“People do not care how much you know until they know how much you care.” – Theodore Roosevelt
I strongly believe that the heart is the most critical part of leadership. For many years, people have led from their head only, but now more than ever, many agree that head and heart need to work together. According to Susan Steinbrecher, executive coach and leadership speaker, ‘Heart-Centered Leadership means having the wisdom, courage and compassion to lead others with authenticity, transparency, humility and service.’ “You lead by encouragement and inspiration, not by fear and control. Research has shown that putting people first by encouraging and motivating employees, companies can expect unlimited wells of creativity, initiative, taking ownership and productivity. The psychological and financial rewards are equally amazing too.
In today’s business environment, one can have award-winning ideas and brilliant strategy in paper, even go the extra mile to hire the “crème Della-crème” staff from Ivy League Universities. But if they fail to connect with your employees at the heart level, bring purpose, compassion, connections and inspiration into the workspace, then chances of success as a leader are highly compromised. Leading from the heart literally means that they are “all- in” for you and with you and will go out of their way to do anything whether you are present or not to make things happen. This will in turn most definitely reflect in your company’s bottom line which is a win-win for all. Is leading from the heart a natural instinct or can it be learnt? The late Bob Collymore, former CEO at Safaricom PLC, a great philanthropic and visionary leader was such a rare gem of such leaders that am talking about. I was so privileged to have met Bob during my youth mentorship sessions in one of the Kenyan public Universities and like many Kenyans, I was greatly inspired by his servant leadership right from the onset. Bob was loved by many and his death left many shattered and in disbelief for weeks to date. I was personally so much in denial that I sadly did not have even the strength to attend his memorial service and a year later I still don’t get it. Though a British citizen, Bob’s death in June 2019 felt like a robbery to many hearts and to the Kenyan economy at large. As Carley Bowman rightly put it “the passing away of a mobile phone operator would normally pass without much notice beyond immediate family and work colleagues. But Bob’s as he was universally known, was very different.” To know Bob was to know a fearless leader who served from deep-down his heart, one who genuinely loved and valued people and believed that Safaricom existed to truly transform peoples’ lives. Bob stood by these values both at work and in the community. But really what differentiated Bob Collymore with the former telco boss Michael Joseph (who many of us like teasing as Mr. MJ)? Let’s all face it, Michael Joseph was a “tough cookie”, no-nonsense and no doubt a shrewd engineer having built the Safaricom company for over 10 years before Bob came onboard. Indeed, the success of Safaricom sits at the heart of Michael Joseph and history will always celebrate him for building one the most unrivalled telco’s in East Africa – making Safaricom a global case study mainly due to the MPESA mobile money innovation. Funny enough, when Bob first joined Safaricom, the media harshly described “Michael’s shoes being bigger for Bob”. This is usually intimidating for any leader but whenever journalists asked Bob how he planned to fit into Michael’s big shoes, they were met with a confident smile and a calm grin–which they got used to well after some time. Bob’s unique character that many described as “soft man from outside but tough from inside” went through what most people go through when they take up a new leadership position especially if their predecessor was hailed as a “demi-god” and I too can attest I have been through the same where people underestimate your capabilities let alone your academic qualifications which I can tell you for free is super annoying. Pessimists second guessed Bob and his qualifications wondering if he even had the right academic qualifications let alone the right skill sets for this huge job. It’s so true, they say never judge a book simply by its cover! His critics later realized that Safaricom board and his recruiters had seen something in Bob that the general “know-it-all” public could not decipher at the moment. In my opinion the main differentiator for Bob’s legacy was simple – he simply led from the heart! His predecessor was such a techie who was very experienced in running a telco but it seemed that at the time when Bob took over, what was needed in Safaricom’s growth trajectory stage was the corporate affairs soft skills which brought tremendous transformation at Safaricom, accelerating its much celebrated success globally even after Bob Collymore’s death.
So, what made Mr. Collymore so special, especially to the people he led? Bob brought a radical new normal of running the telco especially to his unsuspecting then senior management who had been used to “same old same old” traditional way of running and doing things. So much so that the special VVIP (very important person) faster moving escalator at Safaricom’s Waiyaki Way headquarters to 8th floor eventually had to be gotten rid off because Bob believed management should be treated the same way as other junior employees. Many of his former staff recall vividly how Bob brought in a fresh free-spiritedness at Safaricom work environment removing many traditional barriers of communication which caused annoying bureaucracies that previously “killed” employees’ morale. All of over sudden thanks to Bob, employees could work in a more efficient, free, effective and productive environment that rewarded top talent purely on merit. Many Kenyans couldn’t believe that this British-accented new CEO would have lunch with his junior employees at their Gazebo. This was a shocker! They had never seen or heard any leader coming from his VIP 8th top floor specially reserved office down to the regular employee’s space and having real conversations with them. In the beginning, some of the introverted employees thought that Bob was spying on them if not being “corny” but he successfully broke the man-made hierarchy limiting barriers that always existed between regular junior employees and their top senior management, which was exactly what he wanted to achieve. Bob furthered endeavored himself to his staff member by attending their regular engagements whenever his pretty demanding busy schedule allowed. Such decisions ushered in a very different perspective on leadership at Safaricom moving from a top-down to horizontal kind of leadership. Bob took it upon himself to bring in some level of equality and Safaricom’s sustainability statistics show that during his tenure, he appointed many women at Safaricom to top management positions. Bob will be remember by Kenyan women of all spheres because he was an unapologetic gender equality champion which he truly believed was key towards economic Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) since women make up more than 51 % of Kenyan population as well as world’s population. During Bob’s tenure he introduced and greatly supported breastfeeding for lactating Safaricom’s young mothers at work by allocating a special space for them. This was revolutionary! His caring, inclusive thinking and the science behind this was to make new moms at Safaricom work peacefully, productively without having to worry about their precious infants who would have been at home with a nanny.
Besides the internal transformation, he also cared deeply about the customers they served and brought much needed change at Safaricom’s customer care centers, where the customer experience before Bob’s was far from satisfactory and the wait time was annoyingly long. Bob thoroughly understood the fact that happy employees’ yields happy customers, so he ensured that those who worked at the busy call centers had an improved working environment to boost their productivity and morale.
Bob also loved Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). He supported sustainable development goals (SDGs) that later earned him a position at the United Nations Global Compact Board, a voluntary United Nations (UN) initiative that encourages businesses globally to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies. As the Gender Champion for SBM Bank I was so priviledged to work closely with Bob under UN Women Empowerment Principles(WEPs) where he introduced me to Safaricom’s Women in Business (WIB) club where before his long illness we had ambitious goals of collaborating to lobby/advocate private multinational corporates to open up their supplier diversity opportunities for our business women that we bank. Bob was indeed a breath of fresh air, demystifying the notion that that in the technology space, all that is needed is technical skills to succeed but that soft skills that reside in the heart of a leader immensely increases productivity, a prerequisite to a thriving, sustainable and transformative company.
Another differentiating thing that I cherished so much about Bob was the fact that he was so down to earth and this opened him up to fun activities with people of all walks of life. When Safaricom was launching a mobile wallet for the Public Service Vehicles (PSV) popularly known in Kenya as Matatus, Bob wanted to engage so badly with the Matatu conductors and so he rode a few of those mini-buses and actually served by taking his turn being a bus conductor and all other mannerisms (The picture of Bob hanging on the bus door like Matatu conductors are notoriously known for and trying to imitate their unique culture of whistling loudly haggling to call on passengers remains most hilarious in my mind). Talk about customer-centric engagement to the core. Bob went a step further, genuinely caring and engaging in the communities he served. No wonder every year when I would do the annual “Mater Hospital Heart Run” or “Step for Diabetes walk” to raise funds for marginalized vulnerable kids who have diabetes, I was 100% sure to see Bob participate like the rest of us. Mind you when ordinary CEOs attended such community events with large crowds of people, it’s easy to find them “hiding” at some VVIP corner with their fellow ordinary CEOs or hanging out with fellow diplomatic dignitaries having loud hearty VVIP conversations, but Bob was totally the opposite which was so phenomenal. As soon as he arrived, he would naturally mingle and walk around and have meaningful heart-to-heart conversations with fellow ordinary Kenyans as human beings and his heart loved especially the youths who equally adored his company and was a legendary role model to many to date. Bob appreciated deep down that everyone brings something valuable to the table regardless of their social-economic status, age, religion, ethnicity or their gender. He also did not mind getting his hands dirty at events be it planting trees or walking for a good cause. His colleagues who worked very closely with him and Industry players will tell you that Bob Collymore was a visionary leader. As Chief Executive he turned Safaricom into a global inspiration icon of how to get affordable connectivity and mobile banking to everyone, especially the highly-marginalized people in informal sectors majority who were previously highly unbanked, by way of mobile money wallet dubbed M-PESA (Swahili word for Mobile Money). He had a vision for a new kind of leadership. He was determined to inspire fellow leaders not only in East Africa, internationally and more specifically Bob was an inspirational highly revered transformational icon in the growing network of global CEOs who had realized that they must lead differently. Known for his famous ‘colored socks’, he lived as if he knew his life on earth was indeed extremely short and so gave his all, leaving behind such a rich legacy. Bob portrayed the same influence both at his work at Safaricom, society and with his fellow CEOs. Behind closed doors Bob understood the importance of mentorship and he was praised for inspiring fellow top-executives and his young Safaricom staff alike. Many of his mentees who are now thriving in executive leadership roles to date are forever grateful for the direct impact Bob had on their career and how he shaped their leadership styles.
The million-dollar question here remains? What lessons can we all learn from Bob Collymore and other leaders like myself who have mastered and understood the power of leading from the heart?
It all starts from deep within your heart folks through intentional self-leadership as someone once said, “We have mastered our minds, but there is a greater need to train our hearts. The world needs leaders who build value by leading from the heart and believe in connecting with people.” Commit to start leading from the heart today
Fearless Leadership 