Posted on August 4th, 2020 by SBS-ED
USB-ED is fortunate to have access to more than 300 part-time faculty, consultants, business leaders and industry experts who facilitate on our programmes.
Today we would like to introduce you to MC Botha.
What is the toughest leadership challenge businesses face today?
At this very moment, I believe recovery from the economic meltdown post COVID19 is and will be the toughest business challenges faced by leadership in our generation. The realities of the last few months have created a perfect storm, the magnitude of which the current generations have not experienced. It makes for uncharted territory and innovative, inspirational and adaptive leadership will be required. In a year’s time the universal business landscape will differ substantially from what we became used to in the past. Zoom and social distancing will most probably remain part of our normal operational procedures with interesting implications for people management.
What is the most valuable lesson you have learned from a student to date?
I would rather refer to students as a collective. In my field of lecturing, I have realised that the collective wisdom of the students or participants in your class outweighs your own. Students can actually make a substantial contribution in teaching themselves if you are able to orchestrate and harmonise their knowledge.
Who inspires you and why?
David Attenborough. Maybe it is because I am a greenie, but he portrays such an unwavering and motivational love for our planet and nature. Notwithstanding his age, he still travels to the most remote and beautiful places on earth and then shares his experiences with a voice that absolutely captures your attention and focus.
What attracted you to work with USB-ED?
I have been with USB-ED now for 13 years, taking over from Prof Chris Brown. In this time, I have presented Project Management to more than 7 000 students. I firmly believe that Project Management is an essential life and professional skill that can make a difference to a person individually, your career and personal development. In this process we changed people’s lives.
Do you have a mantra or slogan that you live by?
A life philosophy that my mother shared with us, which in essence implies that one should always embrace a positive mind-set. Her words (roughly translated): In life, there is always find time to learn, laugh and love.
What career advice would you give yourself looking back to when you started out?
Typically, between the ages of 35 to 50 one experiences growth, advancement and promotions in your career. Be careful to manage the total spectrum of your priorities in these years. Life does not allow for a “rewind” or “catch up” as far as family life is concerned.
Tell us about a book you have recently read?
I have a collection of Louis L’Amour novels and I have tried to read some of them.
Posted in Faculty |
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Posted on July 30th, 2020 by SBS-ED
How do employers upskill employees to meet the talent requirements of 4IR?
- Partner with the public sector
- Instil hard technological skills aligned with AI and ML
- Invest in building human skills like active learning and creativity through sustained learning opportunities
- Define future business strategies and align talent management accordingly
- Have strong succession planning in place to groom emerging leaders for key roles
“Having a youthful continent is a huge opportunity, but a huge threat as well, if we do not get that population to start really working,” cautioned Albert Zeufack, the World Bank’s Chief Economist for Africa, at the recent World Economic Forum on Africa (WEF Africa). Africa’s lack of critical technological and leadership skills emerged as a key theme, with the Africa Skills Initiative – focused on innovative solves to improve youth prospects – prompting debate around how to better continental skills development.
As reported by City Press, education and labour policy reforms were also touched on, all in the context of the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR). Africa is generally seen to have the largest youth population in the world, but there’s a disconnect from a skills perspective. There’s a shortage of the skills CEOs need to up their organisations’ efficiency, meet growth targets and revise their long-term strategies. Addressing this requires sustained partnerships between the private and public sectors. It also puts the onus on corporates to invest in talent management to reskill and upskill their teams.
What does 4IR mean for job creation?
In McKinsey’s The future of work in South Africa report there are encouraging insights that suggests that if we can harness the power of digitisation to improve efficiencies and productivity, we could create millions of high-quality jobs in the country. The impact of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and advanced robotics will transform how we work, and McKinsey believes accelerated adoption could triple SA’s productivity growth and result in over a million new jobs by 2030. It predicts 1.6 million new jobs could be created for women. And the rise of tech-enabled jobs could result in demand for another 1.7 million graduates.
The opportunity is there, but it’s dependent on the current and emerging workforce being adequately prepared for a digital world that includes artificial intelligence and machine learning. Taking advantage of our demographic dividend depends on young people being appropriately educated – as mentioned by our own Professor Roux in a previous article on the Africa of 2050. It also depends on people having continuous opportunities to learn, grow and refresh their skills once working.
WEF’s Future of Jobs report (2018), found an astonishing 54% of employees will need significant reskilling by 2022 – 10% of these individuals will need skills training of more than a year. Innovation, analytical thinking and active learning were cited as critical skills, with “proficiency in new technologies” being one part of “a bigger skills equation that also focuses on ‘human skills’” – like initiative, persuasion, creativity, and complex problem solving. Resilience, flexibility, social influence and emotional intelligence were also stated.
Dion Shango, PwC Africa’s Chief Executive, suggested to City Press that CEOs have an unprecedented opportunity to make a real difference to communities through upskilling their teams. Governments must also enable this through incentives and enabling environments. He used Africa’s arable land as an example; 60% of the world’s unused arable land is here, yet we import most of our food – within this lies immense opportunity. But we need the will to act on this.
That’s all very well, but how does it translate in practice for employers? What do HR and leadership teams need to do to foster mass reskilling initiatives that can’t be once-off, but rather, sustained in the long-term?
What next?
In its report, McKinsey predicted that in total, SA could create 4.5 million new jobs (through tech, strategic policies and improved productivity), but, against this, 3.3 million jobs could be displaced by technologies by 2030. Automation will increase demand for higher skills jobs, which will catalyse more demand for graduates – but less for those without matric. We must improve SA’s graduate conversion rate. And corporates need to be involved in this to ensure they have steady succession pipelines of talented young people with the skills they need.
How can you upskill your employees?
McKinsey outlined a three-part strategy for businesses to start the skills transformation process:
1. Define future strategy: Most organisations will need to redefine their overarching strategies with tech-transformation as a business imperative. Innovation needs to be top of mind; this must go beyond improving organisational efficiencies.
2. Define future skills: Defined future strategies will help firms strategically plan their workforces to be more “data-backed and business-led.” Businesses need to consider what skills they’ll need in the future and actively start upskilling or recruiting for these – it’s about proactive succession planning to fill pivotal roles down-the-line. Reskilling and upskilling a team at scale must be a focus; companies need to offer ongoing learning opportunities, with measurable return-on-investment. This can’t just be for digital skills – it needs to be for soft skills as well.
3. Define the future world of work: Employees need to be involved every step of the way. It’s vital a team is aware of impending changes, understands expectations and has insights into how a business plans to evolve its ways of working. Today, employees are seeking flexibility, meaning and growth. HR and leadership teams need to respond to this through greater engagement with teams, analytics to glean insights into what drives people, and more agility to give people room to innovate.
The world of work is changing, fast. Its likely people will train in increasingly specialised skills on an ongoing basis.
How to develop future leaders:
The WEF’s Future of Jobs report stated that leadership, emotional intelligence and service orientation will see “an outsized increase in demand” compared to their current prominence. For South Africa, it identified ‘Managing Directors and Chief Executives’ and ‘General and Operations Managers’ as emerging job roles.
The lesson for HR and leadership teams? Now is the time to start mentoring and grooming talented young future leaders for pivotal leadership roles. Again, this comes down to strong succession planning, and continuous growth and learning opportunities so leadership skills are learnt.
USB-ED specialises in this with different levels of Management Development Programmes that focus on self-awareness and the importance of intra- and inter-personal relationships. Find out more via USB-ED.co.za.
Posted in Talent Development |
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Posted on July 23rd, 2020 by SBS-ED
Five months into 2020 and our world as we know it has changed. In nearly every corner of the globe, citizens find themselves under a “new normal” that includes face masks, hand sanitiser and … remote work.
According to the South African Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG), prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, 59% of South Africans felt stressed – the American Institute of Stress (AIS) reports 79% of workplace stress is caused by workload. In addition to worrying about COVID-19, many employees who are now working from home feel even more anxious, especially since the lines between work and personal time have become blurred.
How to manage stress when working remotely
As a leader, you may be concerned about the mental well-being of your employees now that you’re unable to check on them in person. Here’s how to help them manage stress while working apart.
1. Provide a support structure
With work and home life now bundled into one, many employees may feel overwhelmed. Mitigate this by offering your employees support in the form of set working hours or even a buddy system, where employees are paired with each other and can check in to vent or help each other find solutions.
2. Engage in fun activities – as a team
Before lockdowns and work from home, this meant happy hour drinks on a Friday or team lunches close to the office. Just because your team is now remote doesn’t mean you can’t have fun together. Gather your employees for a Friday afternoon virtual pub quiz on Zoom or Google Hangouts or set up a lunch date where everyone cooks the same meal then enjoys it together virtually.
3. Check your language
Since face-to-face interactions are less frequent while working from home, it’s important to double-check the language and potential emotional tone your emails or direct messages could hold. Before hitting send, think about how your quick “let’s chat about this later” could translate negatively when what you really meant was, “these ideas are good, and we should explore them in more detail later”. Try ending your message with a positive by offering to jump on the phone or a video chat if things are unclear.
4. Use apps to prompt informal conversation
Feeling isolated is a pretty common emotion when working from home and living with uncertainty during a global pandemic can add to the stress of isolation. What’s more, those impromptu “water cooler moments”, when the best conversations or greatest ideas emerge, will be lost too. To virtually recreate a space for an informal conversation to take place organically, add your team members to a WhatsApp or Slack group where they can toss ideas around, simply check in with one another or start a conversation for the sake of talking.
5. Foster flexibility
If your industry allows for it, offer your team members some autonomy when it comes to their working hours. While you may be comfortable with your regular nine-to-five, your colleague may need an hour or two for their kids to attend online classes while schools are closed. Just make sure everyone is aware they need to be available for scheduled meetings via phone or video regardless of their self-imposed working hours.
6. Offer a low-stake listening ear
Some employees may not feel comfortable to disclose their anxieties in a virtual group setting so foster one-to-one communication individually and offer face-to-face video chats to those that may need it. During these conversations, avoid adding pressure by checking in on their workload and providing solution-oriented advice. Not only will this make them feel more comfortable but will provide you with an opportunity to visibly see whether stress is affecting them.
And remember: As a leader, you need to disconnect too. Most leaders feel the need to work 24/7 but this can quickly lead to depleted energy and creativity levels and more stress. During these unprecedented times, your team will need you to innovate in moments of crisis and be a shoulder to rely on – in order to help them continue to do their jobs, you’ll first need to do yours.
Conclusion: Improve your interpersonal leadership skills and learn the fundamentals of human resource management with USB-ED’s Leadership Fundamentals course and Management Development Programme (MDP). Both courses aim to provide managers and leaders with the knowledge and skills to empower their teams and build optimal employee functioning and effectiveness to manage stress of any kind.
Posted in Leadership |
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Posted on July 16th, 2020 by SBS-ED
USB-ED is fortunate to have access to more than 300 part-time faculty, consultants, business leaders and industry experts who facilitate on our programmes.
Today we would like to introduce you to Dr Morne Mostert.
What is the toughest leadership challenge businesses face today?
The reinvention of itself for a new planet and alternate civilisation. Leaders can no longer avoid grappling with strategic foresight in a hyper-complex landscape. Observing the complexity can sometimes feel overwhelming for senior decision-makers. The ripple effect of executive decision-making is vast and spans many intersecting stakeholders and value chains. The ability to anticipate multiple futures and their relative probability as the foundation for executive decision-making is therefore critical. Business behaviour automatically, even unintentionally, contributes greatly to the shaping of a new civilisation. The difficulty lies in building the ship while sailing. This means that business can no longer afford to hide behind such platitudes as ideological agnosticism in the exclusive pursuit of shareholder value. Society is expecting business activism – an active participation in the societal reinvention process. Most executives are not trained for such a role.
What is the most valuable lesson you have learned from a student to date?
When I just started out, I used to encourage senior people (as many inexperienced consultants do) to ‘get out of their comfort zone”. One day, a senior, middle-aged executive had had just about enough of my meaningless ramblings. He got up to interrupt the group, and explained very angrily, “I have spent 25 years trying to get INTO my comfort zone. Why would I now try to get out of it?” This taught me the importance of a considered, conscious approach to consulting and executive education. Clients have complex worlds, and consulting platitudes do not help them. Careful, appreciative understanding of their challenges, coupled with deep respect and a willingness to advance them and their businesses, is much more useful than trying to sound clever.
Who inspires you and why?
I am inspired by the courageously innovative executives I have had the honour to meet in my work all around the world. I am also inspired by the bold creativity of artists. The artist, whether though music, dance, literature, stand-up comedy or any other form, has the ability to transcend the stresses of the day and to ask the higher-order questions. Artists risk constant ridicule in their humble creative contributions to the world. They are the producers of the subject of constant critique, but without creative output, even creative decision-making, there would be nothing to critique in the first place. When I grow up, I want to be an artist.
What attracted you to work with USB-ED?
I am drawn to the way that people shape the world through business, and executives are perfectly placed to do just that. Executives are out there every day, navigating risk, sensing opportunity and inventing the future, all while making sure they survive today in order for tomorrow to be even possible. How these execs could and should learn in the near-chaotic world of the future was the subject of my PhD and remains a source of great fascination. To support them on their journey remains a great honour.
Do you have a mantra or slogan that you live by?
If it’s not new, it’s old.
What career advice would you give yourself looking back to when you started out?
Stop talking. Be viciously curious as if your life depends on it, because it does.
Tell us about a book you have recently read?
I am re-reading the Tao Te Ching, a foundational text of Chinse philosophy (c. 4th century BC) and, to my mind, the very origin of Systems Thinking and the search for elegant flow in turbulence.
Posted in Faculty |
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Posted on July 16th, 2020 by SBS-ED
USB-ED is fortunate to have access to more than 300 part-time faculty, consultants, business leaders and industry experts who facilitate on our programmes.
Today we would like to introduce you to Nishana Bhogal.
What is the toughest leadership challenge businesses face today?
Balancing the often-conflicting priorities of environmental and societal needs with economic needs is among the most difficult challenges faced by leaders today. This challenge is often exacerbated by the dynamic and fast-paced nature of the business environment and information overload. Increasingly leaders are expected to navigate overwhelming volumes of data and respond expeditiously.
Who inspires you and why?
I am inspired by the works of Yuval Noah Harari, a historian and philosopher, since he often challenges my mental models. Sometimes criticised for being a pessimist, Harari is a realist who rationally explores complex and disconcerting subject matter. Importantly, Harari connects our (human) history with our future, alerting that the seeds being planted today bear serious, potentially catastrophic, consequences for the future.
What attracted you to work with USB-ED?
Initially, I was drawn to the strength of the USB-ED brand. I am pleased to say that they did not disappoint. Processes for recruitment, on-boarding and the support that followed were as if taken out of a classic textbook. Without compromising standards, the leadership at USB-ED have welcomed exploration and experimentation with new material and methods of delivering excellence to their clients. It follows that USB-ED is respected in the market, thus attracting a high caliber of academic and support staff. Working in such an environment inspires me to excel. As faculty, I am encouraged to conduct research and engage with corporate executives, which enables me to continually develop. I am proud to be part of USB-ED’s dynamic team.
Do you have a mantra or slogan that you live by?
I cannot control everything that has happened to me; however, I have control over my response. My strength lies in my responses.
What career advice would you give yourself looking back to when you started out?
Dream as if reaching for the stars, since your dreams are the self-imposed ceiling of your reality.
Tell us about a book you have recently read?
Earlier this year I read “Born a crime” by Trevor Noah. The book is written in a conversational and humorous style yet strikes at the core of numerous socio-economic challenges faced by many South African. For example, Noah builds on the adage; “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Noah argues that a man also needs a rod in order to apply his skills. In a modern context, the rod represents access to infrastructure, such as access to markets or capital. Such access together with skills may bring about meaningful transformation.
Posted in Faculty |
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Posted on July 7th, 2020 by SBS-ED
Getting the right blend of employees for your work landscape can be difficult. Just as soon as you have your bases covered, you should start looking to cover the needs of tomorrow. Succession planning, especially during turbulent times like COVID-19, should be high on the priority list of any organisation to keep your organisation fully functional.
Employees rarely stay at a company for a considerable period of time. There can be a lot of opportunities available to lure your best and brightest to other organisations where they might gain a new skillset. When your talent management plans include transparent and open communication about succession opportunities, you are showing your employees that you are willing to invest in them for the long term. This commitment speaks volumes about your company and its valued.
6 steps to successful succession planning
Here are six simple steps get the most value from your leadership teams as you gently navigate the best way to pass the baton:
1. A constant cycle
Unfortunately, the timelines for succession are no longer as lengthy or predictable as it once was. With workplace longevity sometimes seen as a flaw on someone’s CV, employees are motivated to move to new companies regularly. This means that every position is vulnerable to unexpected changes. To ensure the consistent productivity of an organisation, your talent management strategy should be a continuous process.
Resist the urge to delay succession planning until it is necessary. If you wait too long, your options for upskilling within the company become limited and you could have to look at outside candidates. This can be a lengthy and costly decision that might be rejected by the rest of your company.
A simple way to start your succession strategy is to look at ways to create an overlap in various key skilled areas so you can function with minimal fuss when employees take holidays, need a sabbatical or leave for a new role.
2. Evaluate what you have
Bridge future skills gaps by grooming the right talent early on. To know what you need, you should know what you already have. This takes honest and thoughtful evaluation of your employees.
You can make this process simpler and more inclusive by asking employees to do a self-evaluation of their skills, strengths, and weaknesses. Managers can then do a ranking of these assessments, so you have an honest inventory of the potential that is waiting to be used more effectively.
Next, your succession talent strategy can begin to evaluate which skills and talents can be upskilled or trained from within your organisation and which might need to be brought in from another source. Try to be as realistic about the experiences that will benefit your company and make sure they are attainable. Looking for a leadership executive with a minimum of 15 years’ experience, speaks six language, and is under the age of 35 is going to be a real tough find.
3. Tell your team
As an employee retention strategy, developing talent from within your company can make absolute sense for succession planning. Your employees are already well-orientated on the operations of the company, they understand what is required of them, and there is a much quicker turnaround time in getting them fully engaged in a new role. It can also boost the morale of your workforce when career progression becomes part of your business’ DNA.
Take some time to sit down with key employees and talk about what their career goals are and where they want to grow. You should have complete transparency about what is possible in terms of professional growth and a concise plan on how you foresee the development being executed. If you over-promise things that won’t come to fruition, you will lose the trust and respect that you have worked hard to gain from your employees.
Bear in mind that not every employee wants to be a highly-driven, over-achieving leader, and that’s ok. You want to act as a facilitator of growth and not an aggravator that takes away from a pleasant workplace.
4. Step up professional development efforts
Investing in your employees through various educational opportunities should already be part of your organisation’s talent development. Once you have earmarked candidates whose goals and skills are aligned with your succession strategy, you can ramp up their upskilling quite quickly.
This is the perfect time to foster mentorship relationships between senior and middle leadership to pass on the knowledge that only comes from experience. These kinds of programmes also impart skills that are unique to your company. Diplomacy, empathy, and teamwork are all softer skills that you want to keep within the company and can be passed down from respected leaders.
5. Give it a test run
When done with full transparency, business succession planning should include the opportunity for candidates to take on bigger tasks. Testing the waters can help you assess where the gaps are in training and give ‘successors’ an idea of what senior leadership is like.
When a manager goes on holiday, you can have junior management step into the role to gain experience. If you’re well organised, you can create a development domino effect where senior leaders taking time off for their professional development training (like the Executive Development Programme) allow other staff to stretch their skills while covering a gap. This can build leadership talent throughout your organisation.
6. Integrate your plan into hiring and retention packages
Succession planning processes should be highlighted during the hiring phase so potential employees know that you are willing to invest in them for the long term. Retaining employees with high potential isn’t easy. Additional perks like career development will keep them loyal to your company and less likely to seek other opportunities.
For senior leadership, a strong retention package will incentivise them to stay and be a part of the succession process. You want to keep both parties engaged for as long as you can. Building this strategy into the bones of your company will keep talent development and succession management running effectively and effortlessly.
Conclusion
The future is uncertain. Now is the time to ensure your business has a strong succession planning strategy built into its DNA. Sending emerging leadership on a Project Management course, for example, could instil some critical time and resource management skills that’ll stand people in good stead as they step into more senior shoes.
With all the discussion of the future successors, remember to keep yourself in the running too. As a key leader in your organisation, you want to create a plan for your own successor and build a purposeful next stepping stone for your development.
Posted in Career Development |
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Posted on July 1st, 2020 by SBS-ED
At USB-ED a Learning Process Facilitator (LPF) plays the vital role of mediator, mentor and advisor to participants and groups. Please let us introduce you to Dr Jane Robertson, USB-ED LPF.
Tell us a little more about your professional experiences, particularly those not mentioned on your resume/application.
My passion for understanding how people learn and deal with the
challenges of a multi-cultural society in a complex world of work
has led me to focus on identifying solutions that address these
elements. I have designed blended learning approaches, combining
digital learning solutions together with face-to-face classroom time.
I have also planned several learning strategies in various industries
whilst simultaneously considering the impact of implementation
from the organisation and student/participants viewpoints to ensure
sustainable results.
How do you define good teaching?
Could we rather use the word facilitation in place of teaching?
Good facilitation is a sharing, partnering process rather than a
telling process. Good facilitation engages learners and relies on the
learners’ own experience to build on and change. A good facilitator
cares about learning and the people they work with. Furthermore, a
good facilitator understands trends in learning and development and
can design an interactive workshop that meets the needs of both
the organisation and participants. A good facilitator talks less and
rather listens and guides, as it is the participant’s learning experience
and not the facilitator’s. Learning is not a once-off event – lifelong
learning is a concept that I bring to all my sessions through “good”
facilitation.
What do you think are the most important attributes of a good
instructor?
Instruction involves knowledge and wisdom that is valuable when
there is unconscious and conscious incompetence.
Share your ideas about professional development
Professional development should be ongoing and is vital to ensure
that businesses are able to keep up with changes in the economy,
market developments and trends in the industry. It is also vitally
important for the facilitator to ensure that their own professional
development is ongoing.
How do you engage students?
Firstly, I believe participants must want to learn before they attend
a management development programme or coaching intervention.
However this is not always the case, so to ensure buy-in and rapport,
I always build reflection into my sessions whether I am acting in the
role of facilitator or Learning Process Facilitator (LPF), as I believe
that is where true learning takes place. In addition, learning should be
fun and engaging so I like to build relevant experiential exercises into
a workshop.
Why did you choose this profession/field?
My initial interest in teaching combined with a passion for the
complexity of the business world led me to the field of human
resource development. Being a consultant has provided me with a
wonderful platform to hopefully make a meaningful contribution in
the learning and development field. My work on a programme for
street children, while at University, helped me realise that learning
needs to be an integrated rather than a silo approach. Realising this
has helped me be creative in the ways I understand and implement
learning and development. In addition I am interested in understanding
complexity and have a desire to enable participants to navigate these
complexities, thus facilitating relevant and real time impact.
What have you learned during your engagements with
participants?
I often learn more from my students than they learn from me. I enjoy
hearing the narrative from the participants and that sharing has
taught me that any intervention in this field must be fluid. Very often
what I learn from participants provides the base for the learning
programme going forward. Overall I have learnt that our assumptions
need to be continually interrogated, our biases recognized and owned
and bringing humanity and connection into the classroom creates
psychological safety, which is critical for optimal learning.
What are one or two of your proudest professional
accomplishments?
Successfully running my own Training and Development Business for
20 years in sometimes challenging economic times is certainly one of
my proudest accomplishments. Achieving my PhD is most definitely
my proudest moment. My research was on the development of a
transformative business-driven action learning framework.
My favourite quotation is:
“Love like you have never been hurt. Work like it’s not for the money. Dance like no one is watching.”
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Posted on June 30th, 2020 by SBS-ED
Whether you’re starting out or have been in the same role for a few years now, learning leadership skills can help you in both your professional and personal lives. While most individuals in senior roles have amazing CVs that list endless accomplishments, in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), young leaders will benefit by displaying fresh, innovative ideas and mastering soft skills.
What skills do you need to be a successful leader?
A lot of individuals have a natural inclination for leadership, but leadership traits can also be taught and honed. Harnessing these five skills is a crucial first step in your rise to the top.
1. Start with a good foundation
Displaying restraint is a key leadership skill and it all starts with discipline. Individuals who are disciplined are also the same people who have stability and structure in their lives and are respectful to everyone around them. Without discipline, an individual could do whatever they wanted with seemingly no consequences – a very bad position to be in if you’re a leader.
2. Strategy is everything
The ability to think critically and strategically is what’s most often cited as the distinguishing factor between leaders and managers. As a young leader, you’ll need to see the big picture and work towards that vision or goal with your team. Skills You Need suggests basing your decisions on the answer to one question: Does this take me closer to where I want to be? By keeping your eye on the prize, you won’t get distracted by minor details or smaller struggles along the way.
3. All clued up
In the same way that having a plan or strategy allows you to remain focused on your main goal, you’ll still need to have a view of the bigger picture. This is where situational awareness steps in. Good leaders anticipate problems before they occur and, by being both aware and strategic, you can hone your ability to foresee bumps in the road and provide suggestions to avoid potential difficulties.
4. Listen, don’t speak
For most of us, to listen is the simple fact of hearing someone say something. But in business, those who listen well to the people around them end up being some of the greatest leaders.
Why? Because all good communication starts with understanding what both you and the other person wants. If you’re really listening, you can avoid potential conflict, negotiate better outcomes and build solid relationships both within your team and with external clients and other stakeholders.
5. Stay on the cutting edge
According to a 2018 study, the ability to facilitate change was the most important leadership quality. In 2020, nothing has proven truer as businesses and leaders scrambled to put work-from-home and project management plans in place. Successful leaders are those who can adapt to change by stepping out of their comfort zones and exploring new ideas and challenges. Not only does this help give you and your business a competitive edge but it will also prove useful in everyday situations where there is constant flux.
Conclusion:
Want to master more leadership skills to help take you to the next level? USB-ED’s New Managers Development Programme (NMDP) is structured to help young leaders hone the necessary skills they need to advance their career. This essential management course will help you gain the confidence and capabilities to respond to business challenges and grow into a formidable young leader.
Posted in Leadership |
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Posted on June 23rd, 2020 by SBS-ED
COVID-19 has forced everyone indoors – and away from each other. And while your entire team may be working apart, your organisational culture is as vital as ever.
Company culture is the backbone of any organisation, influencing every aspect of how you work, whether that’s remotely or in the office. An easy way to define company culture is to liken it to the user experience: it’s the experience your employees have while working at your company or in your team. It’s also a combination of your organisation’s values, mission and goals, and can only be achieved if everyone, from employees and human resources to leadership, participates, says Lucid Chart.
If your company culture is what encourages innovation, accountability, performance and teamwork, will the new norm of work-from-home (WFH) kill off what is essentially the DNA of your organisation? Without effort from all sides, it may. These five tips will guide you on how to maintain the culture at your company while tackling the new rules of social distancing.
1. Define your purpose
Whether your company’s purpose is to drive more sales, “Make A Difference” à la King Price Insurance or “Live Happily Ever Active” like Virgin Active, stating your purpose and having buy-in from everyone in the company will provide your team with motivation towards a common goal. Make sure you continuously go back to this purpose in every aspect of communications and decision-making. It needs to be spoken about frequently to really take root.
2. Outline your values
Values are the core pillars that guide your organisation. These could include emphasising productivity over actual hours worked, advises business.com. If your values are aligned to those of your employees, it will also increase your team’s loyalty and dedication and they will be more likely to contribute to the overall growth of the organisation.
Again, it’s imperative to entrench values through visual cues, training and constant communication. You can also build your values around your staff… if certain employees exemplify traits you admire, take these traits and build them into your values, using the team member as an example.
3. Communicate using the right tools
Now that your team is working remotely, it’s important that you schedule time once or twice a week for everyone to connect with each other. Emails are great but can often lead to a lot of miscommunication. Instead, leverage the right technological tools to make communication a breeze – these can include the appropriate hardware, project management software and real-time chat applications.
4. Stay connected
A lot of company culture is reliant on the human interactions that take place in the working environment. It can be difficult to achieve the same level of camaraderie when you can’t catch up at the water cooler or over a coffee. Instead, harness the power of Skype, Google Hangouts or Zoom to set up virtual socials such as a game night, lunch, happy hour or wellness activities that everyone can participate in without the pressure of work.
5. Think long-term
Although we may continue to work remotely for the foreseeable future, it’s important to think beyond lockdown. This could mean considering WFH options for certain employees once everyone returns to the office and how to maintain the company culture that’s developed over this time. AnswerFirst, a company that provides a customer care answering service, has virtual events throughout the year while remote project management tool company Blossom fosters a culture of continuous improvement, allowing all employees to identify areas within the business that can be improved upon.
Conclusion:
As with any company culture built over time, your remote culture is a continuous process. Even if a physical office does not exist, providing your employees with a sense of empowerment and trust as well as an open forum will keep your company culture intact for the long haul.
USB-ED believes that a strong company culture begins with a strong leader. Our Project Management course is designed to provide middle to senior managers with an invaluable understanding to respond to the needs of a modern workspace, including the virtual one we now all find ourselves working in. Click here to learn more.
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Posted on June 18th, 2020 by SBS-ED
USB-ED is fortunate to have access to more than 300 part-time faculty, consultants, business leaders and industry experts who facilitate on our programmes.
Today we would like to introduce you to Sarah Babb.
What is the toughest leadership challenge businesses face today?
To realise that the impact of COVID-19 will live beyond. Right now leaders are building muscles to lead in the unknowing and to learn to live with uncertainty and dare we say, curiosity. That to lead now takes courage and we are being called to ‘step up’- each of us. Make decisions, act, sense and adapt- all in collaboration and with a bigger picture in mind. There are many tensions leaders are balancing now- between caring for themselves, and for the organisation and for the globe, being disruptive and innovative, while trying to keep the ‘ship afloat’. Being emotionally agile, taking care of our wellness, while taking care of the wellness of employees and family are both important. This can make it hard to not be lost in the ‘fog’, and the best way is to just keep moving – one step at a time. And you are not alone.
What is the most valuable lesson you have learned from a student to date?
How many fascinating industries there are out there! I have been privileged to learn across all sectors right the way from apple farms to high finance, from building ships to building futures. And no matter where the managers and students come from, we all absolutely give our best to learn and lead. The commitment and dedication of people is astonishing. And the impact we can all have together is far reaching. How inspiring.
Who inspires you and why?
David Whyte – the poet and philosopher- as he talks to how much happens at the interface of boundaries. And this is the world we live in now – as he would say at “the conversational nature of reality”. We constantly tussle to step away from the past, to be in a stage in between of not knowing, to forging a next step into the future. It is how we engage with this, and how are we are in this, that matters.
What attracted you to work with USB-ED?
The range of sectors it works with. I was proud to launch a women in leadership certificate programme which we then partnered with Getsmarter/2U to offer online.
Do you have a mantra or slogan that you live by?
“There is always more around the corner”. This came from my scuba diving days when I went diving in Mozambique to swim with the dolphins. Sadly they were not up to playing with us that day! So we went on a dinghy to putter around the corner of the bay. And there was the most magnificent 16m whale shark that we got to snorkel alongside for 45 mins. Its dorsal fin alone was 1.5 m in length and it hardly twitched yet sent us churning. It was such a tranquil privilege to be next to this gentle giant. Since then I have always lived by the mantra ‘ there is always more around the corner’. We often hold onto expectations and demands, that things should be ‘just so’! And when they are not (like during the lockdown would be a good example), we often spiral and feel frustrated and even stuck. Yet if we keep moving and are truly sensing and open to what is emerging, there is always possibility and another way. These worlds hold true for us now!
What career advice would you give yourself looking back to when you started out?
I loved that I founded my own company from the age of 28, so my advice would remain – go for it! Keep learning and keep contributing.
Tell us about a book you have recently read?
“Unlocking Leadership Mindtraps: how to thrive in complexity” by Jennifer Garvey Berger. A great framework to recognise mind traps and those beliefs that hold us back to being effective in these times of turbulence. Practical tools and insights are offered both for personal reflection and for supporting leaders.
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