Episode D6.012 (pr) Summary of Season 2 People Stage VI

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Introduction

Hello fellow humans! You are listening to IBGR Network, better know as International Business growth Radio Network—IBGR is our call sign for our radio station, but we are more than that- we are a family of entrepreneurs that came together to create a shared space of collaboration where you can join us to help you start your business, enhance your business, grow your business, or reinvent your business. 

I am Sadika Kebbi, your host for today’s Equipping Others radio show in our D6 stage—The get out of the box stage, or the reinvention stage. Along my journey of life Equipping others has become one of my main purposes. 
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I have observed that many people stumble and fall. Some of them stay on the ground, not knowing how to handle their mess. They just shove it under the carpet without reflecting on the causes. These people either stand up quickly, clean the dust and straighten themselves up to save their ego but not themselves or their business, or they stay on the ground and with time they drown in their mess, simply because they are not prepared, or actually not equipped. At some point along the way they forgot to grow. Equipping those people has become one of my passions, and one of my missions.

I am also a business coach, a trainer, a speaker, and a storyteller. I will be sharing stories with you every Thursday at 11 am Eastern Time, to help you get equipped.

Show Objectives
Why do you want employees to start acting like owners? Now it’s time to act! Over the past 10 weeks in the Stage of people we discussed how and why we want our employees to act like owners. Today is a review of the key areas you will want to focus your time and attention on in order to create this ownership environment.

 In my opinion, we are all owners in some way or another. As an entrepreneur-  I am a business owner who has taken the risk to create job opportunities for others, but as an employee I am a time owner, an experienced owner and an ideas owner. I can invest my time in any company or organization. I can implement my experience anywhere I want. I can share my ideas with anyone I choose to.
 
Thus why YOU? Why should an employee put all their investments in your business?

Simply because you care because both of you share the same vision and the same values.

 When I started my NGO under the name of Being Human, my pockets were empty. What attracted my Vice President, my treasurer and my other employees were my vision and my values. We all wanted to work towards peace building and social cohesion. We all believed in humanity and the power of love. Therefore, my team volunteered to start building our NGO together, then we agreed on salaries that are project based. After four years, we reached a point where we are investing in building our team’s skills and capabilities—attending all the training to be equipped for any future projects that come our way, and now I can say that I am able to pay my team what they deserve as profit. Yes as profit, you heard me right. Don’t you want your employees to become your team? Don’t you want your employees to claim ownership of your organization? Don’t you want them to be held accountable, and be responsible for whatever is the end result or the outcome of any project you end up implementing?

 Key Issues

1. Act like an owner.
2. Look for opportunities to innovate.
3. Accountability.
4. Volunteer for innovation projects.
5. Volunteer innovative ideas.
6. Building a career.
7. Mentor and develop others.
8. Effectiveness of working in teams.
9. Participate in additional training.
10. 10.  Willing to lead.

What You Need to Do
What I noticed during my journey of teaching is that by offering my students the opportunity to  volunteer in giving ideas and leading projects is that they became better learners, more creative, and more collaborative, thus they were ready to start building their future careers under my mentorship. This is exactly what you need to do to help your employees overcome their insecurities by making them feel important and appreciated.

As John Maxwell always says a leader reproduces leaders. By mentoring others and helping them grow you are actually giving birth to other leaders in your organization or in your environment.
In order to do so the first thing you need to do is to put your inflated ego aside. I remember an incident that took place at the university when I was still teaching there. One of the students was the son of a certain well-known businessman, and of course his son is the smartest, the most handsome and the best student amongst all. But that student failed in one of the courses and a father’s ego walked into the university one day offering money to the instructor of that course. Unfortunately, the instructor accepted for the ego of a father spoke to the ego of a teacher, and they were both blinded and couldn’t  discern the seeds of success buried into that young boy. Later I knew that after his father’s death the student couldn’t handle his business because daddy didn’t give him ownership, didn’t hold him accountable, didn’t offer him the opportunity to innovate nor gave him the chance to be mentored by his father. He even deprived him from building a career.

When your father is your role model, but a role model with a huge ego, the concept of success becomes completely distorted. Success=money, and when success is equal to money all an unmentioned son can do is spend, for he doesn’t know his purpose. He doesn’t know that discovering and reaching your full potential is one of your purposes in life.
The same example can be taken in case of employer and employee. Ego- and money oriented, and instead of building a team your creating egocentric environment where selfish people and back sabers grow.
 
2. To fulfill your dream you need a team. I fulfilled one of mine at the university I worked for a couple of years back. I had a team composed of the Chair, some other instructors and my students. We achieved the unachievable. I used an innovative approach to teach my students what they needed to learn while they grew, developed and became leaders. The Chair gave me the upper hand not thinking for one second that I am a threat for I was clear and transparent as she was clear and transparent. We both aimed to be part of the dream team along with the students. Trust and transparency were our foundation. Vision, mission and goals moved in the same direction and achievement hit the roof. Later I learned that the university president was part of our team. He supported every project and every idea. He was a key member of our dream team. 

 I will take you back to my university days as an instructor once more today. It was tough for me to explain to my students the difference between groups and teams. For as students they are used to group work but not to team work. Groups were made of 4 or 5 students who worked on a certain project, but I wanted my forty students to work as a team. I pushed them to look at the big picture—their business team. They had to find and get all the resources, find the right people to fill the different roles, they had to give up their personal agendas for the success of the team, and they had to wear a suit while they were still students in order to implement the course in an innovative way. Example the Bard’s course.

Some of my students even had to attend additional courses to learn techniques such as directing a play, or becoming the director of sound and light. Additional training that is another secret for your team’s success. The magical thing that happened at the time is that they all shared the same thinking. It's true that they had different roles but they had the same thinking, they were all on the same wavelength. 

Shows
Previous: Episode D6.011 Willing to Lead 
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Written by Sadika Kebbi