Good Organizations-You Shall Know Them By Their Alumni

The value of an organization as far as mentoring and churning out of leaders is concerned can be known by looking at the said organization's alumni. The influence and impact that an organization's former employees are having in the various sectors of Government and the economy is a clear picture of how far their former employer invested in them in terms of mentoring and training them for leadership roles beyond the organization's doors.

An organization that's always churning out "impoverished" alumni is one to be avoided at all costs by prospective employees and clients alike. This is because the alumni are a reflection and some sort of a "brand" for their former employer. Having said that it's therefore important to understand that the value of the "brand" that is the alumni reflects on the overall value of an organization.

When Forbes magazine published the "10 youngest power men in Africa" 3 members in that list i.e Ghanaian,  Fred Swaniker who is a founder, African Leadership Academy, Cameroonian  Acha Leke,  Partner, Mckinsey & Company and Kenya's Gachao Kiuna,  CEO, Transcentury Group are associated with McKinsey. McKinsey is one of the leading companies as far as mentoring and creating leaders is concerned. The McKinsey alumni consists of the who is who in the corporate world and government. These include CEOs of global companies, corporate strategists and government advisors just to name a few. A notable McKinsey alumni is the management guru Tom Peters.

Another company known for the creation of influential leaders is Goldman Sachs which has produced leaders with the power to influence governments and corporate policies. Goldman Sachs's alumni's presence can be felt aacross the world from the USA to the oil rich gulf states. This is an organization that has produced Prime Ministers, Treasury Secretaries, and even the current World Bank President Robert Zoellick. The influence of Goldman Sachs is global partly due to the kind of almni it's managed to churn out over the years.

We cannot say enough of Microsoft, JP Morgan, Barclays Bank, Morgan Stanley, Safaricom, Airtel, UUNET, Oracle, SAP, Cisco, Apple among many others whose value has been heightened because of their mentorship and training programs that are based on the creation of global leaders.

There are many other companies, both big and small, with great policies aimed at creating leaders. Based on my own observation and research, some of the small and mid sized companies to watch out for here in Kenya as far as the training and mentoring of leaders among its employees is concerned include:

1.  Cionada Communications - A business communications outsourcing firm

2. Wylde International - An organization development consulting firm 

3. Intrepid Data Systems - An enterprise productivity solutions and  

    creative digital branding and online marketing firm.

The above three are among the organisations whose alumni have already started making inroads and having impact in their respective industries.

In conclusion, an organization that's producing the best alumni is bound to attract the best talent which is ultimately good for the bottom line.

_________________________________________________________________

A Day Care That Offers Incredible Services To Your Children.
Contact us on 020 814 7695, 254 726 829 091 for details.

Iconic Leaders

Iconic leaders are the kind of leaders that have been associated with a certain organization or brand. These leaders cannot be separated easily from their organisations or brands because of their "attachment" to their respective organizations and brands.

It is hard for most people to separate Bill Gates and Microsoft. In fact not many people associate him with the  the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in which he is currently actively involved. This is because during his days at Microsoft, Bill Gates became a "brand" of sorts and one could not think of Microsoft without Bill Gates. The same goes for Larry Ellison of Oracle, The late Steve Jobs of Apple and Donald Trump just to name but a few. 

In Kenya, for a long time people associated Safaricom with Michael Joseph. This was to an extend that some people thought that Safaricom would lose its edge if Michael Joseph left. Michael Joseph could not be perceived to be working anywhere else apart from Safaricom.

Such is the influence of iconic leaders in all spheres of life be it in politics, business, religious organisations and even in academia. 

Organisations that are run by these type of leaders should put in place a comprehensive and water tight succession plan. They need to guard the organisation against shocks that might come by at the exit of their iconic leader. This is because if not handled properly, the clients who are attached to the organisation or brand based on the leader might lose their strong attachment once the leader leaves. This therefore means that the clients should be informed of the pending changes long before it happens so that they can prepare themselves psychologically for the absence of their iconic leader. This will do well in maintaining client loyalty and opening up the clients' minds to the realisation that the organisation or brand is more than just the leader.

Iconic leaders are great for the organisation because of their attractiveness to clients. they can shore up profits and build the brand name of the organization. But care should be taken to separate the person from the organisation for continuity's sake.

At the end of the day, good employers will always attract good leaders who are able to propel the organisation from one glory to the next regardless of who is in charge.

Why Selfish Leaders Triumph (courtesy of Susan Adams, Forbes Magazine)

Statue of Genghis Khan: A new study shows that people prefer dominant leaders.

Would you rather be led by a saint or a tyrant? By the Dalai Lama or Genghis Khan? A new study suggests that while people appreciate the generosity and altruism of a Mother Theresa, they prefer to be led by Al Capone.

In the study, set to be published in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, business school professors from Stanford, Kellogg, and Carnegie Mellon, ran three experiments that tested participants’ perceptions of altruism and social status. The study subjects could keep a pot of 10 game chips worth a total of $20 or give the sum to a group pool. When they gave the chips away, they either helped their fellow group members, or both benefitted their own group and hurt another group at the same time.

After they finished, participants answered questions about how they perceived their fellow participants. Those who gave more away, not surprisingly, got more respect and admiration, or what the researchers call “prestige.” Others, who demonstrated a willingness to be selfish and to do harm to others, were perceived as having another kind of status, which the researchers characterize as “dominance.”

At the end of two of the experiments, the researchers asked participants to choose someone to lead them in two different contexts. In a non-competitive situation, subjects chose a leader with lots of prestige, who gave the most chips to the group. But to lead them in a competition with another group, subjects voted for a person who scored high on the dominance scale.

“It turns out that the perception of dominance is critical to leader emergence, because it fits people’s prototype of what a leader is,” says study co-author Robert Livingston of Kellogg. “Leaders should be decisive, assertive, strong, powerful, independent.”

Livingston says he and his colleagues were somewhat startled by their findings. “If you ask people, what are the qualities you want in a leader, no one says they want a ruthless leader,” he notes. But unless they’re voting for someone to head a benign organization like a trade group or a philanthropy, it turns out that people tend to support leaders who value their own power over the well-being of the group. For Livingston, the study suggests an explanation for many of the world’s problems. “People wonder how it is that there is so much corruption,” he says. “The world is rife with leaders who show relatively little concern for the well-being of the group.”

“People are attracted to the wrong leaders,” says Livingston. “This is what our data are showing.”