The ‘People scenarios’

When you ask people what they think the most crucial factor for business success is, you get some pretty interesting answers. Finances always come on top, be it starting or working capital. A group of top CEOs in the west recently said technology and so on. To be fair it sometimes depends on the business you are in in the first place. However, the one crucial factor that won’t go away is the ‘people factor’.This leads us to the ‘people scenarios’. It is a theory that you can tell the state and direction of an enterprise by observing how people interact in the enterprise, both with customers and also within the enterprise. As a leader, you would do best to take up the mantra from the Vatican; ‘the servant of the servants of God’, which is one of the titles of the Pope. You are there to serve as customers, both the internal and the external customers. Be sure that you are a good role model because your subordinates look up to you. As Americans put it; ‘the buck stops with you.’ This is your leadership role; leading by example. You also have to ensure that your examples and in deed best practice is being adhered to and things are being done right. This is your management role. Then you have to put together a team from scratch and ensure they work seamlessly. ‘a clock work’. This is easier said than done and is the team-building function. Curiously all these issues revolve round people and so people management is almost everything, it seems.There are four scenarios (based on true stories) that explain our people situation in the Rwandan business environment. They all revolve around the motivation and enthusiasm shown towards the customer (which can be very telling).Scenario one: Leader and employee(s) motivated: You get into a restaurant and the waiter is there to welcome you courteously and attends to you as soon as you sit down. The ambience is good. Your drink comes within a couple of minutes. The manager/ supervisor comes over to see if you have been attended to/ need something else/ is comfortable. All this,done very politely. You then, whimsically ask for peanuts, to go with your drink. It is not on the menu but they get it. You are happy to spend and will spend here. This is the nirvana!Scenario two: Leader motivated/ employee(s) demotivated: the last time you were here they served you really well and the manager added that ‘personal touch’. You came back with a friend to whom you have already highly recommended this place. Today things just do not seem right. Perhaps you expected too much? Your friend wants ice cream (which is on the menu), but you wait for forty minutes because they can’t locate the key to the freezer. The owner comes back and things start moving again. A re-orientation of ‘why we are in business’ is needed here. The owner might have focused on the external customer and has not realised that her/his subordinates are her/his internal customers. Understanding of the overall business environment by all is key.Scenario three: Leader demotivated employee(s) motivated: Strange but it happens. The owner puts together capital. And starts a business in area where s/he is not an expert. S/he hires the experts to run the business but insists on retaining control and playing the expert. You go into such an institution and things go very well at the beginning then fizzle out. The positions are just titles without corresponding authority. Responsibility has a twin called authority, you can run but can’t hide from this.Scenario four: Leader and employee(s) demotivated: This is as close to hell as you can go in business. It happens when the leadership in the business with a self-centered and myopic short term view of profit. This will in turn make the employee(s) look out for themselves. Employees are with you till they find another job. That means you have the ones who no one else will have and commitment and team work are zero. The leader will need a hail Mary here. The change will have to begin with herself/himself. Here service drags and there apathy towards the customerThe human factor is especially crucial for us in Rwanda. The whole business of getting the ‘right mix’ of people to drive enterprise is still our greatest challenge. Note that the ‘right mix’ begins with you, whatever your position.