A past colleague and good friend, Conrad Viedge, passed away on Saturday after battling cancer. I was considering writing this column about business ethics, and the two came together rather well. Conrad was a good man in every sense. Not only did he pay his taxes, which I am sure he did, but when it came to work, friends and family he went beyond compliance to consider what would be best for them. He had some creative entrepreneurial ventures, but most of Conrad’s career was devoted to teaching – first at Wits Business School and more recently as acting director at the Johannesburg Business School. We worked on a number of consulting projects together, and I was struck by his asking in each case what the client needed, and how we could solve their problems creatively – even those problems they might not yet have recognised. Similarly his careful preparation for lectures followed the same theme: what do the students really need to know? How can we help them discover this? I learnt so much from Conrad about teaching technique and even more about responsibility. He was a very private person and I doubt he ever believed how highly many of us respected him. So I don’t think he did this to gain kudos; rather it was an inner conviction that one had to do the responsible thing in any situation. What a different world this would be if business and society were routinely conducted with the same inner conviction! That is how it should be. As one reads of accusations against public figures it is striking that lying is taken for granted. That very sad assumption has been creeping into business. Those outside business circles may be sceptical, but there has been a strong ethic in business to tell the truth to the board and investors, signalling in advance when things may be heading in the wrong direction. Honesty is one’s fiduciary duty, and without it, the economy cannot function effectively. Professor Deon Rossouw writing in Daily Maverick recently reviewed some interesting research on the standing of ethics in South African business. Compared to other countries South Africa leads the world in adopting written standards of ethics, providing facilities to report unethical conduct confidentially, and advising employees how to behave ethically at work. SA came second in providing training in ethics and in the willingness to report misconduct in one’s organisation. That’s brilliant. No doubt the King Commission must take credit for some of this. Yet SA also came second in the world for employees feeling pressured to compromise the ethical standards of their organisations, and first for employees feeling that honesty is not practised at work. Oh dear. So we are good at the formal side of ethics, but poor at living it practically. That brings me back to the example Conrad gave us of honourably doing the right thing, even in little matters. To thrive as an economy and society, we all need to do the right thing, even and maybe especially when no one is noticing – not just complying, but responsibly preparing for a good future. When you retire, I expect the words that will please you most will not be that you never broke a rule, but that you cared so deeply that you continually sought the common good, whether people were watching or not. Responsible behaviour begins with not breaking rules, but it goes much further to prepare the best for the people and institutions with which we operate. Most of us are in humble positions without aspirations to save the world, but if we each just lived honourably and responsibly, the culture we create would steer our world in the right direction. Jonathan Cook is a Counselling Psychologist and Chairman of the African Management Institute. This is a coaching columns for Business Day, published on 7 February 2022. ( https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/opinion/columnists/2022-02-07-jonathan-cook-a-life-lived-honourably-can-help-change-the-world/ ). #JonathanCook

President Ramaphosa’s comment in the SONA has sparked an irritating debate in South Africa about whether the private sector or government create jobs. That’s like arguing about whether it’s the doctor or the medicine that heals. Both have roles. To oversimplify, the government creates conditions in which businesses grow jobs. Those who love big government say the private sector has been losing jobs and can’t be trusted to look after people. Those who love small government say the government has failed to manage its existing state-owned enterprises and cannot be trusted to look after anything. Both have a point – but reflect mistaken views on the role of each. Government can create some jobs directly. We need more nurses, teachers, police and people skilled in pro-poor projects, tax receipts permitting. That’s government’s job, and proponents of small government should spend more time with the poor to understand it better. Competent government can also initiate projects too big, risky, or unprofitable for private companies on their own – like railways. But at best that can only grow employment modestly. We have seen in many countries that government is generally bad at running businesses and really should not try. Furthermore, the public sector ethos of service is horribly compromised when public servants try to run businesses themselves. We don’t need an entrepreneurial state, we need a caring and honest state built on an ethos of serving the people. Part of this service is providing the physical, legislative and administrative infrastructure required by those who are entrepreneurs. That does not mean leaving the field for private companies to do as they please; government also has the role of regulating for safety, fair labour practices, equity and ecology. A significant point often ignored is that whereas government is an agent that can be held accountable for what government does as a sector, the private sector is not. It is a class of independent actors who have to be held accountable independently. Deciding whether or not to invest is something many thousands of entrepreneurs and management teams do regularly and independently in the light of the information at their disposal. They won’t and should not invest if the return from investing would be less than the return from keeping the money in the bank or giving it back to shareholders to use elsewhere; or if the risks exceed the potential return. That’s their job. Businesspeople don’t set out to lose jobs – downsizing is a very painful and costly admission that a growth dream has failed. So it makes no sense to blame the average businessperson for destroying jobs or failing to invest; rather blame the conditions that led to this sad situation. That is where government comes in. Of course government creates jobs. It can create a few directly, but it can create many, many more by enabling businesses to thrive. I do not create the vegetables that grow in my garden. but I do plant the seeds in good soil with compost and fertilizer, and I do water them regularly and remove the weeds. If they do not grow, I blame my stewardship, not the plants. Similarly, it is the job of government to provide the good soil and regular watering and weeding that businesses need to flourish. If businesses die or migrate to better climates, government should blame its own policies and administration rather than blame the people trying to earn a living. So for long term, sustainable employment at scale, the president was clearly right that the bulk of job growth comes in the private sector. But the responsibility for this happening is government’s. Both do need each other. Is it government or business that creates jobs? Yes! Now in heaven’s name let’s stop squabbling and do it. Jonathan Cook is chair of the African Management Institute

Erica Kempken, co-founder of Youth@worK, tells a great story illustrating how government and private sector can collaborate to create small businesses and jobs for unemployed youth – the ecosystem we have been talking about in this column. Youth@worK is the largest implementation partner (IP) of the Youth Employment Service (YES), a collaboration between government, business and labour to give work experience to black youth between the ages of 18 and 35. When Covid struck, YES chose Youth@worK to help communities produce masks. One dynamic young lady with a sewing machine was selected as a supplier. She set up a business making tailored school uniforms in rural Kwa-Zulu Natal, saving their parents the cost of traveling to the city to buy uniforms. Youth@worK placed another young person with this small business as it grew. This second young lady in turn set up her own business sewing fashion apparel and wedding designs – and Youth@worK duly appointed a young person to assist her, and another to replace her in the original business. “Youth@worK itself is an entrepreneurial business!” explains Kempken. “We started because of YES and are now creating jobs for youth and new businesses.” It is impressive that 17% of the young people that YES places go on to start their own businesses. “YES demonstrates the collaboration we know is needed to address our employment challenge,” says Kempken. “The buzzword among all those engaged in YES is collaboration.” I was intrigued by this, as my past experience has been that NGOs can become very competitive, even destructively so, in their pursuit of grants. So how did YES get this right? YES illustrates that government should be an enabling rather than implementing partner. Government and business got together to work out appropriate and sustainable incentives for all parties. Government created legislation that supported the B-BBEE regulations to allow all companies to commit to BEE despite their ownership structure. Businesses committed to meet all the BEE requirements, to play open cards with their profit numbers, and ultimately create youth jobs. So far nearly 2000 firms have signed up to YES. Government furthermore provides the Employer Tax Incentive to encourage businesses to create more youth jobs. The next clever step was to put implementation into the hands of an independent non-profit organisation – the Youth Employment Service. YES is driven and entirely funded by the private sector. It has the clear and specific mission to connect with companies to create work opportunities for black South African youth at scale, and to achieve this by leveraging B-BBEE policy for better and more meaningful company impact and performance. YES gives each young participant a mobile phone loaded with a digital learning app that teaches them about work and essential skills such as digital literacy and budgeting. IPs have to ensure that 95% of participants complete the full 12 month programme and complete all modules. Kempken points out this demonstrates that young people are not lazily sitting waiting for others to do things for them. Why has YES succeeded? One factor is leadership. The founding CEO, Tashmia Ismael-Saville, vigorously canvassed and brought on board CEOs of leading corporates and the legislation was easily understood and adopted by the B-BBEE ecosystem. Another factor is the appropriate allocation of roles. Government both led and listened to the interests of all stakeholders, and created facilitative conditions through regulation and tax incentives. Business co-operated and committed sincerely to the principles. And implementation was left in the hands of nimble independent agencies. So far 72 712 young people have been placed in one-year real jobs that teach them how to work and triple their chances of a permanent job at the end. New businesses have been created. A model has emerged that is sustainable and can scale. It’s a success story. Jonathan Cook chairs the African Management Institute.

There is a proverb in Setswana that says  “Eetshetlanyana etsala eerunneng” which can be loosely translated as a poor cow can give birth to a fine calf.  When a herder realizes that a cow is underweight, they don’t give up and slaughter the cow immediately, they improve the cow’s diet to make her healthy again. There’s a lesson that entrepreneurs can draw from this. Although the past two years have been filled with external difficulties and entrepreneurs may have struggled to adapt and rebuild, are there opportunities to grow and build resilience during this adversity? Let us see how this has played out for one of our South African entrepreneurs. Last year we sat down with Mzi Nduna, Director of Lesengkeng , a food business that was heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Lesengkeng supplied school tuck shops in South Africa with food and beverages. However, due to the global pandemic, the schooling system in South Africa was disrupted many times, forcing Lesengkeng to pause their service to the schools.  During this period, Mzi enrolled in AMI’s Survive To Thrive (S2T) programme, which was designed to empower SMMEs and MSMEs to overcome Covid-related challenges. While in the programme, he learned new skills, gained access to financial tools and resources, and interacted with other entrepreneurs across Africa . As a result, he was not only able to keep his team together, but also identify opportunities to restructure and grow his business. “As a team, we had to review our plan and that is when the AMI Scenario Planning Tool came in handy. We had to revise everything and eventually we came up with a short, medium, and long-term strategy for the business.”  Because he participated in the Survive To Thrive programme, Mzi now conducts process analysis in the form of daily checks which helps them to:  Determine whether targets are being met Leverage upselling opportunities Explore new channels to add to their line of business. Since the beginning of their journey with AMI, Lesengkeng foods has managed to sign new deals with two schools in South Africa. “It is interesting because now, using AMI tools and materials has become part of our culture. We use AMI materials daily as we work towards getting back on track.” With the on and off lockdowns in South Africa, Mzi confesses that for him and his business, things are still tough. Despite these challenges, he is grateful for the opportunity to learn and take a moment to reorganize his business, which is now paying off.  Mzi attributes most of Lesengkeng’s foods success to his team and says that a business is all about teamwork, which is among the top key lessons he learned at AMI.  “I have learned how to manage, encourage and support my team better.” Looking ahead, Lesengkeng foods will continuously upgrade their offering and identify gaps in the market to explore new opportunities for growth, such as canteen management for corporates, supplying stationery and office products, and even providing clean water for rural areas. During these testing times, it is critical for business owners to have a good team, upskill with the right tools and always remember that hardships can still give birth to new opportunities. If you are an entrepreneur or business leader looking for new ways to grow or motivate your team in 2022, check out AMI’s programmes.  You can also reach out to us on partnerships@africanmanagers.org if you want to support small businesses like Lesengkeng foods to achieve growth. #Covid19Stories #Entrepreneurship

Two years ago I wrote in this column that the entrepreneurial priority then was to save as many livelihoods as we could. “Many small businesses and gig workers face ruin in the coming weeks, with economic damage rivalling health threats; so our response should be as urgent as for the health threat.” Predicting that the problem could last 18 months, I suggested some things we could do to keep people earning, “some of which we may want to continue after this tsunami of suffering is over.” As we emerge into what we hope will be a better environment for business, what should we keep doing to create jobs? Back then we suggested that those with a secure income should be generous in continuing to pay staff and buy goods and services even if we couldn’t use them. Firms with secure revenues should be generous in dealing with suppliers and customers in temporary trouble. Firms in trouble should preserve cash wherever possible, be ruthless in cutting costs, be open with staff and suppliers, and look for new markets. In AMI we have had the immense privilege of seeing many small firms across the continent do just that. More than 90% of the companies we worked with last year are still in business, and many of them have become stronger through the efforts required to keep afloat. One inspiring entrepreneur is Adeoye Oluwatosin Adewale, CEO of Wale Success Agro Allied Ltd. He has a poultry farm in Nasarawa, Nigeria and used to sell all his produce from his farm gate. When Covid struck his customers stopped coming overnight, leaving him in despair. When he joined our Survive to Thrive programme he realised he was not alone – people across Africa were in the same worried state. They listened to and helped each other with ideas and suggestions. He diligently applied the practical tools on our platform – the customer profiling document, the business plan template, the cashflow projection, the marketing plan template – and rebuilt his business. Two years later he has more demand than he can fulfill. He sells eggs, broilers, goats and rabbits (a new venture) and manure from the hens. He now takes his produce to his customers, having found out who they are, what they like, and where they live. He has a WhatsApp group where they communicate and place orders. The Business Plan template showed him how to secure a government Covid loan in February 2021, which he repaid six months later. His workforce has grown from two in 2020 to eight today. The business is now far better that it was before Covid and his farm is now a model for young agriculture students. I don’t want to downplay the tragedy that has faced many other businesses that were not in a position to find new markets. Unemployment is higher than ever now. But isn’t that the point? If Covid could force us to work together to tackle an acute public health challenge, can’t we work together now to tackle the chronic problems of unemployment and poverty, which together probably do far more damage than Covid has? One very obvious contribution would be to continue to help small businesses thrive. As Adeoye Adewale demonstrated, given the tools, small business owners can grow their businesses and provide livelihoods for others. It’s not rocket science, and technology helps us get the tools to them. Then it is up to government and big business to create the ecosystem that supports enterprising people creating and growing businesses. Humanity tackled Covid with amazing urgency, innovation, resources, collaboration. We could do it for jobs too. Let’s learn to turn chronic problems we have grown used to into acute challenges we can solve. Jonathan Cook is a Counselling Psychologist and Chairman of the African Management Institute. #JonathanCook

Will Smith’s Oscar slap has generated a huge debate about toxic masculinity, with some decrying his hitting Chris Rock on stage as an example of how men are programmed socially to be violent, some supporting his courage in defending his wife, and others looking for reasons in his childhood to explain his bizarre reaction. But toxicity is gender-neutral. It is true the damage caused by male toxicity is clearly evident every day – not just in cases of individual physical and verbal violence, but also in the systemic oppression that still today condemns many women in many places to powerlessness and deemed inferiority. I really do not want to go there; but I do want to use the occasion to address toxicity at the workplace. It is huge and destructive. Every day good people come home, pushed into bad behaviour by sheer rage, frustration and helplessness by horrible bosses, careless colleagues, dishonest suppliers and impossible customers. This leads to mental illness, alcohol and substance abuse, family violence, and the perpetuation of dysfunctional patterns in social life. Why do we do this to each other? More importantly, how can we stop it? The “Why?” question can be answered by the three great origins of behaviour: genes, environment and choice. The nature/nurture debate has pretty well been settled by good research that shows that genes and upbringing both interact to create the propensity to act. For example, evolutionary psychologists Martin Daly and Margo Wilson studied homicide in different places. They have a fascinating graph comparing homicides In Chicago from 1965 to 1990 and England and Wales from 1974 to 1990. Firstly, it records male perpetrators only, because women committed too few homicides to appear on the graph. Secondly, the age distribution of homicide for the two places is indistinguishable – both rise steeply to peak at about 21 or 22, and then fall steadily to approach zero after age 65. This identical line for Chicago and England & Wales would suggest genetic factors as the origin of violence, acting for example through testosterone. But astonishingly, the incidence in Chicago was thirty times higher than in England and Wales! That clearly supports environmental origins of violence. I hope people are not killing each other physically at your workplace, but I am pretty sure they damage each other regularly through non-physical assaults. This research on homicide suggests that while some of us may be more prone to antisocial behaviour than others of us, the emergence of this toxicity is highly subject to the culture in which we find ourselves. This brings us to the third determinant of behaviour: choice. There are many things we cannot choose, but given time to practise, we can choose to develop habits that do not surrender to our instincts or toxic role models. We do this by practising respect – both for others and ourselves. This is not a choice made in the heat of the moment, but the result of a lifetime of practice. Even those not blessed with parents who taught them to respect others can still learn this key lesson when taught by caring and insistent leaders. Sometimes a coach or therapist can help develop new habits. Will Smith might have felt driven by his inner demons when he jumped up to hit Chris Rock. Maybe he experienced little choice then. But he does have a choice now to practise constructive responses over the rest his life, so that next time his automatic reaction will be constructive. And those of us privileged to manage others can choose to treat our colleagues with dignity and create a culture in which people learn to exercise choices responsibly. The true test of leadership is what our followers choose to do. Jonathan Cook is a Counselling Psychologist and Chairman of the African Management Institute. This is a coaching columns for Business Day, published on 4 April 2022. ( https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/opinion/columnists/2022-04-04-jonathan-cook-practising-respect-can-counter-workplace-toxicity/ ). #JonathanCook

Dunvegan, a suburb east of Johannesburg, is bisected by a road with two large traffic circles. The circles feature attractive, well-designed and lovingly maintained gardens. That is both welcome and surprising, as the local government is not particularly known for its public gardens. My wife and I enjoy discovering the latest colour and texture combination as we walk through them. So when we saw someone working in one of them, we stopped to chat. It turns out that he is a local resident who does this as a hobby in his spare time. Professionally he is a banker. He obtained written permission from the local authority, and for several years has gradually planted, shaped and maintained this lovely public asset. He is grateful for the opportunity to exercise his hobby in these large spaces – each several times larger than a typical suburban garden. It made my day and stimulated thoughts about how citizens step up to fill in the gaps left by formal authorities. This is particularly evident at times of national disaster. In KwaZulu Natal, for example, the riots last year and tragic floods this year have highlighted the initiative, courage and generosity of ordinary people. Sometimes generous people possess unusual organisational ability too, and create wonderful private agencies like the Gift of the Givers. Thank God for them. But it is also evident in the continuing quiet, faithful volunteer work of ordinary people in ordinary times, like Sally who many years ago planted gardens on the pavements in Malvern and arranged for residents in every street to meet and create a sense of community. Or those many people who prepare food for the hungry at their door or at the traffic intersections. This enterprise in public service mirrors the energy that goes into entrepreneurship. Our world is filled with energetic people who create a living for themselves with creative ideas for a service or a product that people will pay for. They are the heroes who provide necessary goods and services, create jobs, and pay the taxes that keep the country going. So thank God for them too. It suggests that whatever our political persuasion, room should be made in society for private initiative. Freedom to follow our conscience, not just in what we believe, but in putting our best values to work to aid our neighbours has to be one of the best features of human society. Authoritarian societies do not encourage this. Under a dictatorship people tend to become passive. Risking enslavement for the uncertain prize of stability and economic growth is simply not worth it – and anyway evidence shows that democracy is better at supporting prosperity. I don’t mean to espouse the excesses of free enterprise – huge harm is done by greed in the guise of freedom. Bad governments can come in any ideological dress. Bad government stifles enterprise through unnecessary bureaucracy, or worse still, kills initiative by “rent-seeking” – siphoning off money through bribes or extortion. Good government works with the people to liberate and celebrate their initiative. I happen to think that social democracy underpinned by an appreciation for human rights and liberty may offer the best combination of government leadership and private initiative. But this is not an essay on politics. Freedom can be achieved under a wide range of political and economic systems, provided you and I are empowered to act when we see a need or an opportunity. Viva the little people who create jobs and serve their communities. Those who design political and economic systems should put them at the top of the agenda. And let public servants everywhere understand that their job is to put power in the hands of the people, not themselves. Maybe that could be the focus of our next investment conference.

I heard of a rural hospital that closed its doors to visitors on Freedom Day. A public holiday affords workers a rare opportunity to visit their loved ones during the week. In this case a man travelled overnight to see his father, only to be turned away: “It’s a public holiday; we’re closed.” Healthcare workers need to rest and be restored, especially after years of pandemic and now floods. There’s probably an excellent explanation for what seems like a sad story, and I know many health care staff who go out of their way to care for their patients and support the families even after hours, despite understaffing and poor resourcing. But it reminded me of the central part managers play in making life better or worse for us all. Why do hospitals exist and doctors, nurses and admin staff have jobs? For the patients. Why does Treasury allocate funds to the health budget? For the patients. Yet it sounds like this hospital management arranged matters for their own convenience, not that of the patients or their worried families. Similarly, why do shops open their doors? For the customers. Why do government offices exist? For the citizens. Why are there driving licence offices? To enable the public to be tested and certified as safe when they drive on the roads with the rest of us. Why do politicians have their jobs? To ensure good governance and public services for us all. Yet so often we forget what our jobs are for. The arrogant clerk seems to believe that the public are there to meet his/her requirements. Too many politicians assume that they deserve the perks and opportunities of their positions as a reward for being elected, rather than to provide the services we need them for. This is meant to be a column about small business, and I want to draw on this story to remind business owners that we have the continuing task of explaining very clearly where our jobs come from and how to maintain them. Without customers we don’t have businesses. This applies to internal customers too. For the ultimate benefit of the paying customer, internal service providers (HR, Finance, etc.) should focus on making work easy for their colleagues. So a key responsibility of managers is to create a culture of customer service (external and internal) that aligns everyone’s attention towards offering a friendly and proficient service to those who pay our salaries. This is not a one-off effort or a document buried among company policies; it requires a continual communications campaign, led by example, and reinforced by consequences. Management is not just about creating excellent systems, but also about helping staff with repetitive jobs understand that the public don’t know the system as well as they do. We need friendly guidance about which queue to stand in. This includes training staff in the wonderful attitude and skill of empathy. Thinking ourselves into the shoes of the customer or colleague provides the foundation of good customer service. What would delight me if I came to our building as a possibly confused, anxious, scared customer / patient / citizen? Would life not be amazingly better if all managers focused on creating among their staff a deep empathy for those they serve? So here is a heartfelt plea to any manager reading this: think about your salary, benefits and status if you must; but let the thing that keeps you awake at night be the welfare of the customer / client / patient who is the reason your job exists. And think of every clever idea you can to help your team be passionate about it too. Their job is to serve the customer, and their excitement to serve customers is your job.

I wonder what it’s like to work in the Post Office. What set me wondering was fetching a parcel on 12 May, posted in London on 1 November last year. On the one hand I was impressed that it reached me after six and a half months of travel. No one stole it. It wasn’t buried in a storeroom and eventually destroyed. It reached its intended destination. I didn’t realise this was still possible with the SA Post Office. On the other hand, I have often wondered whether senior managers in the Post Office reflect on just how useless the postal service is, and if so, why do they live with it? I know it is a hugely complex operation at a scale most of us have never had to manage, but it puzzles me that the core business of delivering items within a week or so cannot be rectified. I was served perfectly competently at the counter. There was no problem with the clerk’s skill, knowledge or attitude. The processes also seemed quite adequate. She found my parcel without a problem, processed the payment by card, and I was out about three minutes after I entered. It seems to me that the solution isn’t with the people doing the work, but with senior managers’ ability to see beyond the way things are now, to create something new. The same is true from small private businesses to large public entities. It is even true of presidents of countries. If the entity for which I am responsible is not achieving the ends for which it was created, then I am failing. To stop failing I need to take whatever legal and ethical steps will achieve those ends. That is no one else’s job. This may seem obvious, but I have found that it is often not obvious. Problem is, we do not see the most important work that responsible leaders do. This happens out of sight in their heads as they observe, think continually about the future and search for different solutions. So instead of driving, we become passengers in a driverless organisation. That can work for a while, but sooner or later it will leave the road or run out of fuel. Paradoxically, times of crisis can make the challenge of leadership easier, because we can see the threat. The more insidious threat is the slow erosion of capability and loss of direction that happens invisibly during normal times. There is a kind of organisational entropy in which energy and structures gradually dissipate unless they are renewed. The Post Office is just one of many examples. Transnet and Eskom are other high profile examples of organisations that lost little bits of the intricate systems that kept them effective until one day too many were gone and we discovered they were no longer fit for purpose. There are plenty of less prominent examples of small companies that disappeared. Using a clockwork analogy, the mechanism simply wound down. If you are not looking for it, this is not something you notice until the clock stops. So an unrecognised but absolutely essential responsibility of leaders is to understand what their organisation will need in five, twenty or fifty years, and take steps now to acquire it – whether that be people, technology, money, innovations, strategic pivots, or power stations. We also have amazing organisations that give us hope. At the head of organisations like Discovery, Gift of the Givers, Treasury, the courier companies that do deliver our parcels on time, and the restaurant that delivers hot food to your door, are people who never stop looking out for opportunities and threats. The best are preparing now for what will be required even after they have gone. Jonathan Cook is a Counselling Psychologist and Chairman of the African Management Institute. This is a coaching columns for Business Day, published on 16 May 2022 ( https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/opinion/columnists/2022-05-16-jonathan-cook-leaders-see-beyond-what-is-to-create-what-might-be/ ). #JonathanCook

At the best of times most of us need prompting to do the things we actually want to do. Most of us need a coach, mentor, engaged boss or patiently honest friend to nudge us to become what we could be at work. But these are not the best of times. True, we have emerged from the dark days of the Covid pandemic, but many of us still carry the scars emotionally. All the psychotherapists I know are booked up months ahead and looking for where to refer more psychological casualties of the past few years. And of course the future continues to hold huge uncertainties. Fuel prices and inflation threaten livelihoods. The shortage of fertilisers created by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine threaten agriculture, on which more than half of Africa’s people depend. It brings the spectre of food shortages and starvation. At a time like this owners and managers of businesses need both to help their people perform at their best and to support their mental health and happiness. Executive coaching by a professional person is valuable. I recommend it. But this is not always available to people in small and medium enterprises. Fortunately coaching can also refer to the style in which managers interact with those who report to them. It’s a generative approach to managing that brings out the best in others – which is, after all, what managers should do. The consulting firm Hay/McBer identified six leadership styles displayed by senior managers. They describe two of them as dissonant: Authoritarian and Coercive. They may be needed from time to time, but they damage organisational climate when used too often and are correlated with poorer company financial performance. Four styles are described as resonant: Affiliative, Democratic, Pace-setting and Coaching. They build positive climate and are correlated with better company performance. In his book on emotional intelligence in leadership, Daniel Goleman writes that effective leaders don’t stick to one style only, but draw on most or all of these styles as appropriate. The focus of the coaching style is developing people for the future. I think it can be used even while adopting the other styles – one can be almost brutally demanding if the occasion requires, while still taking time to ensure that the person learns and grows in competence and confidence through the experience. An essential requirement for the success of this tough love blend of demand and acceptance is respect. I grow when you imply that you respect me too much to allow me to get away with less than my best. And I accept correction if I believe you will do whatever it takes to help me become as good as I can be. That includes respecting my own way of doing things rather than assuming that I have to be like you. Derek Keys once described his role as business leader and finance minister as providing a “loving, critical audience” to his staff. At a time of personal pain and business uncertainty, I think owners and managers can contribute hugely both to business success and personal thriving by being a coach to their people. So my next several columns will be a series of coaching letters to a different person each time, mostly people in small to medium-sized companies who have questions about a particular stage on their career journey. They are all real people, although of course I shall omit or change identifying details. I will address both the recipient’s question about making progress in their career, and the manager/owner’s question of how to empower their team to grow and perform optimally. And I’ll provide an address where you can send suggestions or questions of your own. Let’s collaborate in restoring health and dignity to our people at work. Jonathan Cook is a Counselling Psychologist and Chairman of the African Management Institute. This is a coaching columns for Business Day, published on 30 May 2022  ( https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/opinion/columnists/2022-05-30-jonathan-cook-times-such-as-these-demand-that-business-leaders-be-coaches/ ). #JonathanCook

This is the second coaching letter in a series offered as part of my regular column. It responds to real questions managers in small or medium enterprises have asked me, and offers ideas to anyone in a similar situation, or to managers wanting to adopt a coaching style. Personal details have been changed. This is what I wrote to a new manager grappling with whether or not management suits her: A promotion is generally welcome news; but not for everyone. A brain surgeon, for example, is highly qualified and earns an excellent salary, but manages no one and probably prefers doing brain surgery to managing a hospital. Progression in a career can mean either promotion or professional advancement, and sensible companies provide for both. Which suits you better? Promotion usually means higher status, more power, more autonomy and better perks. But it also usually means longer hours, more stress, and less opportunity to do the professional work you trained for. According to the organisational psychologist David McClelland, we are all driven by three motivators: Need for Achievement, Need for Power and Need for Affiliation. All three matter, but I think your dominant driver is Need for Achievement. You described it as being inwardly focused – your career decisions are based on doing what you enjoy, find meaningful and do well. So for you a management position is only attractive if it helps you achieve more of what you value. As long as you are treated fairly and your contribution is appreciated in your current role, promotion might even get in the way. People with a high Need for Power thrive on control, competitiveness and status – great qualities for management, provided they are harnessed for the common good. I doubt you would enjoy being a manager in a large, political company, but fortunately your smaller company has less of the political jockeying for position that infects many large companies. You have wonderful people skills, but I don’t think you have too high a Need for Affiliation either. Otherwise the need to be liked could fatally limit your ability to take difficult decisions or give honest feedback, creating stress for yourself and others. But taking independent, risky and maybe confrontational decisions could be stressful for you. You explained very insightfully that a lack of structure can feel overwhelming, because you enjoy clarity about what you are responsible for and what you can let go for others. The higher you climb, the more you will have to create structure both for yourself and others, without stifling the creativity and autonomy of those who thrive on flexibility. In our recent conversation, I was impressed how well you know yourself and your aspirations. You said you don’t aspire to be a CEO. More important to you is to live a life of balance and to impact peoples’ lives positively. So does this promotion match what you value most in yourself? Of course we are not static beings, and up to a point you can choose whether or not management will suit you. A promotion offers a threshold into a new identity as a leader. As we climb in seniority, both our self-image and our public identity subtly change to match our new responsibilities. Learning to lead includes choosing what elements of your identity you want to retain, and what to change. Who do you want to become? Don’t be restricted by your own current picture of yourself, nor by what others value as important. You are highly talented in so many ways and can probably achieve more than you dream possible, both professionally and in leading others. Jonathan Cook, a counselling psychologist, chairs the African Management Institute. This is a coaching columns for Business Day, published on 28 June 2022 ( https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/opinion/columnists/2022-06-27-jonathan-cook-does-being-promoted-to-a-management-position-suit-you/ ). If you’d like to read previous columns in this series or ask Jonathan a question please visit http://www.africanmanagers.org/jonathan-cook #JonathanCook

This is the third coaching letter in a series offered as part of my regular column. It responds to real questions managers in small or medium enterprises have asked me, but both company and individual information has been disguised and sometimes blended with others to be relevant to more people. This is addressed to a manager promoted to a more strategic role: This is such an interesting stage in your career. Having managed the biggest team in the company, you have now been given responsibility for a smaller unit, but covering a broader range of responsibilities with more strategic engagement. Using the transitions Charan, Drotter and Noel describe in their book, The Leadership Pipeline, first you moved from managing yourself to managing others. Their next step is managing managers, but in smaller firms this is often combined with taking full responsibility for a function, as you have. I’d like to pick out just two aspects of this transition: adding a strategic perspective and relying on others’ expertise. In a sense managing the sales team was not that different from being a member of the team, except for spending a significant amount of time managing people and dealing with interpersonal dynamics. The role was clearly operational; you and your team were all responsible for the firm’s core products and you knew exactly what each member needed to do and how to do it. As you mentioned when we spoke, it was well within your comfort zone and you found it easy to transfer your knowledge and experience to new members through coaching and mentoring them. Although in your small company you were already part of the senior management team, your horizon was quite limited. You just had to make sure your team delivered results. But now you have to understand how your new portfolio contributes strategically to the success of everyone, and your own success depends on the success of the whole company. Thinking strategically is not just the very important cognitive skill of analysing business cases. Underlying that is an orientation that continually scans what is happening out there, and considers consequences. It looks at the significance of all we see and do. The question you need to master for each activity changes from “Can it be done?” to “Will it contribute to the long-term success of the company as a whole?” The other important aspect of this transition is collaborating with and influencing those who are not your direct reports. I remember noticing that rather than take ideas from colleagues in other teams, you preferred to do it all yourself – something that will no longer work now. In your new role you will have to rely on advice from professionals with more expertise in their subject than you have – even from someone reporting to you. Similarly, the success of your function now depends on responding to the needs of peers across the company. That’s uncomfortable for someone as fiercely self-reliant as you are. Fortunately when we talked, you referred to your “elastic cognitive flexibility”. You will need this, together with the emotional maturity that does not depend on winning to affirm your self-worth. Successful managers need resilient self-concepts. This personal growth can be greatly helped through conversations with a professional coach, or a mentor or empathic boss. The company will thrive if people at your level are thoroughly invested in helping colleagues in other functions succeed too. That way the company succeeds – and incidentally you also gather the experience and insight required for the next step in the leadership pipeline, which will be taking profit-and-loss responsibility for a business unit. This is a coaching columns for Business Day, published on 11 July 2022  ( https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/opinion/columnists/2022-07-11-jonathan-cook-moving-from-an-operational-to-a-strategic-role/ ). Jonathan Cook, a counselling psychologist, chairs the African Management Institute. If you’d like to read previous columns in this series or ask Jonathan a question please visit http://www.africanmanagers.org/jonathan-cook #JonathanCook