By Caroline Akello Oruka, Capability Leader- Finance, ACLAIM Africa Limited with input from Alfred Brian Agaba, Managing Director, ACLAIM Africa Limited.
You have worked hard at University, got that A Class degree and attained a fairly good job. We’ll say fairly good, because that’s not where you really want to be but…..Well, you work hard at your job, stay late in office, work overtime, targeting that promotion. And after the rigorous year-end staff appraisals, boom!! The good news gets to you. You have been promoted to Sales Manager – set to lead a team of 12 young, ambitious and energetic Sales Executives. You’re very excited. You’ve arrived, and even throw a mini party.
Fast forward to month six, the tides start to change – the sales are dropping, the Sales Executives are demoralized, the temperatures are rising. Just this morning, in your monthly management meeting, you were put to task regarding the continuous unmet targets and were told to “fix it, or else…!” This is surely not what you signed up for – not what you looked forward to when you dreamt about that promotion. You go back to your desk, close the door, slouch in your seat, head in hands, and all you can hear is “fix it, or else…!”, “FIX IT, OR ELSE…!!”
This scenario plays out several times in lives of many that are called to lead at different levels in organisations. Coming out of this successfully, not only draws from one’s Competence, but also their Character, as a leader. It is a lot about what lies deep within the leader – many times, unseen. If this feels familiar, let’s take you through a journey based on Kenneth Blanchard and Mark Miller’s revolutionary book: The Secret – What Great Leaders Know and Do.
It is premised on the simple philosophy that Leadership is a call to S.E.R.V.E. We’ll take a moment to cover each of the letters in the S.E.R.V.E Model below which, if embodied, should help any leader thrive in their call.
See the future
Leadership is vision and direction. It’s about going somewhere. If the people you are leading are not clear about where you are going and where you want them to go, the chances of not getting there are very high. As a Chief Executive or Sales Manager or Supervisor, you need to let your team know what the vision or desired future is and to constantly communicate this to them. One writer says “vision leaks”. 
As the leader, you are constantly stepping out of the current reality, looking at the bigger picture and painting it for the people you lead. It is your role to help them appreciate the journey from the “painful here” to the “dream there”. This may require that you delegate some of the tasks calling out for you, so can you have time to look at the bigger picture. See the future, help the team see the same.
Empower and develop others
To empower, one first needs to get the right people in the organisation and in the right roles. Serving leaders take time – during the hiring process – to ask relevant questions to ascertain whether the candidate possesses the same values as those of the company, rather than only focusing on the competences. They would rather lose a candidate than a team member.
A serving leader engages both the heads and hearts of the people led. For every pair of hands you hire, along comes a free brain. Faced with challenging situations, allow the people you lead the opportunity to figure out and think of solutions before you can support them. Avoid being “Mr/Miss Fix It.”
People love to be trusted. Trust the people you lead to deliver on different assignments. They may not meet expectations initially, but trust them even when they make mistakes and allow them the opportunity to learn. That allows the leader capture the hearts of their team. The Sales Manager in our scenario above could have benefitted from seeking for input from the energetic and ambitious sales executives rather than tussle it out alone. Helping people leverage their strengths is one of the most rewarding parts of the leader’s role.
Further, seek to develop the people you lead. At ACLAIM Africa Limited, we hold weekly ACLAIM Academy sessions to learn more about how to better ourselves in conducting consultancy. This helps to transfer the capacity held by experienced individuals to the entire institution. One is able to clock in consulting experience off a job they were not involved in delivering by gleaning off the lessons of others.
Reinvent continuously
Leaders are always interested in ways that enhance their own knowledge and skills at a personal level. They love to read and are always open to training. Once you as a leader stop learning, you stop leading. This in turn creates a ripple effect to the organization/ team you lead.
Reinventing continuously also builds to the continual process and product improvement to remain relevant to the organization and to the different stakeholders.
At ACLAIM Africa Limited, we hold weekly ACLAIM Th!nk Tank sessions where all staff are involved in analyzing the needs of our clients and revisiting our delivery models to the end of creating or modifying our products to suit the client needs. This is an initiative implemented by our leadership to ensure that we are continuously reinventing.
Wouldn’t you think that the Sales Manager in our scenario could have positively benefitted from such a weekly session with their team?
Value Results and Relationships
This is one key dilemma that many leaders face. Some focus on results at the expense of relationships with the led; others focus on relationships without much care about the results. Both results and relationships are critical to sustaining a thriving organisation.
A major test of a good leader is whether they get results and whether they have followers. If a leader does not have followers, it’s very hard to get results. Serving leaders listen, invest time and care deeply. One leadership writer says “people will not give you their hands until they can see your heart”. Make sure your heart is right, and then your motives will be valid. Take time to invest in the relationships with the people you lead then the results will be evident. This may also mean being available to offer support outside work.
Most companies flourish because the leaders are committed to building relationships with the people they lead; right from the officers to senior management to gatekeepers.
Keep asking yourself, how much emphasis you place on getting results and how many of your people would say that you have made a significant investment in their lives?
Here’s a quick way to invest in relationships, practice the “be, do, have and help” framework. Ask the people you lead “What five things would you want to be, do, have and how would you want to be supported?”
“Fix it, or else!” Think about the supervisors of the Sales Manager in the scenario above, do they seem more focused on results or relationships or both?
Embody the Values
Walk the talk. Do not just have the values printed out on colorful canvas and stationed throughout your office. Live by them! The power lies in the trust and credibility you build and not on the specific set of values. A serving leader earns the trust of the people they lead by not only saying but also doing what they say.
As a person honored and given a responsibility of leading others, continually ask yourself whether you are a serving leader or a self-serving leader. And a simple but effective framework to support you in this is journey is to S.E.R.V.E:
See The Future
Empower and develop others
Reinvent Continuously
Value Results and Relationships
Embody the Values
By Caroline Akello Oruka, Capability Leader- Finance, ACLAIM Africa Limited with input from Alfred Brian Agaba, Managing Director, ACLAIM Africa Limited.
