A Bad Boss Should Not Lead You to Abrupt Decisions

I was recently contacted by a friend on a matter that concerns someone close to him who was going through a major dilemma at work. The problem is one that many who read this would be familiar with. Essentially, it revolved around a boss that the person could no longer work with. Of course, I know only one side of the story, but in my understanding the relationship had broken down to the point that the person hoped to move to a different department within the employer or just resign from the job with no immediate alternative. However, with everything seemingly staked against him, as he was much younger and had a shorter history with the company than the boss, he felt that he could not win.

Based on what he had seen, the boss had the capacity to derail any attempt for him to move to another department. Oddly, but something that did not also sound unfamiliar, this boss tends to rely on this person for the most complex assignments, but behaves as if this person is not a valuable member of the team. Layered with the race dynamic that is so prevalent in corporate South Africa, this young person, who had grown up in a world that was supposed to be free of racism and discrimination, felt that he was up against it. In his training and development, he had assumed his historic good grades at school and diligence at work was sufficient for him to succeed.

This caused enough stress on the person that he thought it was better to simply resign without a job. My friend was asking what I would say in that situation, and whether it was not better for the person to simply up and go. I indicated to my friend that in these matters one needed to understand the complexity of things, including the environment that the person was working under. In addition, from my experience there is no right or wrong answer, but an appropriate answer for the context. However, there were fundamental principles and approaches that I use to help me get to the appropriate decision.

Fundamentally, I always ask myself why I am in employment and not running my own business. This is a critical question that informs the choice one makes in terms of pursuing a career. If the reason I am not running my business is because principally I am not attuned to creating and running my own business, then my record as a professional is something that is important to me. In a country that has a high employment problem, keeping a good job, not necessarily under any circumstance, is something that I value. Therefore, I tend to be conservative and not want to take decisions that affect my ability to have an uninterrupted record of employment, because I know interviewers read a lot into unexplained gaps in a CV.

The other aspect I think about is that I pursue my career for myself and not for my boss. It may be that at a particular point in time I may be working for that boss, but I am always clear in my mind that I do not belong to that person or dependant on him or her. We have a relationship that arises out of my contractual relationship with the employer, and my being employed is a function of the value the employer wants me to add rather than the feelings of my boss. Important as they are, I refuse to allow them to determine who I am. In order to even be assured of this, it is important for one to create a professional network that transcends one’s current function, and build relationships independent of your immediate superior. Then the world can really appear in your eyes for what it is: a complex place with abundant opportunities and multiple potential relationships through which one can unlock the next opportunity.

Related to the above, I always think about what to do to draw on every inch of personal strength I have. This can come from me directly, but also from my support network. It is those who really care for you that can provide an anchor in the most difficult of moments. Whilst it may be true that you may face problems with your immediate superior alone in terms of direct work interface, it does not follow that in seeking to find solutions, you have to do the thinking alone. Getting others to co-reflect with you is an absolutely critical part of the process, and the answers that may come through would not have been possible alone. I never want to be an island.

Part of drawing from your personal strength requires you to have a multiple approach to dealing with the challenge you are facing. I have written before on this topic in 2014 (No One Should Have the Power to Derail Your Progress), where  I outlined a six-step process that includes self-reflection, understanding the opposition, sense of own value, trusted and value network, confrontation and owning the solution. If the problem is also to do with an insecure boss, I can refer to my other article on some tactical approaches to use (Asserting Self to an Insecure Boss).

Lastly, one of the most important things to do is to focus on what has made you get where you are, and how you can use your strengths to leverage for another opportunity. That means starting to get out of thinking that the future will start and end with the current boss. In the interim phase, though, one will have to be patient in working under such a boss, but in knowing that this is a situation in transition, your mental state will not be the same as one who thinks they are in a hopeless and permanent situation. My experience has shown me that such bosses tend to have the naive assumption that they are the beginning and end of one’s career. Nothing could be further from the truth and I always want one to understand and internalise this simple yet powerful truth.

In essence, my response to my friend is that the person should not be making abrupt decisions, but applies a series of problem-solving tools and engage in conversations to look at multiple solutions to their current challenge. Fundamentally, it is about changing the people one works with if the relationship with a superior is irreparable. But simply leaving a job out of anger or emotion, because of someone who does not care for you or your family, may be satisfying temporary emotion, create a negative long-term impact.

I hope the person reflects.

Making Your Growth Natural: How A Friend’s Experience Brought This Home

Last week I had the honour of giving a speech in which we said farewell to a colleague, mentee and friend who was leaving one part of our employer for a significant promotion to head a department in another part of the business. In doing so, she also had effectively jumped levels and given new meaning to growth. I was also personally touched as I had been involved in mentoring her over the years, but I am humble enough never to claim to be the reason for her success. In fact, she is the reason for her success and her lessons are the subject of this writing, which is drawn a lot from what I said when we honoured her.

I started by talking about how, as we gathered there, we all saw her appointment as a natural progression. I can say without any fear of contradiction that all of us felt she had reached a point where the coming assignment was well-deserved and timely. In order to illustrate the point, and how we were all in one mind of her deserving it, I opened my talk by making reference to an event that occurred 100 years ago, which was the sinking of a ship of African soldiers from South Africa who had been drawn to assist our then colonial masters in the World War I efforts.

I borrowed from the words of the great writer S.E.K. Mqhayi (wase Ntabozuko), in his great Xhosa poem Ukutshona Kuka Mendi (“The Sinking of the Mendi”), written in 1943 (translated for convenience).

Ewe, le nto kakade yinto yaloo nto. Thina, nto zaziyo, asothukanga nto; Sibona kamhlophe, sithi bekumelwe, Sitheth'engqondweni, sithi kufanelwe;

Yes, this seems normal. Those of us who know, are not shocked; We see clearly, and say, things have happened as they should have, Through our thoughts we say: it should have been so;

In the statements and reflections made by others, to which I also added, it became clear that my friend had made the choice to exhibit leadership in the manner that she had carried herself in a function that was, at best, middle management.  

In order to better understand the nature of the person, I drew on the lessons and experiences of two very important women in South Africa’s history, being Lillian Ngoyi (1911 –1980) and Sophia Williams-De Bruyn (1938 - ). They both were leaders of the historic Women’s March of 1956. Comparing my colleague to the strength of the person that I understand Lillian Ngoyi was, I also felt important to quote from what she said after she was banned by the then apartheid government in 1957:

I must say I had a tough time, but my spirits have not been dampened. You can tell my friends all over the world that this old girl is still her old self.

I then reflected on the experience of Sophie De-Bruyn, who was 18 when she was one of the leaders of the Women’s March of 1956, and as of this writing is the last surviving member of the leaders of that historic march. Using the metaphor of the experience of such historically significant women was all the more appropriate also given my friend’s passion for the advancement of women in business, which was also the subject of her master’s thesis.

In them I found a representation of the kind of spirit that has given rise to a woman such as my friend we were celebrating. They both defied the unfair rules that seek to keep women in the background, and were prepared to sacrifice themselves for the greater good.

I felt in them one finds a representation of the voice of both militancy and empathy; friendship and conflict; independence and dependency; war and peace. But importantly I felt one sees the endurance of a spirit that defies the difficulty of a moment, and sees into a future that many so desire but do not really want to fight for. And I found the mixture of youth and maturity at the time of the march quite instructive.

Speaking of youth, I felt my friend also challenged many of us to realise that age should not be a reason not to give people responsibility when they show they are ready for it. And this she had done by firstly being there to assume responsibility in the most difficult moments, but also showed preparedness to take on tasks that were beyond her simple function. As I have written elsewhere, she was “practicing that which you want to become”.

I reflected on how she had become an inspiration to her colleagues, her generation and those who follow her. I spoke about how she could engage those who had more experience than her, and, in this instance, show the youthfulness of a Sophie and the maturity of a Lillian. I spoke about those who had come to observe and admire the fire in her belly, her drive and determination. But above all I spoke about her selflessness, her willingness to grow others, and share her experiences.

Some also admired here thirst for knowledge, and the ability to use her curiosity to build enduring relationships. I spoke about how my friend did all this and her work with absolute professionalism.

When all the above is noted, we could not but be describing someone who had the aptitude to lead others. Even though her behaviour had shown her leading others, in the corporate world it becomes important that this also gets recognised through formal appointment. Being confident that she would make success of the new task that she had been given, I was bold enough to quote this Ethiopian proverb:

Where a woman rules, streams run uphill 

Many of us always wonder where and how the next growth point in our careers will come from. Not as a matter of praise for a friend, but as a form of learning, I thought the experience I have outlined shows how growth can seem natural. This does not mean that in her journey my friend did not meet hurdles. It does not mean she had been perfect in what she did. But to me her experience shows how your next assignment or growth point can be determined by the manner in which you carry yourself; how you impact on others; how you invest in learning; and also practicing that which you would like to be. Having put her energy into her growth agenda, she made true one of the 7 Huna principles:

Energy flows where attention goes

Where is your energy focused?

Avoiding the Failure of Success

A colleague was sharing with me her joy in having won some excellence award at work. It was interesting for me to listen to her reflect on her journey over the last year and the things that changed in mind-set and attitude that set her on a journey that culminated in this excellence award. I then asked her what she saw as the meaning of this, and how it impacted on the way she would be seen in future. This was an aspect that she had not given herself the luxury to think about, she said, at which point I asked her to reflect on some of those she knows had won this award. She felt some of them had built on this recognition, but some seem to have disappeared from recognition. This was not so much whether they would win awards again, but more that their impact at work was no longer being felt.

We broadened our discussion to examine the phenomenon of some reaching a high point of success and the inability to maintain that. I told her about the leadership professor who once told me that “nothing fails like success”. It took me quite a while for me to grasp the meaning of what he said, but he explained it to me.  And the key point he made was that when you reach a very high point, it is not easy to stay at that level forever. His advice was that one could use the analogy of sports; where some are one season wonders, yet others find a way to display a level of consistency over time. They will have moments and seasons where things do not go well, but notwithstanding, they continuously exhibit the behaviour of champions.

For those who have been able to do this, we recognise them not so much for the triumphs, but for the consistency in terms of effort, determination, hard work, drive, initiative, engagement and many other similar traits. Interestingly, in organisations, we do not walk around with the results of our performance evaluations written on us. People see us for the manner in which we approach things, and conclude about us based on that, than some mechanical view of our performance. Those who are success-minded are never victims of negative results, but rather victors over the challenges they face.

The great Brazilian footballer Pelé is not recognized simply because he was a world champion at seventeen, but for the efforts that he put over many years. These were seen by an admiring public even during the times Brazil could not win the championship. Pelé himself said that “Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.”

Bill Gates warns that “Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose.” Those who maintain consistency and success over time understand fully that they need to have the ability to journey on undulating paths, and survive different seasons. They fully appreciate that failure is a key component of the success journey, from which great champions learn. In our conversation, I emphasised to my colleague that the recognition she had received was not the final destination, but simply a platform on which to build. But, as we reflected on the experience of others we observed, she was alert to the risk of her being lulled into a place of complacency, thinking that things will happen easily for her.

The biggest lesson from our conversation was that we never forget those things we did to get to a point of recognition. Whilst those would not be a guarantee of results in future, at least we know we have something that we can build on. Being a one-season wonder is more dangerous than maintaining even an average performance over time. Performing with the characteristics over a champion consistently, even during the periods where things do not go according to plan, is likely to result in the success we aim for.

Reflections on Success Factors in my Leadership Journey

This past week I was honoured by colleagues who were celebrating my being given what they said was a significant new responsibility at work. Noting my being in the banking industry for only six years of a career spanning some 22 years, one told me that I should not underestimate whatever achievement was being celebrated. One of the points that came out of the many discussions I have had was, what I think are the key things that have enabled me to be given the leadership responsibilities I have assumed over the last 14 years, including being able to do that whilst changing industries. One colleague said I should throw away the humility and speak about myself in this way. And so here I am being the proverbial fool.

It is trite to say that one has maintained this level of consistency by working hard and having the right skills and competence. But those are things that anyone can really have. In my case, I would like to highlight those other things that have allowed me to find routes to success and consistency in corporate leadership. I list them in no order of importance.

Curiosity: keeping my mind curious about things and never stopped asking questions not just why are thing the way they are, but, borrowing form George Bernard Shaw, asking why not things could be.

Humility and respecting other: It is a claim that many make, but my colleague who spoke at the celebration event we had said that his experience of me with respect to this is something that I should keep. It has enabled me to access people across different levels and find support in ways that I could never have imagined.

Being generous: My learnings and life experience have given me gifts that are of value to others, especially on issues of their personal growth. I have remained generous in sharing my knowledge and guiding others. I have through that deepened my appreciation of my leadership potential, and also become priviledged to understand very deeply the challenges that others face for their own growth. They also have given me so much back without me asking, and that has lifted me in ways I could never have done on my own.

Not obsessed with title or office: In my journey I have come to appreciate that it is not the title or the office that define me, and I refuse to let that define how I relate to people. I have to thank the boss from my previous company, who said this when I got my first executive job in 2002: “never confuse yourself and the chair that you sit on”.

Value talent: we speak about this a lot but never pay enough attention to the challenges of having talented people around you. Sometimes we get threatened by having people reporting to us who are smarter. From my first executive job, the people that I worked with and reported to me were always better than me in their specialised areas.  When you have better people around you, there are bound to be better outcomes with which you are associated.

Valuing diversity: diversity is a broad concept that cuts across issues of race and gender. It also includes working with people who come from different professional and life perspectives, and who see the world differently to you. I have found having a melting pot of different people incredibly powerful, and a great source of learning. I want diverse teams all the time.

Reading: linked to my curious characteristic, I continue to read as if my life depends on it. I have found value in dedicating a lot of effort in having a deep understanding of the issues that I have responsibility for, and also how they connect to the world. I do not know of any great leader who does not like reading.

Building and maintain a value network: A key part of my growth has been enabled by me being able to build networks across industries, professions, age groups and globally. In this I have also been privileged by studies that have taken me to different parts of the world. Networks have value that naturally multiplies. But for this value to be realised, I have had to continuously invest in these networks.

Taking responsibility: I learnt early on that in the teams I work with, I must be the first to take responsibility for any errors and omissions, as people do not like leaders who make themselves look perfect when, like any human being, they are fallible.

Presence and voice: I have always tried to make sure that my presence is felt and that in situations of leadership I have voice. Voice is not just about speaking, but also being felt to be present. Being present and purposeful is an important leadership responsibility, and I have found that it draws people in a very positive way. Through voice, I have found that my character has been able to show. People like to see your character.

Encouraging dissent: in working with people from different perspectives, I have refused to only work with those who will praise me and say yes to everything I say. I have found it valuable to encourage contrarian perspectives. It is through that process that the creative ideas with which I later became associated arose.

Empathy: an understated but very important character, I have always felt it important that those who work with you should feel you, understand that you are with them even if you are not physically with them. Empathy is a great tool to use to create shared meaning, and helps build that most elusive ingredients called trust.

Energy: I have been given this feedback all the time by people, that they have found my energy inspiring. It is an inherent part of my character, and I infuse every little work or assignment I do with it. It has helped build my credibility and allowed others to trust me with assignments that possibly they could have doubted me on without it. People do not want leaders who do not inspire and energy is an important aspect.

Hunger for success: A colleague told me that when he engages me he does not have any doubt that I want to go far. He also said that my humility helps in managing my own ambition. But he felt this hunger for success meant that the teams I work with would also be motivated to do more, as this was likely to rub off on them.

Celebrate others’ success: People do not like leaders who are jealous, and it is absolutely vital that we celebrate others’ success, especially in those cases where it surpasses ours. It just engenders trust in an inexplicable way.

Principled: I have never hidden what my fundamental principles are in any environment. Of course I have been comfortable with taking in new ideas. However, I have always felt it important that these cannot be at the expense of critical values and principles that define you. People do not appreciate leaders who do not have a backbone.

These traits do not represent the sum total of those things that have enabled me to be where I am. But they have been absolutely fundamental to the journey and I hope they provide interesting lessons. It is still a long journey to travel.

Asserting Self to an Insecure Boss

I have previously written about growth in the context of an insecure boss. I have been I inspired to revisit this theme based on a conversation with a very smart young professional. One of her major issues was having to deal with a very insecure boss and her frustrations with what she saw as an illogical behaviour. And you could add to this her challenge in being able to assert herself.

When I listened to the story, I was amazed at how her frustrations were driven by assumptions that the other party is supposed to know what is good. That in her shining with her work, her boss would be happy as that would also positively reflect on him. And how she was battling to deal with his reaction to her increased exposure, including having access to senior people that she would not be expected to have.

So her discussion with me was mainly about how to change her boss so that he could see things differently. She was hoping for tools that would make her superior see the error of his approach. And from the tone of conversation it was clear that she had been troubled about this for a while, that her discussions with him on it had not yielded success and was yearning for the freedom to be herself without having to fight with her boss.

My response to her I could say was unexpected. I asked us to role play situations similar to what happens between her and her boss. The only difference was that in this instance she would play the role of her boss, as she knows how he frames things, and I would be her playing a more assertive role than she normally would. We did this with two examples of situations, and in my response I showed how she could state her perspective without being arrogant. And I framed this around how in her functions the organisation is expecting her to perform and the stakeholders that she would ordinarily have to interact with without her boss being there. And all I did was to show her that she could use all the structures created for the area of work she is in to her advantage. And that in this process she would make the boss see the illogic of his thoughts without her saying so. I said she must never forget the power of exemplary conduct, especially if it is observed by those she interacts with.

This conversation also highlighted for me the danger that organisations, through poor managers and leaders,  can pose to the careers of young people. And how these young people yearn for support from their superiors, but which support does not come. I related to her a personal experience where someone sought to destroy my career. And how, after consultation with an older friend, he showed me a quote from a Jim Collins book that indicated research he had done on organisations in the US and found a high percentage of managers spending their time to ensure their subordinates do not succeed. And this friend then said to me why did I assume the same thing was not happening to me.

This quote really shocked her but more importantly made her realise the danger of the assumptions she had made of what her boss was meant to be like. And at the end of that conversation she was clear that her relationship with her boss would need to be reframed, that she needed to worry less about him that about herself and that she would also start to be more assertive about things without showing any disrespect. Her energy was better spent on the positive aspect of her mastering her work and deepening her network, being assertive about what was correct than the negative focus on the feelings of her insecure boss.

I do not know if all what we discussed will work in her environment. But I do know she has taken the very important step of assuming full ownership of her growth story. It will be interesting to watch.

Fear: The Growth Inhibitor

Due to very interesting conversations I have had this week, I wonder how many of us go through the challenge of dealing with the internal conflict of showing self and at the same time trying to become what our bosses expect us to be. How many of us have to live with the edict that "this is how we do things here"; "do not rock the boat";"questioning is a career-limiting move".

This has occupied my mind because this experience that many have to go through shows the contradictions that are inherent in organisations. Almost to a fault, all of them will proclaim that they seek to have the best people; they want people to be free to express themselves and contribute to new ideas; that they want to create the best environments for their people to succeed, and thus want the best of their minds and creative potential. Some actually do try and get the best people. But what we often forget is that organisations do not, to a fault, only reward the best amongst the best. Being a social being or system composed of people with different interests, and having an environment external to itself to which it must respond, an organisation will not simply behave the way it proclaims through some form of religious edict. It will respond to the culture that has developed, and that culture itself is informed by the behaviours that are rewarded, or those that are disincentivised. Paying a critical role in this, given their role in shaping the mannerisms through their control of reward systems, are those who have been given supervisory responsibilities, whom we call managers. Sometime people think these managers are leaders, but as we know, the 'leadership' honour bears no relationship to the title but is informed by the behaviour of the individual over time.

In this environment, what happens to you as the individual who thinks that your voice is an important part of your character? If this organisation has recruited you on the basis of your character, and gives you this promise of an environment that allows you to realise who you are, get involved in shaping an important dialogue and make you feel like a valuable member of a team? How do you respond when you think that this character that you have may not always be aligned to the culture that has developed either in the whole organisation, or that part that you are exposed to? Would it be fair to your family that you stop worrying about any negative impact to your reward or growth if you act as per an organisation's promise when you know this is not rewarded in practice? Does it not mean that you should change and try as much as possible to 'fit in' so that you can succeed?

Dealing with this issue in my view requires that we appreciate the paradoxical situation that the individual has been placed in. In order to succeed, the individual has to not only perform, but also show how they are different to others. This difference cannot happen without the individual displaying their unique strengths and capabilities, which may include showing those things about an organisation that the seniors may either be blind to or not understand. Some of these things may go against the assumptions or plans that the seniors have of the business, but the individual,  because of character, ability or principle, will not want to hold back from expressing what he or she sees. If, on the other hand, the individual decides to hold back, if it happens in future that which the individual sees really does have an impact that would have been foreseen had the individual spoken, they are unlikely to be recognised. Paradoxically, keeping silent has a short-term benefit, but potentially a long-term negative consequence. This is because, at a time when an organisation goes through very difficult moments, and now starts to really exhibit the behaviour of seeking ideas, that individual would not be on anybody's mind because there will not be a record of them showing leadership, notwithstanding the fact that in the past that may not have been rewarded.

Hence my approach is to err on the side of originality. That means being true to one's beliefs, opinions, observations and thoughts. It also means being open to a dialogue that may make you change your perspective. The alternative is suffering from a huge internal conflict because you are now trying to become something you are not, and over time this impacts your own morale, and thus your work. You become one of those individuals so defeated by situations that your head is always down, and everyone sees you as a source of demoralisation. The same seniors who wanted a meek behaviour from you start to judge you as an individual who lacks energy and enthusiasm.

In his book, Strong and Fearless: The Quest for Personal Power, Phil Nuernberger warns us about the twin demons that may inhibit us from displaying the best of ourselves and inhibit us. These demons are self-hatred and fear. Self-hatred is about guilt which reflects the past. Fear is about the future and reflects a response to an anxiety of what may happen. He tells us that an inherent characteristic of those who seek to control others is to instill fear, which leads to stress, and builds on the myth some managers have that stress drives performance. He tells us that fear destroys concentration, and when we go through fear, our minds are not as conscious and thus not focused. Why would I want to have a less conscious mind at work and how can I produce the best in that situation?

I like the advice he gives that we should focus on the present. What is it that I can do now that makes me build to the future I want to create? My words I always give in conversation are: "do now that which you want to become". And you will not do that by simply following a script that someone else has written and which has a very limited shelf life. You will not do that by closing your eyes to what you see which is not to the benefit of the business in the long term, no matter how uncomfortable to those who hold a senior responsibility in an organisation at present. The alternative is you being part of a slow decline that may eat both you and your seniors. It is a tough place to be in, but better than being one of the "timid souls" that, in the words of former US President Theodore Rooselvelt in "The Man in the Arena", "neither know victory nor defeat".

Do not be timid. Let your growth not be inhibited by fear.

Remaining Relevant for Sustainable Growth

I had a very revealing conversation with a colleague recently about the meaning of staying relevant as a root for a sustainable and growing career. This conversation was triggered by reports of leadership changes in a leading South Africa-based corporation which has operations both throughout our continent and in other markets in the Middle East. The vexing question for us was why did it seem that most people that were being sourced to lead its strategic business transformation were all coming from outside, some who were seen to reverse its progress towards a more diverse leadership.

We reflected how it had become successful by growing people from within. We could only speculate as to why but it seemed obvious to us that the answer was much deeper than we could know from outside. This discussion was also more relevant noting this apparent reversal of progress towards a more diverse leadership group, a critical question for a South African business in particular noting our apartheid past and the aspirations expressed in the 1996 Constitution.

Whilst we did not know what could have caused the internal candidates in that situation not to be the ones considered for the new roles, we reflected more in other situations that we know. We noted situations where people get to join or grow in organisations because they have particular characteristics, knowledge and potential for further growth. How sometimes these individuals show a depth of excellence that builds a promise for the future. In some cases, the organisations they work for do give them the support they need to grow, or sometimes the situations are frustrating for them.

But we then could see there are situations where some individuals become comfortable where they are, because the trappings of success start to consume them. The hunger for learning starts to fade away as they start to enjoy the material benefits of what they have achieved. The yearning for further development starts to disappear as they start to believe they have arrived. In a changing and complex world, which requires ongoing understanding of the external impacts on the business, they build on past success and internal relationships, blind to all that is happening around them. Holding to all they know and the relationships they have built to where they are now, they forget what had gotten them to the successful position they would be in.

Suddenly, the organisation faces an external shock so deep that it starts to look at ways to change its trajectory dramatically. And as it starts to look at its next generation of leaders, it finds that it cannot rely on them to deal with this new world. That they have not build the necessary complex set of skills or process of understanding new questions enough in a way that will help lead to the critical answers needed. That its next generation of leaders have been so internally focused; so driven by building internal power bases; so taken up by the ego of position, that they cannot be trusted with the critical transformational tasks that are so necessary for the organisation not to self-destruct.

And in many cases, as we proceeded with the dialogue, we could see that, as people grow, they forget that they need to stay relevant. That always they need to be who they always thought they were. And they cannot be that unless they continuously re-invent themselves; deepen their learning; always seek to understand the changes that are taking place in the world around them; build new external relationships whilst strengthening the existing ones; and take new opportunities that stretch their lateral experience which is a key building block for the future.

We wondered whether in the organisation we started conversing about it was not likely that some individuals did not continue to stay relevant. All we could was speculate. But more importantly, we could draw comfort for ourselves that this was a critical lesson nonetheless.

For you to have the staying power necessary for growth, it is critical to stay relevant. It is not only in the successful execution of the tasks of the present that this will happen. It is also in showing readiness to deal with the changes that come with an uncertain future that this will happen. Otherwise, the forces of change will cause you to miss out on growth opportunities which would have been yours for the taking.

Learn. Discover. Connect. Stay relevant. Grow.