard the people they serve as customers, which then removes the need for “good” customer service. Private enterprise on the other hand recognises the relationship it has with the people they service but greater demand than supplier reduces the impetus to provide “good” customer service.

My conclusion is that there is need for cultural re-orientation to get the customer to demand “good” customer service and service providers from both public and private sectors to view customers as opportunities to create relationships that will continue positively beyond each service encounter. This change will require leadership in both private and public sectors, training and adoption of clearly defined performance parameters supported by systematic evaluation. But the starting point must be a review and analysis of prevailing perceptions of “good” customer service to the provider and customer in Africa.

Leadership; the charisma conundrum

Taura Khuluma Say it!!, , , , , Leave a comment

Barack Obama, Bill Clinton even Adolf Hitler and Idi Amin are all revered as charismatic leaders albeit for different reasons but commentators do not find it easy to call a woman leader “charismatic”, why not not? Is this another male only domain where women can not get membership? Why can’t a woman leader be charismatic, what about Maggie Thatcher, Benazir Bhutto were they not charismatic in their time as leaders? Condoleza Rice, Hilary Clinton, Oprah Winfrey are all very powerful women of our generation doing great things for the advancement of women and the perception of their leadership but none are considered charismatic by mediacommentators. Sarah Palin is considered less endowed in leadership qualities but she captured the imagination of millions of Americans and revitalised the McCain campaign yet she is not considered charismatic! Why? comments please!!!