There is a popular African proverb that says “every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up, it knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle, when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.” Sometimes when we are faced with change, often perceived as a life threatening danger, there is a temptation to pull tighter around the metaphorical camp fire circle and wait to see what will happen. This is where comfort and familiarity can be found, and it is easy to associate with other people in the same resistant mindset. There is a facile belief that lions would not venture into such a safe place and generally we human beings don’t naturally like change. However if we are in business, this is exactly the wrong thing to do. The initiative rests with the first one with their running shoes on. When circumstances change, you too must quickly adopt by adjusting our sail and so when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.
In today’s world, change has become much more volatile and the reality is that it can no longer be controlled! The recent Coronavirus pandemic (that has taken the whole globe by surprise)even the world’s most prosperous super powers- the United States of America and European countries such as Italy have so far not been able to control its rapid spread which has caused so many sudden deaths to date (my sincere condolescenes goes out to lives lost and for many people infected this far)
Traditionally most company’s change management approach attempts to control change by attempting to manage risk, resist change or control the direction of the change. For a couple of years now, the term “VUCA” has gained popularity becoming a very trendy managerial jargon for leadership challenges; a short name for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity, and a catchphrase for “hey, it’s crazy out there!” which covers various aspects of the ‘uncontrollable’ environment we are living in globally. VUCA makes it even more difficult to know exactly how to approach a challenging disruptions and its easy to use VUCA as a crutch, throwing off the hard work of strategy and planning-after all, you can’t quite prepare for a VUCA world, right or can you?
If we look at the 20th century one will see a huge amount of disruptions. The rise and fall of manufacturing, the birth of the digital economy, there was most definitely no shortage of change. Change was evolutionary and it didn’t take huge insights to see what was coming over the horizon. But today things are even more drastically different. The world no longer need feel “good leaders” instead we need fearless change agents who are comfortable operating in an environment of constant uncertainty and chaos and who embrace change quickly adjusting their leadership style masts accordingly to solve world problems. Fearless influencers are leaders who will not compromise nor tolerate mediocrity in their organizations unsettling the status quo. They boldly need challenge the status quo and way things have always been done because they are confident these processes no longer apply in the new business unusual VUCA reality.
Reminds me of my previous life we had innovated a digital solution which we dubbed “kill the stupid rule” which was an online “suggestion box” which internally encouraged all of our staff regardless of their ranks to continuously review outdated non value adding operational bank processes that were obsolete which no longer made business sense. This allowed us all critically think outside the box paving way for business process reengineering to stay relevant to our esteemed customers we served.
The world has changed and what was once very safe ground, no longer exists. In today’s world, no one is spared from constant change whether its the work place,churches or even entrepreneurship space to the political scene. In order to stay competitive in business, governments and organizations must evolve constantly! But the truth is nothing about managing change is easy for leaders because it’s not organizations, governments or countries that change it’s the people who lead these organizations who themselves must change first and drive that change from thoughts into execution. Steve Jobs was a master is driving change. He knew very well how to inspire and push his teams which enabled them release innovative, customer centric, demand driven products throughout the apple company every now and then.
For effective transformation to occur in an individual, a company or a country, a fearless leader must arise and take the bull by its horns. Nothing has ever happened without someone as crazy as Steve Jobs first deciding to take the first step of action to making the change happen. Change is the only constant and it is going to happen in your life whether you like it or not. It’s better to be mentally ready than end up getting surprises leading to stress that can affect your health and productivity. In my opinion COVID-19 crisis has taught us critical lessons as follows:-
1. Resisting change will get you extinct, so choose to update yourself with the changes and trends around you. Our customers’ world is rapidly changing. Consumers are living through a period of great political, social and technological disruptions. Customers globally are looking for organizations they can trust to offer them bold decisive leadership, not only now but in the future. Am particularly impressed by how us leaders in the Kenyan banking sector have positively responded to COVID-19 crisis by going the extra mile to support a cashless economy, educate our clients on how to stay safe, transact online, extending them care as their merchants of hope by sharing health nuggets daily to help them prevent spread (as we all know physical money exchange has high potential of transferring and spreading this deadly virus). We at State Bank of Mauritius (SBM Bank) for instance are constantly sending our staff and our clients educative health –personal hygiene short nuggets on how they can take serious precautionary safety measures(masks,temperature check, sanitize, social diatancing, keep calm) instead of embracing the negative fake news making rounds on social media platforms causing panic attacks. We are urging then to go digital, stay healthy, stay home training them how to migrate their businesses online. Banks have also done a great job coming up with a real practical measures for not only for customers but also for their staff to minimize the “crisis pain”. For a health crisis to not turn into a financial crisis, some drastic changes have been undertaken by the private sector. For instance Central Bank of Kenya on March 24th 2020 announced a set of additional emergency measures to mitigate adverse effects on our Kenyan banking sector from the Coronavirus pandemic-which will facilitate lending by commercial banks to borrowers who are in sectors that are adversely affected by COVID-19. As a result most commercial banks in Kenya agreed to extend the repayment of personal loans by a period of up to 12 months and have shown willingness to accommodate loan restructuring discussions with our Small Medium Entrepreneurs (SMEs) and corporate borrowers at favorable loan terms. In order to reduce the usage of physical money, one of Kenya’s largest telecommunications service provider,Safaricom has since waived off transfer fees for MPESA transactions below USD 10 and has also increased their daily limits to encourage the use on cashless mobile money just to “shoulder” millions of their loyal customers’ from coronavirus crisis burden. As a bank we are constantly monitoring the situation and are working closely with Kenya Bankers Association (KBA) as well as our regulator Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) for usual guidelines, Ministry of Health and security agents to share information and encourage ways to mitigate the crisis, because we must collectively adopt to this change to ensure SMEs sector remains growth engines for our country and the world at large.
2. Do not let fear silently stop you from innovating. Always ask yourself “What would you do if you were not afraid?”-Of course we are human and it’s normal to be afraid during crisis but should never stop taking risks. Albert Einstein was right when he said “even in midst of every crisis lies great opportunities”. Let go of your fear, run away from negative ungrateful people who “spill venom” out of their mouths all day long.
3. It’s important to always “smell the roses or smell your cheese” often, so you know when it is getting old. Stay alert and aware of your surroundings. Keep checking for any changes in your roses or cheese and prepare yourself accordingly. Invest in personal development, learn a new skill online or a find a new hobby. Few days ago when we released non-essential staff to work on a rotational schedule to decongest our working spaces as a result of the new mandatory government health “social distancing”bdirective, one of my our staff came and asked me “surely what will I doing all day at home” and I gladly but jokingly dared him to try learning new skills e.g. jogging to stay healthy, cooking, reading a good motivational book, do a short online course, help the needy, reorganize closets, call parents or siblings to check on them. You get the point here – if you like me always adopt a student mentality, stay foolish, stay hungry and keep smelling the happy tasty cheese as it makes life more fun,fulfilling and so much worth living. Always imagine yourself enjoying your new cheese even before you find it. The power of the tongue is simply “what you say is what you get” and whatever your mind confesses you sure will possess. Follow the universal law of attraction, keep thinking of what you want to achieve, make changes, take action and get it done.
4. “The quicker you let go of the old cheese, the sooner you find new cheese”: Don’t hold onto things in your life that don’t add value, such as sitting in a lunch table to gossip and spread fake news and rumors! Nobody got time for that in 21st century! Let yourself flow like a river and draw new paths (attract new cheese) when change happens. It’s funny how all of us have quickly learnt how to keep the 1 metre “social distance” and my goodness for us believers who would have thought that churches,mosques globally would be shut down and worshippers have all quickly gone online. At least Kenyan banking was already mobile and online. I urge us all to keep experimenting new things and invent new ways of doing things instead of the same old ways so that you attract “new cheese” to flow into your life because what’s what life is all about.
5. It is safer to search in the maze, than remain in a “cheese-less” situation: In the current coronavirus crisis let’s not excessively dwell on what we have lost or cry over how many lifes we have lost (which is honestly very heart breaking) But instead let’s try to see what is still there. Where there is a will there is a way. Instead of panicking why not count our blessings such as the gift of fresh air, life, our lovely families, us being alive and healthy. Today when you go home take a few minutes and physically count the things you are grateful for one by one and if possible write them down in a piece of paper. Try to instill this belief in yourself that there is still hope in every crisis and take the healthy precautionary common sense hygiene measures that have been set up to prevent the spread further such as staying home and self-quarantine for those who have some of the symptoms listed by World Health Organization. Doing nothing about something only adds to desperation stigma, idleness, fear and hopeless “cheese-less” situations that could cause extra stress related health risks. Most countries have already started taking serious unorthodox measures to control the spread of this deadly coronavirus such as churches and schools closure , quarantines in airports, ban of all public gatherings-so let’s all quickly adjust our sailing masts to the “new normal”
Finally as we all embrace the new normal COVID-19 world of social distancing and sanitizing every 5 minutes let’s stay calm and remain focused on bridging the opportunity gap for those highly marginalized and vulnerable members of our society who depend on their hard earned income they work for daily (who earn far less below a dollar a day). Let’s not forget to help them navigate through this crisis to not only contain the virus transmission, reduce the risk of spread. If this coronavirus does not teach us nothing else, may it teach us that we cant afford to be led by our “feel good” gut feeling, weak minds. Even more important for us Kenyan citizens with deteriorating health systems which for years have been neglected by our policy makers at the expense of poor citizens, i hope this painful coronavirus pandemic helps us to choose and demand authentic servant transformational result oriented leaders –those with the calm wisdom, innate empathy to apply broader outlook that the best of humankind has always shown. And to our political leaders currently in offices-who are notoriously known for “flying abroad” for medical treatments instead of building state of the art hospitals that they can be proud to use themselves-now that international flights are on lock down may it be a rude reminder as to why you were elected in the first place is to not to put your interest first before the citizens who elected you. Please repent and go back your sober servant leadership of putting the interest of all citizens first. Indeed this too shall pass because in God we truly trust but until then my friends stay fully sanitized, wear a mask,keep your social distance, stay calm and keep healthy. Looking at the scary death tolls in America and Italy (who have far much more advanced health systems way better than Africa), I urge you all to please comply with all the local authorities’ directives, be part of the solution not part of the problem as ignorance surely has no defense. As much as change is inevitable, always remember death and life is in the power of the tongue so please by all means speak life and keep hope alive, shall we?
Fearless Leadership 