The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated - William James

It was true when we were children, when we were teenagers, in our twenties, thirties and forties … and it is still true today: Whatever our age, we want to feel appreciated – it will be so until the day we die. There is nothing that can give us back that spark and energy to face the rest of the day or week, like a sincere word of appreciation. There is nothing that can change our attitude in an instant, like a surprising word of appreciation. There is nothing that can calm us down when we are on the attack, like a word of appreciation. There is nothing that can help us to appreciate other people, like when we receive a word of appreciation ourselves. Appreciation comes in all kinds: ‘Thank you for helping me out when I was in trouble’; ‘Thank you for being there for me’; ‘Thank you for understanding’; ‘Thank you for letting me feel valued’; ‘Thank you for your cooperation’; ‘Thank you for being the person you are’; ‘You made a difference to my life’; ‘You’ve done a great job here’.

The fact that we all have this ‘craving to be appreciated’, leads to potentially two different outcomes in the workplace. If the general feeling is that we are not appreciated at work, we tend to become more and more self centered. Whether you are the boss or a subordinate, if you don’t feel appreciated for your efforts, contributions, hard work and commitment, your thoughts begin to centre around yourself rather than the vision or purpose of the organisation, the role you can play, and other people’s needs. Your thoughts probably go in the direction of ‘what is it that keeps me here’. In the false hope that financial compensation will make up for the lack of people’s appreciation you try to motivate yourself with the security argument or thoughts of financial reward that still might come your way. In the meantime, you will simply go through the motions and try to keep your expectations of work enjoyment and sense of significance as low as possible.

The other possibility is that the work environment is one where in general people do feel appreciated - for their work as well as for the value of the relationships that they have with each other. People in such an environment snowball in a different direction - away from self centeredness to other centeredness: ‘What can I do to make the new member of our organisation feel more welcome?’; ‘What can I do to assist an overstressed colleague?’; ‘What can I do to improve our work processes?’; What can I do to let those who feel marginalised feel valued and appreciated?

We all know which of the two environments we would like to work in. What is the key to a positive work environment of appreciation? Leadership behaviour and leadership attitude. In simple terms it is to take the lead in showing appreciation rather than waiting for it. Our biggest obstacle in doing so is when we find it hard to appreciate ourselves. Hand in hand with appreciating ourselves is the ability to forgive ourselves and to get rid of the false belief that successful people never fail.

The following words of guidance (taken from The Seasoned Campaigner) can help you develop the right perspective on your own disappointments and sense of failure and put you in the positive frame of mind that will make you appreciate other people:

‘The vast majority of highly successful people didn’t just fail once; they failed countless times before they achieved success. Where they differ from everyone else is that after every failure they sit back and asked themselves what they needed to adjust/tweak/change with the next attempt – they know that, in order to develop, grow, and become successful, they have to experience failure.
No matter how many mistakes they make, high achievers never let their mistakes devalue their worth as a person because they recognise the fact that God uses people who fail – there just isn’t any other kind of person around! In their walk through the difficulties they encountered on their road to success every high achiever cultivated seven abilities that were responsible for giving them the ability to stand up, dust themselves off, and keep on running. These are the seven:
1. Reject Rejection: They never berate themselves for failure. They keep their self-worth intact because they don’t base their self-worth on any one performance in isolation. Their internal system never allows them to say “I’m a failure” – it only permits them to say “I missed that one” or “I made a mistake”. If you blame yourself when you fail you condition yourself into believing that you are worthless or talentless. Yes, you have to take responsibility for your actions and failures but you don’t have to take failure personally.
2. See Adversity as a Valuable Teacher: Successful people see any predicament as merely a temporary condition and not as a hole in which they are stuck forever. They have the confidence in themselves and in their abilities to know that setbacks happen and that their response to any setback is far more important than the setback itself. They are on the constant lookout for knowledge and know that this is often buried in adversity, so they are not afraid to confront adversity because they discard the baggage adversity brings and carry the diamonds they found buried under it in their pockets – and just keep on walking.
3. See Failures as Isolated Incidents: When high achievers fail they see the failure as a momentary event, not as a lifelong epidemic – it’s not personal – just the wrong move at the wrong time. They never let any single incident colour the view they hold of themselves.
4. Keep Expectations Realistic: The greater the objective you want to achieve, the greater the mental preparation required for overcoming the obstacles that you will encounter. You have to develop a dogged determination to “stay the course until the race is finished”. It takes time, effort, and ability to overcome setbacks, so why set yourself up for a painful experience with unrealistic expectations. High achievers approach each day with reasonable expectations in the knowledge that they can only take one step at a time. In this way they prevent their feelings getting hurt when things don’t turn out perfectly, and they are also able to take corrective action with the next small step they are about to take.
5. Focus on Strengths: High achievers always focus on their strengths. There are just a few things they do extraordinary well, so well in fact that they would never dream of hiring anyone to do them. There are many things that they do better than most – so they keep on doing them. Everything else – things they are not good at doing, or even hopeless at doing – they get other people to do for them. Winners concentrate at all times on what they can do, not on what they can’t do. If a weakness is a matter of character you need to devote a lot of attention to fixing it but if not, there are many people who have as strengths precisely those aspects you are weak in – find those people and team up with them!
6. Vary Approaches to Achievement: High achievers keep trying and changing until they find something that works for them. They are not afraid to push themselves to the limit because they have conditioned themselves into being highly adaptable to any set of circumstance. They vary their approaches to problems merely to find out what works best. They treat every setback as an opportunity to discover something new about themselves and about the environment in which they operate.
7. Bounce Back: All successful people have one thing in common – the ability to bounce back after an error, mistake, or failure. They view life as a series of outcomes. When the outcome was what they wanted, they figured out what they did right. When the outcome was not what they wanted, they figured out what they did so that they could avoid making the same move into the future. The ability to bounce back lives in your attitude towards the outcome.
High achievers are able to keep moving forward no matter what happens because they know that failure does not make them a failure. They know that the only time they fail as a person is when they give up and walk away.
Each of the above techniques is embodied in the attitudes of highly effective people – people who are simultaneously high achievers. This was not some special gift they were born with because no amount of talent will equip you with the ability to just shrug off abject disappointment, frustration and loss. Every one of these people learned how to fail forward and formed habits of effectiveness in the process.’

I wish you warm feelings of appreciation and warm feelings of showing others your appreciation for the cold month of June.

Best regards

We don’t see things the way they are, we see them the way we are – Anais Nin It is never too late to give up your prejudices - Henry David Thoreau

This is such a profound truth! The power of transformation, a better society and a better life is not external to us, but is in our minds. It is also in a way disturbing because if our thoughts about people, work and life in general are mostly negative, it is because we are mostly negative. We live with a negative attitude and outlook. Once we accept the statement by Anais Nin as true, and we keep it in mind, it suddenly becomes a lot more difficult to join the ‘they’ choir. Those who are used to singing the ‘they’ song fill their thoughts with all the reasons why other people are responsible for what is bad in society. They get used to judge people and they constantly feed their negative views with more and more examples. Let’s be honest, we all fall into this trap from time to time. It is a trap because we unknowingly impede our own development and growth. Instead of focusing on things we can do we focus on things others should do.

While disappointment is human and an acceptable emotion, the thought of judgment we tend to couple with the emotion obscures our view of what a constructive response could be: for example to encourage or offer support.

So, I offer you and those you can influence with it, the following as food for positive thought:

• Our happiness has nothing to do with what we have achieved, what we have acquired, where we are, or where we are going. It has everything to do with the thoughts we feed our mind. Can we be happy and suffer at the same time? I believe so. Not by trying to be superficial or super human. But if we choose to see our blessings and put our trust in God for what we cannot control, we can find contentment and happiness (at a deeper level) even in times of distress or pain. Point is, our thoughts can remain positive.

• Remember that you are what you think! If you radically change your thoughts for the better, you will radically change your life for the better. The situations and material conditions you attract in life are a result of the thoughts you harbour. Choose to think only positive thoughts and in so doing promote a positive state of mind. Choose also to banish negative thoughts and states of fear, depression and worry, which can only limit your life.

• Beyond a shadow of a doubt, the power of thoughts can transform and enrich all lives. Just think about the change you experience when a positive person is in your presence. In the same way you can change other people’s emotions by bringing your positive thoughts, attitude and body language to their presence.

• You must believe that there are no limits to your potential other than those you set for yourself. Believe in yourself and you will astound yourself with your capabilities. If you believe you can, you are correct. If you believe you can’t, you are correct. It is a fact that you become like the person you think and believe you are. Remember, “Sooner or later the man that wins is the man that thinks he can.”

• Rediscover the child within you. That child who knows no fear, no worries, no limitations, and has a healthy appetite for life and the challenges it has to offer.

• You must realise that there is only one way to make the best of the future, and that is to put the past behind you – make the best of today. Don’t wait for age, a stage in your life, or a dream to come true to really live – live now and enjoy this moment, this hour, and every day of your life. ‘Today’ will never dawn again. ‘Today’ is a precious gift that can slip away with alarming speed. Wasted, it will eat a chunk out of your life, but lived well, it will fulfill your life and make it whole.

• Know what you want from life. Know what you want to put back into life. Develop your vision for your life and set the goals to achieve that vision. Successful goal setting will help you to design a life of which you have always dreamed. Goal setting programmes can only show you how – the rest is up to you!

A man’s mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild; but whether cultivated or neglected, it must and will bring forth. If no useful seeds are put into it, then an abundance of useless weed-seed will fall therein and will continue to produce its kind - James Lane Allen.

‘They’ – that’s the good use of ‘they’ – say that internal misjudgements are six times more likely to cause business failure than external factors. Focusing on and investing in the development of our minds seems therefore the obvious thing to do. Yet, sadly we tend to value only what we see as tangible and pay the price for poor attitudes and negative or low quality thoughts.

I wish you a month full of positive thoughts and developments. If you think it’s time for us to meet again, please let me know.

Best wishes

I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: The ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve - Albert Schweitzer

Do you agree with Albert Schweitzer? To what extent is this true for you? If you think about it, it is hard to imagine an unhappy person saying he is so unhappy because he can’t serve anyone. When we are unhappy we tend to feel we are deprived in some way or another and deserve more and better. We then feel that we are not served well by life in general, by our family, by our work, our society, our country or even by God. To follow Schweitzer’s advice will be to reverse our thinking about what is needed for happiness: Not how well we are served, but how well we serve. So let’s see what this would mean.

Firstly, I believe Schweitzer is not suggesting that we choose to serve others in order to find happiness. Rather, it is a case of what we see as our destiny. Does our life have a purpose? If so, what is it? Is it fundamentally about what we can do to advance ourselves or is it something else and is service part of it? As you know, the rare experiences we have of another person that truly served us, are marked by the fact that it was authentic. It is hard, if possible at all, to fake service. I think we can sense if people do something in the name of service while they actually feel they don’t have much of an option – it’s their duty or it’s in their own interest. The ‘will’ factor, the main concern, always comes through - even in the business world where we get used to the fact that any form of service usually has a price. The idea that life can be reduced to a series of transactions is a false one. We are intensely aware of the underlying motives in the way we interact and we are intensely aware of it’s meaning or lack of meaning. So, the first point is that serving others implies authenticity and therefore is an outcome of a belief about the purpose of life. It is not about performance and reward.

Secondly, the kind of service that Schweitzer believes brings happiness to the servant, is something unique to the individual. It is like our thumbprint. We do not have the same talents, the same opportunities in life or the same set of life experiences. The combination of these things gives us an ability to serve in a unique way and with a unique quality. The closer we get to our thumbprint service the higher the quality and the satisfaction we get from it. This again means that only I can take responsibility for it and only I can design the nature and way I live as a servant. As I grow in life experience, knowledge and wisdom, the design will change as well. It evolves as my personal vision. But then we also have to add: Schweitzer’s words ‘sought and found how to serve’ include sacrifice, commitment and hard work.

Where does our profession or career fit in to the design of our lives as servants? For many people, the lack of alignment they experience is a huge source of their unhappiness. It can relate to their choice of career or it can get confused with what they experience in a particular environment. There’s no easy answer to what we should do when we cannot see how we can offer our thumbprint service at our work. At least we need to ask ourselves:

• Is what I want to do and see as my best service offering incompatible with my current work?
• Are the obstacles that I see really obstacles or perhaps only my perception and untested views of it?
• How much of my thumbprint service offering can still be realised outside of my formal work - and is therefore not blocked by it?
• Am I overlooking a need at work that I can meet with my capabilities?
• In absence of recognition or reward, do I tend to underestimate the value of my service?

One last aspect of living as a servant – I cannot see that it can lead to hurting those closest to you. Rather, we foster and grow the attitude and behaviour of a servant within our inner circle. As it works with successful relationships, there will be times when we sacrifice some part of our own will for the time being and in the interest of our loved ones. What we can offer the world as servants is not only the making of our own visions, efforts and hard work but includes the roles others, particularly our loved ones, play in our lives. Happiness, after all, is not happiness if we cannot share it with others.

As I’m sure you know already, I firmly believe that good leadership is also servant leadership. I therefore would like to encourage you to find your own answers to the aspects of servanthood that I rose.

Sharing these thoughts with you, is my own attempt to serve you.

Enjoy the month of April. How nice will it be if we can celebrate a World Cup victory!

Best wishes

We lead by being human. We do not lead by being corporate, by being professional or by being institutional - Paul Hawken

Organisations, much like human beings, typically grow from courtship and infancy stages to bureaucracy and later death:

Courtship: Emphasis is on ideas and the possibilities the future offers. The would-be founder is working hardest on trying to convince himself that his idea will be a successful one. He works on building commitment.

Infancy: The focus shifts from ideas and possibilities to the production of results. The company is product orientated and needs to sell, sell, sell. There are few systems, rules or policies.

Child (wild years): the company is not only surviving, it is flourishing. The sales orientation is addictive and more means better. Arrogance and lack of focus is a real possibility.

Adolescence: Conflict and inconsistency become characteristic. Authority has to be delegated. The change is from entrepreneurship to professional management. The challenge is to work smarter.

Prime: The organisation is led by a message – a vision of its reason for being. The people believe that what they are doing is important. They know the what, why and how. Decision-making is not dominated by an individual or a small group. There are institutionalised processes of governance. The danger is complacency, risk avoidance and order for the sake of order.

Aristocracy: People want less conflict and less change. An ‘old buddy’ network emerges. There is a steadily increase in distance between the organisation and its clients. There are reduced expectations of growth. The focus is on past achievements rather than future visions. Formal dress, address and tradition are valued.

Bureaucracy and death: Problems get personalised. Paranoia freezes the organisation. Internal turf wars absorb everyone. Nobody has time to deal with the needs of customers. Many systems serve little functional purpose. Eventually lack of resources to reward members for working means death of the organisation.
(See Managing Corporate Lifecycles by Ichak Adizes)

The different stages in the cycle present leaders with different challenges. As much as we, as leaders, try to influence others, we are also influenced by them and collectively by the organisations we work for. The demands and dynamics of the organisation in various stages can however influence us to adapt a style of behaviour that is inconsistent with who we really are. For instance an aggressive, arrogant and authoritarian person in the adolescent stage of the organisation. Or a formal and withdrawn person in the aristocratic or bureaucratic stages. It is easy to build perceptions about what is required in a corporate culture or what it means to be professional. We form ideas about what the political correct way in those environments is. The question is when do we become inauthentic? When are we led more by our perceptions of the kind of persons we ought to be at work, rather than what we really believe in. At what point do we start behaving in ways that our family members, for instance, would find disconcerting and inconsistent with our character? How much damage do we do to ourselves and others before we reach the point when we might ask ourselves with shock: Was that really me who said that or entertained that thought? How did I become such a person?

It is in this context that I believe that Paul Hawken reminds us of a wonderful truth: We lead by being human. We do not lead by being corporate, by being professional or by being institutional. Being human means that we are imperfect. It means that we often wonder about life … and about death. We often doubt. We get hurt by what others say or do, or didn’t say or do. We need to feel loved and appreciated. We feel alone. We do feel pressure and we can feel lack of meaning or significance. We cannot always explain our feelings. We have personal dreams and desires.

If we try to hide our human side to our fellow workers or those we lead, it is to the detriment of our leadership effectiveness. By trying to hide it from others we simultaneously send out the message that we expect others to do the same. The implicit message is we do not care about and are not interested in our fellow workers. Our only concern is the work they have or haven’t done. Am I saying that leaders should have a daily session where they inform everyone about their emotions and personal struggles or joys? No. I do say however that to lead and to be human is not a contradiction. Leaders should be comfortable with their own vulnerability and willing to share those feelings in the right context. They also should have and demonstrate a real interest in the fundamental human concerns of other people at work.

African Renaissance

Did you know that …?

In traditional African culture the chief is not untouchable but accountable to his followers? There is an African proverb saying: ‘The boat shows respect for the water, just as the water shows respect for the boat’ This demands that superiors and inferiors display mutual respect. Another proverb says: ‘When the river roars, rocks and stones are hidden in it.’ This means that the chief can be angry only because he has inferiors - without these, he would have no kind of rank and dignity. He in turn must show respect in his dealings with the inferiors who are entrusted to his care; and in fact he can be deposed by them.

Best wishes for the month of March.

Regards

The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands. Robert M. Pirsig

As we progress into the second month of 2007, the terrible crime situation in our wonderful country is on everybody’s mind. The news about more and more killings and violence we hear and read about daily is overwhelming and discouraging, to say the least. How do you process the wave of information and negative experiences when people share stories and views about crime in SA? To what extent does this current situation impact the vision and goals you have for your organisation? And your family?

Our reactions probably vary from feeling aggressive and angry, ready to take matters in our own hands, to feeling disempowered and defeated. What is clear is that the problem we face as a nation is a big one. A problem that exists at various levels of our society and won’t be solved simply by jailing as many criminals as possible in the shortest time possible. I am not going to try and analyse the problem (I do believe there are many signs that point to widespread moral degeneration), but I would like to suggest that if we can only point fingers and join the bandwagon of negativity, things will only get worse. Nothing happens without personal transformation. In this regard I’d like to share with you the ideas of the Seasoned Campaigner about successful people (people who refuse to be intimidated by negative environments):

• Successful People are a little Crazy: The ‘craziness’ doesn’t manifest itself in the form of mental illness, but commonly takes the form of unconventional thinking - a rejection of traditional beliefs, a lack of concern for what others might think, and the confidence to take on ambitious projects from which more ‘sane’ people would shy away. These high achievers are poised between average people and true psychotics, possessing just the right amount of ‘weirdness’. They are strange enough to come up with odd ideas, and then to pursue those ideas no matter what the rest of the world says, yet they are not that outlandish that they lose all contact with reality. Mavericity, the property of making unusual associations in ideas, of doing the unexpected is a hallmark trait of successful people!
Think differently from the crowd!

• Successful People are Overly Optimistic (as seen by others): Highly successful people tend to be less accurate in their perceptions of themselves and the world around them. They tend to disseminate positive information about themselves while suppressing negative information, constantly casting themselves in a positive light.
Have at least twice as many positive thoughts as negative ones!

• Successful People are Flexible Thinkers: Research confirms that flexible thinking is a prerequisite for creative thinking - something our ancestors knew instinctively. In situations requiring group decision-making, flexibility is often induced by assigning one individual to the role of ‘devil’s advocate’, repeatedly questioning the assumptions of the group, and constructively pointing out possibilities contrary to those being considered - the objective is to make more effective decisions. Successful people are on the continual alert to ensure that their self-talk is geared toward constructive settlement of the debates that continuously rage in their heads. They consider various options, always examining both the downside and the upside of every option, whilst never allowing themselves to become ensnared by procrastination. They will always devise three or four strategies to achieve a given objective, with tactics aligned to each, so as to give themselves situational as well as mental flexibility. They never allow themselves to become bored and will always find the opportunity buried within every problem.

Always examine both sides of the coin and don’t restrict yourself to just one option.

• Successful People look to Mentors and Role Models: Trial and error is an extremely inefficient way to learn life lessons simply because the learning always precedes the lesson. Successful people prefer to learn from others such as mentors and role models. Successful people are adept at combining unusual ideas in unique ways, and combining several role models can be an effective strategy for ensuring that you become an innovator, not an imitator – creative combinations can lead to new insights. Running with this learning technique, it is important to understand that by having a sophisticated, multi-dimensional self-concept enables people to deal with negative or potentially stressful events more easily.
Identify people (both current and historical) you admire and make it your business to ‘mine’ for their ‘secrets’.

• Successful people Take Risks: Uncommon accomplishment requires uncommon ambition – only those who are prepared to pay the price of failure can expect to enjoy the sweet taste of success. No highly successful person was ever risk averse! In fact, great leaders typically earn greatness by making bold decisions in difficult times – times of great risk. This is not a “throw-caution-to-the-wing” type of risk, which is essentially just foolhardiness, but rather recognition that life often involves a risk-reward tradeoff and a willingness to take high risk for the potential of high rewards. There is a strong correlation between your willingness to take financial risk and your level of wealth – it is less about investing in the stock market and much more about investing in yourself, your career, your professional practice, your business … investments in improving your personal product! In order to accumulate you have to be prepared to speculate!
No risk … no gain! Identify the price you are going to have to pay to achieve what you want to achieve, and if you are prepared to pay that price, commit yourself without compromise!

• Successful People Ask Questions: Socrates, the great Greek philosopher, taught his students not by giving answers, but by asking questions. Rather than categorising their answers as right or wrong, he asked even more questions, continually pushing them to think more deeply and question their own assumptions. This method of teaching is to this day used extensively in law schools, and the most effective salespeople have mastered the technique of asking the right questions in order to uncover the needs and desires of their prospects. The ability to ask the right question is more than half the battle of finding the right answer, and successful people habitually ask questions. These questions are not in any way threatening or directive (“Don’t you agree?”), they are the types of questions that facilitate communication (“What issues do we have to focus on?” or “Can you help me understand?”). Obviously you have to know when to stop asking questions and start taking action!
People always feel compelled to answer questions – always ask questions that will force people to think deeply. Your reward is greater clarity as to your direction, your strategy for getting there, the tactics you need to deploy and, most important of all, your supporters.


African Renaissance

Dr William F. Kumuyi from Lagos, Nigeria wrote an article about leadership in Africa that I agree with wholeheartedly. I only quote his introductory paragraphs:

Just any leader won’t solve Africa’s problems. The leaders that the continent needs are people who understand its problems and will sincerely employ leadership to solve them. The leader and his turf must match. Thus, who is good for Europe may not be so good for Africa.

In my last column, I stressed the dearth of leaders in Africa and argued that the acute shortage is responsible for the continent’s unmitigated misery. I stated that if Africa were furnished with competent leaders, the continent would leap from the depth of despair to the apex of affluence.

Now, granted Africa’s need for leaders, we should characterise the type of leaders that the continent needs. Just any leader won’t solve Africa’s problems. The leaders that the continent needs are people who understand its problems and will sincerely employ leadership to solve them. For leadership is contextual activity; its rules and principles are context-sensitive such that a leader moved from one place to another may not find his bearing on arrival unless he can adjust and fit in.
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So what type of leaders does Africa need? ANSWER: LEADERS WHO UNDERSTAND AFRICA’S PROBLEMS AND CAN APPLY THEIR PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES AND PROFESSIONAL SKILLS TO SOLVE THEM. THEY DON’T HAVE TO BE BLACK, HOME-GROWN, ANTI-WESTERN RADICALS. HUMAN PROBLEMS DON’T RESPOND TO SHEER ETHNIC AND COLOUR BARS. AFRICA’S LEADERS ARE PEOPLE WHO CAN MAKE LEADERSHIP LOCK ON TO THE CONTINENT’S ACHES AND CURE THEM ALL.

Let us apply ourselves to the unlocking of our individual and collective potential as Africans. I would like to be your partner in doing so.

Best wishes for the month of February.

Regards

Defining yourself (South Africa) and staying in touch with others (global community)

Much of life can be described as the challenge to balance the need to be separate with the need to be close. We need to be separate (to be alone, to stand on our own two feet) and to be close (to be together, to stand hand-in-hand). The two forces are in tension and they produce feelings of anxiety. The art of living good, productive and satisfying lives in many ways has to do with the art of facing the two forces and managing the anxiety of being in between well. It is true for individual human beings but it is also true for communities, societies, nations and even regions of the world.

People are different but so are communities, societies, nations and even regions of the world. The way we differentiate ourselves from others is visible (apart from physical features) in our preferred language, our culture, customs and habits. At a deeper and psychological level we find interesting patterns of thought and preferences. Carl Jung developed the theory about four primary modes of experiencing the world (thinking, feeling, sensing and intuiting). Studies of the brain helped us to understand its four-fold nature: the left brain control logical processes (thinking), the right brain is more metaphorical in orientation (intuiting), the cerebral cortex is concept oriented (sensing) and the limbic brain is emotionally centred (feeling).

As we grow up as teenagers and young adults we develop our preferences in terms of experiencing the world and work more consciously on defining our identity. Again, it can also be said of the way nations develop and grow. South Africa, it has to be said, is a young nation. How young? As a democracy we have to say only 12 years. In the mix are the identities of various peoples. But as a new democracy and nation it is early days for the formation of an identity. How will South Africa differentiate herself? One way of doing it is to say we are not from the North, the West or the East. Ronnie Lessem in his book The Four Worlds builds on Jung’s model to show that the world broadly has four cultural forms. It can be described in a number of ways. One is -

The North represents the belief: I am because I think I am (Jung’s thinking)
The East the belief: I am because I renew/recreate (intuiting)
The West the belief: I am because I do (sensing)
The South the belief: I am because we are – ubuntu (feeling)


Clearly, no one value is more important than the other. Rather, in building our organisations, our communities and societies, we look for and learn from the scientific and analytical contributions from the North, the innovation and process perfection from the East, the practicism and value creation from the West and the humanism and sense of community from the South (The contribution from the South can further be described as a powerful sense of the past and a profound feeling for community; organisation is a story involving people and events; a sense of rootedness of belonging to the soil).
If the North values conservation, the East values catalyzation, the West competition and the South co-creation. To quote one more of Lessem’s descriptions of types that fit the cultures of the four regions, the managerial types would be the Herder manager for the North, the Gardener manager for the East, the Hunter manager for the West and the Steward manager for the South.

As South Africans and a very young democracy, we need to both define ourselves and embrace our cultural strength as a Southern region, and stay in touch with others (particularly in the 21st global village) by learning from the strengths of others. While we might be stronger in one particular area of human existence, we latently have the same potential to reason with the North, innovate with the East and compete with the West. In the process of building this new South Africa we clearly experience a lot of anxiety and uncertainty about our future. In leadership I believe that, similar to the way we raise our children, we need to lay strong foundations of identity (as we know and understand it today as Africans – irrespective of race - and not as Europeans) and allow for the evolvement of that identity as we eagerly learn more of the world we live in. As leaders we give direction, not only to be more successful, more competent and more prosperous, but also to build and leave a legacy of civilization, social and spiritual well-being for our children and their children.

African Renaissance

Mo Ibrahim, former CEO of Celtel, offers a $5m prize for Africa's most effective head of state. With over 10 million customers and sold for $3.4 billion last year, Mo (a former Egyptian) said at a World Bank conference earlier this year that Celtel is is living proof that you can do clean business successfully in Africa. The company’s overriding vision is ‘Making Life Better’. The award will go to African heads of state who deliver security, health, education and economic development to their constituents. In an interview with the Financial Times newspaper, Mr Ibrahim, 60, said leaders had no life after office.
"Suddenly all the mansions, cars, food, wine is withdrawn. Some find it difficult to rent a house in the capital. That incites corruption; it incites people to cling to power. The prize will offer essentially good people, who may be wavering, the chance to opt for the good life after office," said Mr Ibrahim.

Whether this initiative will improve leadership and governance in Africa is an open question. However, I regard it as a good news African Renaissance story.

I trust you will enjoy a ‘good news’ November. End of November/December is a good time to consider your leadership plan for 2007. Since I’m not going anywhere during this time I would enjoy meeting with you and discuss future plans of development – just send me an email. Take a moment and visit my upgraded website www.neweraleadership.co.za.

Regards

Time for reflection. A life unexamined is not worth living - Socrates

My recent vacation in Italy has been a wonderful experience in more ways than one. The combination of beautiful landscapes, art, lovely food and wine, centuries and centuries of history and then modern living in between was also in a way overwhelming. As much as one can try to get a grip on the history and cultures of the Middle Ages and before, you realise that you can only scratch the surface… and then go back wondering about life, time, planet earth, the universe and how you fit into all of it. Since life is full of mystery, even in this age of science, information and technology, we all become philosophers (in search of wisdom) at times - perhaps more so now than ever before since the more we think we know the more we realise how much we don’t know! One area of our thinking is often that of significance. I think most people believe there is something like eternity and that you don’t stop existing after death. I then often wonder: if our lives (let’s say 70 – 90 years) as we know it hear on earth is so very very short in comparison to eternity, does it mean that it is also insignificant in comparison to eternity? Or does it mean that it is precisely for that reason very, very significant – that we only have so many seconds to experience this life and then there is eternity (whatever conception we have of it)? You could probably argue that my question is an example of typical Western (linear) thinking. You could also say it is one of the many paradoxes that make life so interesting – but then so many things that we may think of as only interesting could in fact be very important in the context of eternity! Enough of that … maybe I’ve given you something to chew on in December - the month many people reflect on and contemplate things they would not in the rest of the year.

On my return I felt sympathy with the traveling South African CEO in particular and leaders in general. Being exposed to very different worlds in the North, East and West, I can imagine how hard it is to re-orientate in a day or two’s time to the realities we have to deal with in a hectic business environment – not to mention the effects of jet lag. Physical distance from the office usually presents the opportunity to get better sight of the ‘big picture’. But as we return we might already be aware of and fear the very good possibility that all the benefits of that better vision will disappear very quickly in the sea of day to day realities we need to deal with back at the office. I can imagine that the CEO on his return flight might be thinking –

· How can I get people, my team in particular, to see the big picture and the need for change? Some really need a wake-up call. Some, I suspect, pay lip-service to the organisation and are only motivated by their own agendas. People whose main concern is to protect their comfort zones or little empires can drain one’s emotional energy in a second.

· I’m tired of crisis management, but the reality is that there could very well be one waiting for me on my first day back at the office.

· We’ve been so busy this year … which I suppose is a good thing. But were we busy for the right reasons, doing the right things? Is it possible to be true to oneself, one’s dreams, beliefs, values and uniqueness and stay in business?

· I feel sooo RESPONSIBLE for everything. Should I relax more … but then who will think about our next step? The moment I take my foot of the pedal, everyone always seems to freeze with a question mark on their faces.


And then of course I assume no crisis at home and only loving support. As you know, we can be surrounded by friends and colleagues and remain very lonely when we wake up day after day with the weight of being responsible for so many things we can’t really control. Do you have someone outside of your work environment with the necessary level of understanding of your challenges that you can trust and respect and at least share some of the emotions and thoughts that I have described?


My sympathy/empathy with leaders in general grows when I think about the pains of transformation in our society. The challenge to find and build enough unity and common purpose amongst people, who in many respects have different worldviews coming from their different cultures, is a huge one. (A recently published book by BJ van der Walt with the title: When African and Western cultures meet, from confrontation to appreciation, grapples with this challenge). 12 years into our democratic dispensation and one has to say that there is a lot of disillusionment. I believe that people of all different backgrounds will tolerate most of the problems we experience in the country, if they could only have the confidence that those people who are in leadership positions (all different levels and all different spheres) are morally strong, humble and committed to serve others. Therefore, if a person can make any contribution towards establishing that trust, he/she is indeed doing something very meaningful and significant for a future South Africa. By raising the bar for myself I also raise the bar for others.


So, that was my word of inspiration, encouragement and appreciation in my last communication of the year. May God bless you, your loved ones, our country and our Africa. May you enjoy a wonderful, peaceful and joyous Christmas time.



If you’d like to meet for a coffee and a chat in December, let us do so (if you are in Johannesburg/Pretoria). Send me an email.

Defining yourself (South Africa) and staying in touch with others (global community)

Much of life can be described as the challenge to balance the need to be separate with the need to be close. We need to be separate (to be alone, to stand on our own two feet) and to be close (to be together, to stand hand-in-hand). The two forces are in tension and they produce feelings of anxiety. The art of living good, productive and satisfying lives in many ways has to do with the art of facing the two forces and managing the anxiety of being in between well. It is true for individual human beings but it is also true for communities, societies, nations and even regions of the world.

People are different but so are communities, societies, nations and even regions of the world. The way we differentiate ourselves from others is visible (apart from physical features) in our preferred language, our culture, customs and habits. At a deeper and psychological level we find interesting patterns of thought and preferences. Carl Jung developed the theory about four primary modes of experiencing the world (thinking, feeling, sensing and intuiting). Studies of the brain helped us to understand its four-fold nature: the left brain control logical processes (thinking), the right brain is more metaphorical in orientation (intuiting), the cerebral cortex is concept oriented (sensing) and the limbic brain is emotionally centred (feeling).

As we grow up as teenagers and young adults we develop our preferences in terms of experiencing the world and work more consciously on defining our identity. Again, it can also be said of the way nations develop and grow. South Africa, it has to be said, is a young nation. How young? As a democracy we have to say only 12 years. In the mix are the identities of various peoples. But as a new democracy and nation it is early days for the formation of an identity. How will South Africa differentiate herself? One way of doing it is to say we are not from the North, the West or the East. Ronnie Lessem in his book The Four Worlds builds on Jung’s model to show that the world broadly has four cultural forms. It can be described in a number of ways. One is -

The North represents the belief: I am because I think I am (Jung’s thinking)

The East the belief: I am because I renew/recreate (intuiting)

The West the belief: I am because I do (sensing)

The South the belief: I am because we are – ubuntu (feeling)


Clearly, no one value is more important than the other. Rather, in building our organisations, our communities and societies, we look for and learn from the scientific and analytical contributions from the North, the innovation and process perfection from the East, the practicism and value creation from the West and the humanism and sense of community from the South (The contribution from the South can further be described as a powerful sense of the past and a profound feeling for community; organisation is a story involving people and events; a sense of rootedness of belonging to the soil).

If the North values conservation, the East values catalyzation, the West competition and the South co-creation. To quote one more of Lessem’s descriptions of types that fit the cultures of the four regions, the managerial types would be the Herder manager for the North, the Gardener manager for the East, the Hunter manager for the West and the Steward manager for the South.

As South Africans and a very young democracy, we need to both define ourselves and embrace our cultural strength as a Southern region, and stay in touch with others (particularly in the 21st global village) by learning from the strengths of others. While we might be stronger in one particular area of human existence, we latently have the same potential to reason with the North, innovate with the East and compete with the West. In the process of building this new South Africa we clearly experience a lot of anxiety and uncertainty about our future. In leadership I believe that, similar to the way we raise our children, we need to lay strong foundations of identity (as we know and understand it today as Africans – irrespective of race - and not as Europeans) and allow for the evolvement of that identity as we eagerly learn more of the world we live in. As leaders we give direction, not only to be more successful, more competent and more prosperous, but also to build and leave a legacy of civilization, social and spiritual well-being for our children and their children.

African Renaissance

Mo Ibrahim, former CEO of Celtel, offers a $5m prize for Africa's most effective head of state. With over 10 million customers and sold for $3.4 billion last year, Mo (a former Egyptian) said at a World Bank conference earlier this year that Celtel is is living proof that you can do clean business successfully in Africa. The company’s overriding vision is ‘Making Life Better’. The award will go to African heads of state who deliver security, health, education and economic development to their constituents. In an interview with the Financial Times newspaper, Mr Ibrahim, 60, said leaders had no life after office.

"Suddenly all the mansions, cars, food, wine is withdrawn. Some find it difficult to rent a house in the capital. That incites corruption; it incites people to cling to power. The prize will offer essentially good people, who may be wavering, the chance to opt for the good life after office," said Mr Ibrahim.

Whether this initiative will improve leadership and governance in Africa is an open question. However, I regard it as a good news African Renaissance story.

I trust you will enjoy a ‘good news’ November. End of November/December is a good time to consider your leadership plan for 2007. Since I’m not going anywhere during this time I would enjoy meeting with you and discuss future plans of development – just send me an email. Take a moment and visit my upgraded website www.neweraleadership.co.za.

Regards

Courageous leaders who routinely communicate about their core beliefs and values - personal values as well as universal human principles they endorse - have discovered a great source of organizational energy - Doug Lennick & Fred Kiel

Our beliefs determine our values, our values our attitudes and our attitudes our behaviours. Therefore, if all goes according to plan, our behaviour is supposed to mirror our beliefs, we live authentic lives and our societies will be harmonious, peaceful and full of goodwill – even when culturally and religiously diverse. Irrespective of the diversity of religions and cultures, people all over the world largely share the same moral values. What people believe about how we as human beings should behave and relate to one another, is very similar throughout the world. So, for instance, did a study comparing American children with Indian children show that their moral codes were virtually identical. Both groups of children believed that it was wrong to lie, cheat, or steal, and both thought that it was important to treat the sick or unfortunate with kindness. In another study researchers found the following principles espoused in common by all or most religions, as well as by secular organizations including American Atheists, Inc., the American Humanist Association, and the United Nations Declaration of Rights:

· Commitment to something greater than oneself;

· Self-respect, but with humility, self-discipline, and acceptance of personal responsibility

· Respect and caring for others (that is, the Golden Rule)

· Caring for other living things and the environment



The diversity of cultures and religions does therefore not explain why we often feel we can’t believe the inhuman things that other people are prepared to do.

Somewhere between our beliefs and our behaviour people, ourselves included, become immoral. Choosing among competing desires is the essence of morality. Since we always have the free choice to choose what we are going to do and what we are going to say, even if it contradicts our espoused beliefs, the question about morality is how firmly we are anchored in our beliefs. Do we want our words and deeds to be congruent with our beliefs? If so, we would be prepared to say what our core beliefs are and be held accountable for congruent behaviour. If not, we probably would prefer to avoid the subject of beliefs.

Against this background and the above quote from Lennick and Kiel, how easy or how difficult is it to talk about our core beliefs in the workplace? Is the democratic South Africa with her different religions inhibiting us from saying what we believe or is it liberating us to say what we believe? Does it make a difference to not only say what we believe, such as ‘I believe in absolute honesty at all times’ but also why we believe in it? When is it harmful to go to the level of our beliefs in the workplace? When is it harmful never to say what we believe? How do our answers to the above, impact on the morality of our society? … I’d like to hear/read your thoughts (or experiences)!

Leadership strengths and weaknesses

After the assessment of 70 leaders from different organisations by 420 colleagues - using my New Era Leadership 360° assessment instrument - the results indicate that in most organisations, leaders’ levels of commitment to the achievement of results are high. They also adhere to high ethical standards and show respect to people irrespective of race, culture belief or standing (although they rate themselves much higher on this than others rate them). On the downside, leaders don’t fare well in the facilitation of others’ participation, such as through brainstorming, don’t value the importance of strategic planning and are not as open, transparent and team-oriented as highly effective leaders would be. The biggest differences, on average, between the leader’s self assessment and the assessment of his/her colleagues (where the leader rated him/herself higher) were in the answers to the following questions:


· I express my views consistently, irrespective of the situation or audience (we would like to believe that we are consistent, yet others easily pick up the inconsistencies – we need the levels of trust that would allow feedback about our inconsistencies)

· I encourage openness and transparency by being an example (this determines the levels of trust)

· I show respect to people irrespective of race, culture, belief or standing (our disrespect can be very subtle, yet it hurts all the same)

· I facilitate better understanding by encouraging team members to share their different views (the leader’s trap: moving on to decisions assuming no-one has anything to say or contribute)


African Renaissance: Education


It is good to learn of the efforts and progress on the vital issue of Africa’s educational challenges:


First announced in 2003 at the Africa Summit of the World Economic Forum in Durban, the NEPAD e-Schools Project focuses on providing end-to-end ICT solutions that will connect schools across Africa to the NEPAD e-Schools network and the Internet. Solutions also include the provision of content and learning material and the establishment of health points at schools. In each country, the programme aims to transform all African secondary schools into NEPAD e-Schools within five years of implementation start date and all African primary schools within ten years of implementation start date. In total more than 600 000 schools across the continent will enjoy the benefits of ICT and connectivity to the NEPAD e-Schools Satellite Network upon completion of the project.

The AMD, HP, Oracle, Microsoft, and Cisco Systems consortia and a number of other private companies are sponsoring the demonstration project, consisting of six schools in each of the 16 participating countries, for a period of 12 months. Participating countries are: Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Egypt, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda.



Best wishes for the month of October

If it’s going to be, it’s up to me – Robert Schuller

Most people view motivation of employees as one of the key responsibilities of leaders. But is it really possible? Can one person give a motive to another to the effect that he/she then will transform to a truely happy, energetic and satisfied worker? Furthermore, how much of leaders’ stress is not a direct result of the belief that nothing will happen if they don’t succeed in some or other way – even if it’s negative - to motivate employees, and employees’ belief and expectation that motivation for work is indeed the job and responsibility of leaders? I believe it is more correct to say that good leaders create an environment that is favourable for people to find and be driven by their own motivation. That is an environment where the free choice of an individual is respected and consciousness of it is encouraged. It obviously includes the reality that our choices have consequences for which we have to take responsibility and it includes the responsibility of leaders to ensure fair and firm discipline.


The problem is that we don’t believe that successful organisations can also have a high degree of freedom. We put great organisational effort into constructing a world of control, consistency, and predictability. We engage in planning that attempts to predict the future, we believe that structure and rewards drive behavior, and we trust that for every problem there is a solution. We hold this set of beliefs together by focusing on measurement with deep and abiding resolve. We act on the belief that if we cannot measure something, it does not exist. This set of beliefs is the engineering mind in action. It leaves little room for valuing the element of surprise, discovery, and creativity. If something does not show a result - for example, expressing feelings - then we think it is the wrong, or unwise, thing to do. This is why so many of us come to believe that we cannot be ourselves and be successful. To be successful means to either conform to the will of the boss untill you one day get his/her position, or to start something where others have to conform to your will. In both cases confrontation/conflict is avoided or discouraged at the cost of freedom, honesty and creativity – and ultimately productivity.


To transform organisations for more freedom for all is usually viewed as a frightening prospect. From the perspective of the boss employees cannot be trusted to use their freedom in the interest of the goals of the organisation. From the perspective of employees acting with freedom puts everything – meaning their job security - at risk. At a deeper level, whether we are bosses or employees, we tend to rather escape our freedom than embrace it because with freedom comes accountability (not only to superiors but to ourselves, our loved ones, God, society etc.), with accountability comes guilt, and with guilt comes anxiety. Since our freedom leads to anxiety it is easier to repress it than to live with it - easier to believe that we are not free. Science, in the sense of rational cause-effect thinking, has given us a magnificent excuse to exonerate us of being accountable. Environmental forces and unconscious motivations justifies that we need not feel responsible for the problems facing us and our world.


In the interest of developing leadership and our organisations, we need to find ways to enhance acceptance of the fact that as individuals we always have choices. We need to enhance personal accountability and responsiblity. As Peter Block (Freedom and Accountability at Work) states, by saying ‘I had no choice’, we have chosen to betray our human nature. He illustrates that choice is not an option with the following:


If I fall asleep at the wheel of my car and get into a serious accident, I have to accept the tragedy as the consequence of my free will, that is, my choice. As I got sleepy driving, I was confronted continuously by the alternatives of either stopping or moving on. And as the clock ticked away, I continuously and freely chose between the alternatives. However, the fact that I had to choose between these alternatives was not in turn subject to choice. Choice exists, it is not an option. In choosing to keep driving, I freely chose to take my chances. In other words, the careful analysis of the act of driving an act which may lead to death-shows that it contained all three elements of free will: spontaneity, self-determination, and choice. My possible death was thus a consequence of my free choice. To be equipped with the clear knowledge of the structure of one's free will gives one the maturity to avoid tragic mistakes. Our free will and our understanding of it are perhaps our greatest resources.


To make our choices count, we need to know what our visions and dreams are and then work and live with the knowledge If it’s going to be, it’s up to me.


African Renaissance



My contribution to African Renaissance thinking is to give the ‘podium’ to one of the dream’s biggest advocates, our president Thabo Mbeki. In the Nelson Mandela Memorial Lecture this year he said, very much in alignment with the ideas of accountability, the following:



I believe I know this as a matter of fact, that the great masses of our country everyday pray that the new South Africa that is being born will be a good, a moral, a humane and a caring South Africa, which, as it matures, will progressively guarantee the happiness of all its citizens.


I say this as I begin this Lecture to warn you about my intentions, which are about trying to convince you that because of the infancy of our brand new society, we have the possibility to act in ways that would, for the foreseeable future, infuse the values of Ubuntu into our very being as a people. But what is it that constitutes Ubuntu – beyond the standard and yet correct rendition – Motho ke motho ka motho yo mongoe: Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu!


The Book of Proverbs in the Holy Bible contains some injunctions that capture a number of elements of what I believe constitute important features of the Spirit of Ubuntu, which we should strive to implant in the very bosom of the new South Africa that is being born – the food of the soul that would inspire all our people to say that they are proud to be South African!


The Proverbs say:


“Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it. Say not unto thy neighbour, Go, and come again, and to morrow I will give; when thou hast it by thee.


“Devise not evil against thy neighbour, seeing he dwelleth securely by thee. Strive not with a man without cause, if he have done thee no harm. Envy thou not the oppressor, and choose none of his ways.”


The Book of Proverbs assumes that as human beings, we have the human capacity to do as it says - not to withhold the good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of (our) hand to do it, and not to say NO to our neighbour, come again, and we will give you something tomorrow, even when we can give the necessary help today.


And then he deals with our value system:


Because the white minority was the dominant social force in our country, it entrenched in our society as a whole, including among the oppressed, the deep-seated understanding that personal wealth constituted the only true measure of individual and social success.


As we achieved our freedom in 1994, this had become the dominant social value, affecting the entirety of our population. Inevitably, as an established social norm, this manifested itself even in the democratic state machinery that had, seemingly “seamlessly”, replaced the apartheid state machinery.


I am arguing that the new order, born of the victory in 1994, inherited a well-entrenched value system that placed individual acquisition of wealth at the very centre of the value system of our society as a whole. In practice this meant that, provided this did not threaten overt social disorder, society assumed a tolerant or permissive attitude towards such crimes as theft and corruption, especially if these related to public property.


The phenomenon we are describing, which we considered as particularly South African, was in fact symptomatic of the capitalist system in all countries. It had been analysed by all serious commentators on the capitalist political-economy, including such early analysts as Adam Smith. Specifically, in this regard, we are speaking of the observations made by the political-economists that, since the onset of capitalism in England, the values of the capitalist market, of individual profit maximisation, had tended to displace the values of human solidarity.


Important and thought provoking views. Surely business leaders have a crucial role to play with regard to the values we want for our society.


I trust spring in the sense of warmer weather will arrive soon and that you would be able to enjoy it to the full.

Some say knowledge is power, but that is not true. Character is power - Sathya Sai Baba ( Part 2)

As promised in my previous communication, I would like to explore the importance of ‘character’ further. If you can remember, last month I compared the importance of character to qualities such as competence and charisma. Our society today, particularly the business society, is highly geared to value, assess and hire competence – especially technical competence. Technical competence means knowledge, speed and efficiency – the things we believe will give us the advantage over our competitors. Charismatic personalities in leadership positions can make us who are associated with them, feel powerful and important as their persuasive and captivating rhetoric rub off on us. They can lure us into the good feeling that we are winners. Character? Well… maybe it will be good to know we have some people with character on board for the tough times - as a kind of insurance. If I read our times correctly, people are slowly but surely becoming aware of the modern world’s spiritual bankruptcy, re-evaluating character. There is a desire to turn within.


As I said last time, I think that our optimism that the world, or at least our world, can be fixed through some heroic acts or words of competent, charming and seemingly powerful people is fading. No doubt, we will continue to pride ourselves on efficiency and no doubt we will always enjoy those who communicate in an uplifting, inspirational manner. But maybe we have been disillusioned enough (older as well as younger people) with what looks and feels good for a while but doesn’t help us to feel content and at peace with ourselves and others. It is nice to be surrounded by knowledgeable people, but it is more meaningful, more sustaining, to be surrounded by people with character and wisdom – not merely as insurance when all else fails but as companions on our journey in life, both in our friendship and work circles. What’s more, no-one will dispute the need for dependable and trustworthy people in our organisations! And after all, it’s not a trade-off. We can have character, competence and charisma (the good version of charisma that is grounded in the authentic desire to serve others – I’d say Mandela has real charisma).



How would you describe a person with character? And how is character built? Let me share with you some personal reflections. I think I have met a person with character when I sense that he or she has high levels of self-awareness, knowing his/her strengths and weaknesses, believes in him/herself as a unique and worthy person, is humbled by the knowledge and consciousness of the fact that life is full of mystery - and that we are ultimately only affirmed in what we believe spiritually. Such a person knows he/she is infinitely more than his/her history, roles in life, achievements, physical abilities or material acquisitions. Do we develop character over time or are we born with it? Since my understanding of character is directly related to the quality and outcome of a person’s inner dialogue, I obviously believe we develop character over time. Indeed, our earliest experiences in life, the way we are brought up by our parents or caretakers, give us the platform that helps us to greater or lesser extent to develop character. From being connected ‘to the heartbeat of the cosmos in our mother's womb’, as James Hollis describe it in his excellent book The Middle Passage - from Misery to Meaning, we were suddenly thrust violently into the world to begin an exile and a search to recover the lost connectedness. Experiences of neglect, abandonment or being overwhelmed by life result in growing fears to open ourselves to the world of pain, which growth requires. And that, I’m afraid, is what it takes to build character. Conversely, running away, trying to hide from pain, or projecting it onto others, does not help.



Reflecting on my own life experience I was fortunate to have been brought up with a solid platform of love, care and nurturing. With life’s first project, building ego identity (according to Holis we do this from years 12 – 40), I had a good time. As we try to impose or project ourselves on the world out there (it’s me versus the world), discover our potential, stretch ourselves, dream our dreams of becoming a Springbok centre, pop star, respected professional and/or perfect husband or wife, we also build character. We learn to be strong and determined, to have tenacity. We manage our disappointments, dig deep for that someting extra in the face of adversities, stay positive and self-believing while we are searching for the next exciting challenge where we can proof our competence and value to society. However, we are unaware of the fact that our commitment to this project is determined by the false belief that we can re-connect with our true self – not the one that conformed to the expectations of our parents or society - by controlling life. We live and work with a wide range of assumptions and unrealistic expectations. One of the most powerful shocks we experience later in life, in Hollis’s words, ‘is the collapse of our tacit contract with the universe - the assumption that if we act correctly, if we are of good heart and good intentions, things will work out. We assume a reciprocity with the universe. If we do our part, the universe will comply.’



With hindsight, the real character building experience for me was not with life’s first project – building ego identity – but to later humbly accept that while I can’t control life, I can dare to be open to learn from the messages from my body and emotions and thus discover new meaning and wisdom. Not that it is a comfortable experience! In order to embrace new thinking and new knowledge about oneself, the old thinking must die. It leads to a lot of anxiety and doubt. (Again with hindsight, it is comforting to realise that all great advances in human understanding have come out of doubt.) The issue is not the details of my story - as you would have your own to tell - but that character building experiences occur when we turn within. In the earlier part of our lives it has a lot to do with our resolve and self-belief to overcome adversities while we are developing our ego’s and skills. Later in life it is to deal with our dissillusions with life, realising and accepting responsibility that the unrealistic expectations were of our own making – and to courageously face the feelings of disappointment and desolation while trusting our inner voice to guide us to a life of greater wisdom and fulfilment.



As you know, there is a lot more to be said and learned about our experiences of life, change and growth, but let me share one more thought. Going through character building life experiences help us to appreciate others more – knowing that we all experience hurt and intense loneliness at times. If in our organisations we could succeed in building the kind of community where we can support each other not only functionally but also emotionally, we would surely reap the fruits of a strengthened organisational character.



I will leave my usual African Renaissance contribution for next month.



Best wishes for the month of August.

Some say knowledge is power, but that's not true. Character is power - Sathya Sai Baba

In our changing world, I think the above quote is validated more and more each day. With the internet and other effective ways of communicating knowledge and information with a growing percentage of the world population, the days when only a small number of people (the leaders) in communities were revered for having the knowledge and the keys to a better life, are no longer. When we think of the three c’s that would indicate a person’s quality, competence, charisma and character, it is the first two that we got used to admire and be influenced by. Those people who, based on their superior knowledge, know how to make things happen and produce the goods, and those people who can persuade or manipulate the masses were the hero’s of the 20th century. From them we received the quick fixes to our problems and the easy steps to our dreams of success and wealth. And indeed, particularly in the Western World, we’ve witnessed the creation of material wealth as never before. But we have also witnessed two world wars, outrageous levels of greediness, self enrichment, hedonism, apathy and depression. Externally, man has changed the landscape admirably to make life easier (for many), but internally there is an undeniable spiritual thirst. There is a longing for what is less evident with the first glance, competence and charisma, but what adds sustainable value to a more meaningful and fulfilled life – character. We are looking for men and now definitely also women, of character that can lead with balance and wisdom, who commit themselves in their daily work not only to the material side of life, but also the spiritual.

But how does one discern character and how is ‘character built’? … I will share my thoughts – and experience - with you in next month’s communication.

The Global Leaders Africa Summit was recently held in Johannesburg. At the cost of R 22 000 - or there about - for the three days, I could not attend it. However, I did get hold of some of the interesting and also important bits of information:


1 The primary reason for customers to quit a brand is not Price (9%) or Functionality (14%) but rather the “Attitude of Indifference of an Employee” (68%), according to a survey of 2,400 customers by IBM.

2 The cost of noncommitment averages between 15 to 25 percent of sales revenue – not the 3 to 7 percent many believe it to be.?

3 No matter how much you spend on advertising your brand, ultimately your brand image will depend on the level of commitment by your employees to deliver the brand promise.

All the more reason to develop leaders, since it is effective and real leadership – not management – that move people from compliance to commitment!! My New Era Leadership 360 degree assessment and follow through coaching include all the levels of development necessary to attain high commitment:

ASSURANCE - To feel certain about the Future

CHALLENGE - To attain a positive change from the daily routine; a new challenge

CONNECTION - To experience meaningful relationships with others

SIGNIFICANCE - To experience a sense of being needed, of making a difference

GROWTH - To be all that you can be; to grow both personally and professionally

CONTRIBUTION - To help others; to contribute to the community, to empower someone

HIGHER ASSOCIATION - The need to be part of a higher purpose; to join a movement

(IziCwe Academy)


African Renaissance

Some of the good news stories on Africa’s development that I can share with you this month are the following:

1 As I am sure you are aware of, Bill Lynch, CEO of South Africa's Imperial Holdings, was named 2006 Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur Of The Year. After arriving in South Africa 35 years ago with ?2 000 and no job, Bill beat a strong field of 32 national winners to take the world's most prestigious business award for entrepreneurs. In 1990, Lynch became Imperial's executive chairman and showed his faith in South Africa's future - at a time when many were predicting the country's descent into political and economic chaos - by driving further expansion, transforming the core Toyota dealership into a multibrand network, among other initiatives.

2 Carol Pineau, made a documentary, "Africa: Open for Business" that was screened at last year's Cannes Film Festival in France. It highlights 10 entrepreneurs profiting in Africa, including a cellphone magnate in Congo who worked with local residents to scrounge parts for a transmission tower, which they constructed amid a rebel attack on the capital. Now there are legions of cellphone users in Congo. "Africa is shifting more and more toward becoming a business story," says John Chiahemen, chief Reuters correspondent in Southern Africa and chairman of the board of the Foreign Correspondents' Association of Southern Africa. Increasingly, he says, Reuters is focusing on "opportunities in Africa" because the continent "has never looked more promising as a business destination."

3 Contrary to the projections of the Afro-pessimists, a renaissance is emerging in Africa. This was witnessed during the deliberations of the Sixth Africa Governance Forum (AGF VI) that was held in Kigali, Rwanda in May. The theme for AGF VI was "Implementing the African Peer Review Mechanism: Challenges and Opportunities." This is an area, which symbolises African rebirth. Kintu Nyago, from Uganda, writes: ‘This was my first visit to Rwanda. Kigali is a small but orderly city. This probably has to do with their having a different land tenure system from Kampala. It also has good infrastructure, partially inherited and improved upon by the (RPF).My impression is that the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) is creating a development state that delivers in the social sector. Politically, they are promoting an alternative form of accommodative governance, where ordinary Rwandese are encouraged to participate in the political processes…’ (For an overview and news of real developments in Africa visit the http://allafrica.com/nepad/ website.)

4 Other snippets:

* Africa's economies grew by more than 5 percent last year - their biggest expansion in eight years. Central Africa's oil boom spurred 14.4 percent growth for that region.

* Ghana's stock exchange is regularly on of the highest-performing markets in the world; in 2003, it was No. 1, gaining 144 percent, according to one analysis.

* Exports to the US from 37 African nations jumped 88 percent last year, to $26.6 billion. Jeans made in Lesotho are sold in US stores. Also, flowers from Kenya and vegetables from Senegal are regularly available in European shops.

* Use of cellphones and the Internet is growing faster in Africa than anywhere else, according to the United Nations.




Have an inspiring July – the winter cold notwithstanding.

Best wishes

Sincerity, respect and meaning in our communication; Africans are more hopeful about the future than the rest of the world

A number of people responded to my last communication (incidentally, I now have all my previous monthly communications on my website www.neweraleadership.co.za) regarding the habit so many people have of telling everyone how busy they are. It seems as though I am not the only one to make the observation that there often are emotional or psychological drivers behind people’s apparent need to tell others how busy they are.

I suspect that the above is only one of a growing list of socially acceptable (or even desirable) things we say while they are in conflict with what we know, mean, think or feel. The result is that we make promises we don’t intend to keep, we deny strong emotions we have about contentious issues or we pretend to be very efficient or knowledgeable while we are struggling to cope. I know that I, at times, complicated my life unnecessary by not being entirely upfront and honest in my interactions with people. You probably can also recall examples in your life. I’m not thinking of major issues. It is often the little things that snowball because we allowed them to. If I am right that it is an increasing phenomenon, is it because life has become so individualistic, impersonal and anonymous? We respect our constitution, we respect race, cultural diversity and gender but we don’t respect the individual we are dealing with as we used to. We are happy to keep him/her guessing our real intentions, insecurities or thoughts. Is it because life has become so complex that our brains are too tired to ‘compute’ all the input, all the options, and therefore defaults to standard ‘safe’ but dishonest answers even in our relationships or dealings with others? Whatever the reasons, I see a leadership challenge. We got a lot of our insights in leadership from the military field, and with good reason. To win on the battlefield - where it is a matter of life and death - vision, strategy, team work and courage (the language and interest of leaders) are all vital to success. Can you imagine the disaster an army faces if the soldiers say one thing but mean another, make promises they don’t intend to keep or constantly choose the safest option? Our challenges at work may not be a matter of life and death, but success, as on the battlefield, depends heavily on honest and open communication. As leaders we need to live by example but moreover we need to actively set standards and inspire others with what is both morally and practically desirable.

African Renaissance

Positive news is coming from the World Economic Forum on Africa that is currently in conference in Cape Town. Would you believe that Africans are more hopeful about the future than the rest of the world!? According to a poll 52% of Africans are optimistic that 2006 will be better than 2005 whilst 48% in the rest of the world believe that it will be a better year.

‘African leaders opened the World Economic Forum on Africa with a resounding call for economic growth to be the continent’s new strategy.’ According Augusto Lopez-Claros, Chief Economist, World Economic Forum, Africa last year experienced the highest average growth rate in 30 years. Apart from the rise in global demand for commodities that helped Africa’s cause, it is acknowledged that many African countries improved macroeconomic management, which also contributed to boost economic growth rates. Fiscal deficits were reduced on average and inflation fell from double digit figures in 2003 to 8.5% in 2005.

An inspirational story is that of Sunette Pienaar, Founder of Heartbeat, who won the South African Social Entrepreneur of the Year award. Sunette was honoured for her ‘exemplary contribution to mobilize communities to care and protect their children whose parents have died’. She founded Heartbeat in 2000 after leaving her position as a minister in the Dutch Reformed Church. Heartbeat has since mobilized communities in six provinces (Gauteng, Mpumalanga, North West, Limpopo, Free State and Eastern Cape) to care directly or indirectly for some 6,000 orphans and vulnerable children. Heartbeat assists these children in accessing water, electricity, housing, schooling and government grants where applicable. All services are delivered through local community committees - www.weforum.org/africa#4

With that I wish you a wonderful, honest and uncomplicated month of June in Africa.

'I’m so busy’; Business and shareholder value; NEPAD

About being BUSY. If you meet ten people during a working day, chances are good that eight of them, within the first minute, will tell you how busy they are. I am quite fascinated by this – not necessarily by the reason why people nearly always feel they are so busy (no doubt the number of things that the average worker needs to complete before a certain time, have increased since 20 or 50 years ago), but by the reason why we seldom can find anything else to say, or feel the need that the other person must know that we are very busy. One view is that it communicates importance. In other words, the fact that I am so busy obviously means that my work, people in general, the world, demands my time, my attention and my input. It gives a sense of value and importance. If I try to analyse that value, I think a person is trying to say I am competent, I have authority, I have influence, I have important resources under my control and so on. I don’t think it has to do with how much love, care, empathy or meaning we give to others. A person who symbolized these things was mother Thereza and I can’t imagine her telling everyone how busy she was. But even if people are feeling important when saying how busy they are, I don’t get the impression that they enjoy it. At least, they appear to say: ‘Feel sorry for me. Life is tough. Life is unfair.’ When we tell people how busy we are, are we saying something positive or something negative? Do feel victim or do we feel victor?

On the internet I came across this piece of advice, by one Penelope Trunk, for those addicted to being busy and/or telling others how busy they are:

Let's abolish the word "busy." We all have the same 24 hours to fill. Everyone's are filled with something. The difference is that the "busy" people feel frenetic during those hours. Those of you who walk around telling everyone how busy you are, get a grip. Make some choices and calm down.
There's a big difference between a busy day and a full day. The former is so frantic that you aren't effective.
1. Recognize that a frenetic life is a life half lived. You should aim for "Flow," a concept from Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a professor of psychology and education at the University of Chicago and author of the book "Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning." Flow is a unique state of mind where productivity and creativity are at their highest. Csikszentmihalyi says that Flow generates the grand ideas, phenomenal work, and intense, rewarding experiences that people identify with happiness.
Flow occurs when you are fully present and engaged in what you are doing; the concept of time melts away in a commitment to the goal-oriented activity. This feeling requires being occupied and engaged for uninterrupted chunks of your day without ever thinking that you're rushed for time. People who are busy do not get this feeling.
2. Recognize that you are addicted to being busy. You like what being busy does for you. Being busy gives you an excuse for poor performance. It gives you a way to ignore parts of your life that are falling apart and need attention. Many people mistakenly feel that being busy means you're doing things that are important. But it really means you're not in control. A full day, rather than a busy one, means planning and prioritizing.
3. Prioritize. This does not mean making a to-do list. Nor does it mean making a list of career goals. You need to list what you want in life. This is because being an adult means making choices. It means admitting that we cannot do everything and choosing to devote the time we have to what's most important. By scheduling your days with more things than you can accomplish, you are not taking control of your life. You're letting chance take control. Chance will dictate what gets done because you refuse to prioritize.
4. Learn to say no. Whenever someone asks you to do something, be ready to say no. Your priorities at work, home, and during your personal and networking time should be clear. Do not worry that you'll hurt someone's feelings by saying no. To do something well, you must be focused. That takes self-discipline. But when you say yes to please someone, it shows you lack the ability to be focused. Saying no is a gift to the people and projects that are the priorities in your life. You do not automatically have to say yes to everything you're asked to do at work, either. Your boss establishes your priorities. If she then gives you work that would compromise those priorities, you can refuse (with an explanation). Sticking to the plan will make you look smart and committed.
5. Change how you talk. Stop saying that you're busy. Say you can't bear to give up your dreams, or say overscheduling yourself veils your fear of underperformance. You need to say something more honest than you're busy if you want to connect with people, including yourself. When you have done the first four steps, you will no longer be busy. You will have room to be focused and absorbed in your work and goals. Then, when someone says, "How have you been?" you will have something more interesting and engaging to say than "busy."

Leadership and development

What is the driver behind doing business? Some say it is obviously to make money and nothing else. I would like to challenge that idea, but the first question would be: money for who? More often than not, the answer here is the shareholders. According to Gayle Avery (Understanding leadership) this focus is surprising. Analyses show that shareholders of large organisations in reality are unimportant and powerless. On average, only 4 per cent of an established company’s funds come from equities. By focusing on shareholder value, one overlooks the interests of many parties affected by the organisation’s activities, known as stakeholders. This includes subordinating the interests of stakeholders such as employees, suppliers, the environment, society at large and local communities.

I believe there is growing awareness that the view of business as an exercise in making money for shareholders is shortsighted and limiting to meaningful work. A definition of business that says a lot more and is worthwhile thinking about is the following: An independent community of people (management and workers) who in reciprocal co-operation and with the aid of available means at reasonable remuneration provide meaningful labour as well as rendering goods and services to the community (consumers) at reasonable prices.

African Renaissance

Key to the African Renaissance dream is the success of Nepad. Below is a short history and overview of Nepad (by Lindiwe Sisulu).

The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) will be five years old in July this year. Its Vision and Policy Framework Document was approved by the Organisation of African Union (OAU) Summit in Lusaka in July 2001. NEPAD is a pledge by African leaders, based on a common vision and a firm and shared conviction, that they have a pressing duty to eradicate poverty and to place their countries, both individually and collectively, on a path of sustainable growth and development and to participate actively as Africans in the world economy and body politic. The programme is anchored on the determination that we collectively can extricate ourselves and the continent from the malaise of underdevelopment and exclusion in a globalising world.

Never before has the African continent produced such a comprehensive home-grown development programme, which has forced itself onto the forefront of the development agendas of the United Nations (UN), the G8 and regional groupings
from Asia, Europe and the Americas. The UN Secretary-General created the Office of Special Adviser on Africa and mandated it to coordinate global advocacy in support of the implementation of NEPAD and to act as focal point for NEPAD within the UN system. As a consequence, the UN structures in Africa were encouraged to reflect and advance NEPAD in their engagement with the continent. This was shortly after the General Assembly of the United Nations had recognised NEPAD as the framework for Africa's development in September 2002.

Interest in NEPAD at continental and international level is unprecedented. In the words of the UN Secretary-General, 'the central challenge is to grasp the opportunity and maintain the momentum'. For us to work together to realise the
objectives of NEPAD, we all need to buy in and have a clear understanding of what NEPAD is and what role we can collectively and severally play in our various organisations.

According to the current timetable of South Africa's National APRM Secretariat, the Country Self Assessment Report and Draft National Programme of Action will be submitted to the APR Secretariat and the Review Panel before the end of June
this year. South Africa's citizens, will be asked to comment on the Draft Country Self Assessment and the Programme of Action before the end of September this year, after which it will be presented to the APR Forum of Heads of State
and Government participating in the APRM.

The APRM is an innovation by African leaders to submit themselves for review by peers. Twenty-six countries have already acceded to the APRM Memorandum of Understanding. This is about half of all African countries. The pace of peer
reviews is accelerating. In the coming few years, the peers will have assisted one another to adopt policies, standards and practices that lead to political stability, high economic growth, sustainable development and accelerated sub-regional and continental economic integration through sharing of experiences and reinforcement of successful and best practice, including identifying deficiencies and assessing the needs for capacity building.

NEPAD is not a theoretical approach to development. It is a pragmatic programme with tangible deliverables. African leadership is being utilised in the prevention, management and resolution of conflicts. The conditions conducive for
development are being implemented…

Detractors will always be lurking, but within five years of NEPAD, the record speaks for itself. We need to give effect to the ideals of NEPAD in our various roles. We owe it to our constituencies, future generations and our leadership. Let us work hard to bequeath an enduring legacy in their honour.

Turning the Africa ship will not happen overnight. It is however inspiring to know that the right steps have been taken and sustained with initiatives such as Nepad. It is also inspiring to know that buying into the vision will mean that in our own way we will seize the opportunities to contribute to the vision and thereby build a better future for all inhabitants of this continent – including of course our children.

Best wishes for the month of May