As a manager one of the most challenging aspects of the work is to share a common goal with your Subordinates (team members), it is always a challenge to become an insider to their groupings, get a chance where they can share their fears about the common goals, their optimism and their greatest concerns. Any manager, who fails to strike a good balance between becoming an insider and being the boss, suffers greatly as crucial progress matters will be withheld from him.
Nicole started as off with a unique icebreaker. People were requested, after failing to create random team numbers, to narrate their most embarrassing moments. This icebreaker had an indirect psychological effect of help people bond well during the other sessions. The reason being that once a person shared their most embarrassing moment then there was little else to fear sharing.
Then the teams were teamed up with regard to the various territories and requested to come up with all the challenges they faced and share them with the other territories. However, what was unique in this huddle, in between coming up with the challenges, we noticed that the teams were also giving solutions to the problems. They were volunteered some of the ways they had learnt to manage clients, pitch and give reliable pipelines.
In between the presentation, memorable instances include a presentation by Coast territory’s Irene who presented the plight of some of her clients quite passionately and articulately. While seated I could see the others nod in agreement, what really struck me was not the issues rather how most of the other team members felt connected to the client. I felt this was a fundamental shift towards client support. We were making a major paradigm shift on what clients call customer support. How could I forget of the good piece of acting from Moses (TM Coast), Fred(Nakuru), Lydia(Nairobi), and Edwin(Githunguri), It was a masterpiece!
The next day the Venue was changed to Safaricom HQ, for the newbies it was another great opportunity to shed their doubts. An ‘issues’ session was set up where people sorted out their paperwork and got all information they needed. Running concurrently, were role-playing sessions where the more experienced team members got to give out important tips on how to pitch, profile and manage clients.
As the day wore on you could no longer tell the newbies from the rest. The bonding, the fun, the learning, the sharing was immense but not as spectacular as what would close the day. Sri made an amazing presentation about the reason for doing what we were doing. He gave many lessons he had learnt during the course of his career. He shared his fascination with the eagle(funny thing is that during the last huddle he was nick named ‘hawk eye’ maybe we should change it to ‘eagle eye’). The presentation served to inspire and challenge us both in our personal and professional lives.At the end of it all I felt that, slowly but surely I was transforming into a new individual kind of like a butterfly crawling out of its chrysalis. When faced with challenges I am slowly transforming to a seeker of the path of least resistance, just like water, I am now looking past things that used to work and opening up to new things that increase work potential exponentially.Afterwards Fred gave us two more poems the first being an ode to a beautiful lady who had caught his eye, the second, a moving tribute to the company And with that the huddle came to an end and people parted in the highest of spirits and full of enthusiasm and fire to go out and put their mark on the Kenyan business landscape.
To Julia (Uganda), who loudly wondered how such a formidable young team could be set up with such high spirits, we are waiting for Kuza Biashara rivalry from Uganda.
Kind regards,
