CEOs - It's Time You Alighted From The Earthmover And Led Your Teams From The Ground Up

A major project was underway in a small town that was fast attracting several organisations. The town's fathers had doled out very attractive incentives to the business community. For every astute businessperson, it was no longer a matter of if, but when to move in to set base.

There was this groundbreaking ceremony that everyone was talking about. One of the largest firms on earth was setting up shop and it brought with it an atmosphere of hope. The residents' faces betrayed their untamed prospects for jobs, supply-chain related opportunities, spouses, and much more. It just depended on what one wanted as a lucky-dip like situation was playing out.

On the day, two executives from headquarters were in town. One of them sat comfortably in the VIP podium and radiated an aura of great wealth as judged from his attire and mannerisms.

He was clad in an expensive suit, a rare type Stetson and matching pairs of shoes and sunglasses to boot. He humoured the podium guests like he was paid to do it and wowed many of the ladies present with a sizzling dash of his unmistakable big-city charm. The onlookers smelt his expensive cologne as the wind blew it in their direction from the stage. He was the centre of attention and everyone looked forward to his speech.

Many of the important dais-seating guests used their invitation to hand him a resume' or two from their loved ones as they took their respective seats. In the residents' minds, this surely was their first three dimensional - 3D sighting of one of the richest men that ever lived.

The speeches went on and after the Mayor spoke, the conspicuous man addressed the crowd. It was quite an anti-climax because the speech did not match up to the expectations of those gathered around.

Granted, he was a great speaker but he was just another senior manager at the firm and not even the MD. He put them off with a remark about having a heap of job applications but with no power to hire anyone, he would pass them to his boss. His looks were just for show but the gathering wanted the man with the dough. And so he quickly invited the owner of the company to speak.

All this while, the owner was seated in the gigantic earthmover parked close by. He disembarked from it and got onto the podium.

This man wore the typical construction worker's overalls. He was in a helmet and dusty industrial boots. Earlier on, many in the crowd had seen him climb onto this earthmover that was minutes away from getting commissioned. At best, in their minds, he was the project foreman. To them, power suits signalled a person with the authority to hire and fire. But what he lacked in executive presence, he more than made up for it with his speech.

When he noticed that the crowd was losing patience with his misplaced demeanour, he quickly made his true intentions known. He asked two people from the multitude to join him on the podium. The pair, 'coincidentally', was the town's certified riff-ruff, Joe the daytime pick-pocket and Greg the twilight mugger. They worked in shifts. The people felt better seeing them on stage for their belongings were truly safe.

Right there before the surprised crowd, the man told the two guys that he had heard about them and that their trouble-making exploits were well-known to him. He told all present that his firm moved to town to genuinely help get such people out of financial trouble.

He then handed them helmets, boots and overalls and shortly, there were three identical people on the podium. Worlds apart financially but united as if equals by their dressing. Right there, the multitude felt loved. He assured the crowd that his company would create jobs for them and help to rehabilitate many more: "and next in line for the jobs are these two's customers so that they stop buying stolen goods". There were some 10,000 job vacancies in phase one of the plan and a further 15,000 in the final phase.

He wanted them all to be proud of the Company and to treat it as if it were their own business, because the whole world would henceforth, know that the town manufactured the acclaimed products. He added: "soon, the world will have a piece of your good work, and they will know of Joe and Greg too as two fine gentlemen who just needed a break in life". (This was said to much applause) : "And from this day onwards, you will know how these two made their money. They can account for it. This is the fairest way to grow, unlike some wealthy people who took the unethical route", (some more clapping): "They will help the Mayor and I at the groundbreaking ceremony shortly".

This crowd was a nostalgic one for him as it took him back to the time when the famous Mr. Mzuri launched his company in Kazi town and while in the multitude, he promised himself that one day, he too would set up his own company. He assured the people that Joe and Greg would one day set up their own Corporations, for just like them, he too was seen as riff-ruff but not anymore, for Mr. Mzuri gave him a job. He learned all that there was to learn and that earned him the confidence and skills to grow and break out on his own. He wanted the same opportunity for many others who were ready to learn.

Then quite unexpectedly he said: "and for those of us on the podium, alight from the earthmover or bus or whatever vehicle that you prefer, and get down to work in your respective fields. These people here look up to you for more jobs. Please leave the immaculate dressing to your marketing managers as we have done ourselves. Ours was here a few minutes ago and you can all see that he dresses better than I do, and I endorse that".

The lesson was neither in his dressing nor his wealth but in his humility and well-meant intentions. We are easily swayed by looks. We attach respect to what one has more than what one is made of.

Tangible-evidence-based-only-respect is about irrationally clinging to the razzmatazz. The things that are apparent to anyone's five senses just as the crowd had perceived the well-dressed executive. Many smart types do things differently and can easily pick out one another from the crowd like they say: "Waswahili hujuana kwa vilemba".

The next three paragraphs shall lend meaning to the remainder of this article through three culture types that will eventually lead us to the attributes of the effective CEO.

The first culture teaches its subscribers to hide their wealth from the preying eyes of their enemies and strangers for fear of attracting unintended consequences, based on its mythology. The members are encouraged to keep things 'chini ya maji' because they were looted from elsewhere in the first instance. The looters are indeed celebrated heroes after whom children are even named or are directed to for wisdom. We shall call this culture, type-1.

Another culture, type-2, teaches its followers to flaunt it like it is running out of fashion so that the enemy can gauge for himself the rich one's strength and feel compelled to keep off if he is no match. In this culture type, members are encouraged to do what it takes to keep appearances even if it is at the expense of sleeping hungry. You must keep up with the Jonse's no matter what.

A third culture, in this case, type-3, tutors its subscribers to remain humble and thankful at all times for they can never afford to judge a book by its cover. It further tells them to be pragmatic in everything that they do for nothing comes easy in life. They are reminded that success must never make them lose sight of their long journey to prosperity.

So you the reader and leader, fall into one of these three cultures. 95% of the people will lie to themselves in silence that they subscribe to the type-3 school of thought. I can only hope that you are one of them because only 5% are type-3s. Many people only admire type-3s whilst practising type-1 or type-2 financial cultures. They preach water and drink wine. They must jump off this bus quickly.

And now let us together walk through the path of the confident third types who are not swayed by what society thinks of their genuine actions.

First, he or she is simplistic. They can use Uber or other app hailing taxis for their normal business, even if they own big cars. They will hop onto a bus to town without feeling out of place. We have heard of Prime Ministers who take public transport to work. The simpler this type look the more they blend in with their surroundings. For them, the end justifies the means. They seek to answer the question: "how can I live below my means without compromising on my safety and essential comforts"? Conveniences must never replace their key objective. It is for such reasons that Warren Buffet has never moved house to match up to his ever-increasing affluence as it was always society's expectation. Here at home, philanthropic industrialist, Manu Chandaria is on record as having acknowledged that he owns only five suits, just one for every work-day of the week. If you have more than him, then you are leaning towards type-2.

Type-3s invest where there is real value. Taking up a stake in listed companies or via special purpose vehicles is a smart move. Understanding who to believe in and how to trust that your interests are well taken care of is a very fundamental trait to possess. The scandal at Enron taught us to go behind the visual evidence-based-respect to uncover the values and true worth of corporations. Most type-3s love to own that farm that we all admire as we drive by because it is well cared for. We love their milk, butter and beef but at the same time, they also wish to keep doing something else that they enjoy most. So they approach the owners and ask to let them come in as silent stakeholders. They will often emerge as a strong value-adding shareholder to have and so they successfully accumulate a piece of everyone's action but in natured silence. Type-1 quietude is forced silence while type-2s lack silencers altogether.

Type-3s are both street-smart and book-smart. They are insatiable knowledge seekers. They understand that if overtaken by the fundamentals at paly now, they will struggle to keep up. They, therefore, scan their environments carefully for changing trends and proceed to find the solutions, or at the very least, find the sources to the solutions. Their easy-mingling trait enhances the street-smart angle in them. Soon enough, everyone within their systems brings them information in an orderly manner, but they love to disrupt this well-guided and sifted information by going to the sources for the raw data. These actions not only serve to update them with the realities on the ground but also to equip them with the practice sessions necessary in making things perfect and easy to handle when they occur.

They subscribe to the goose principle. Above the water, the bird is seen to glide effortlessly whilst seemingly enjoying the experience. But below the water and hidden from the observer's eye, the goose puddles like mad. The effort needed to produce that admirable gliding is quite immense. Just because they never say it doesn't mean that type-3s don't put in the extra work. You admire them for what you see but you don't follow them closely enough to know what it takes to produce that which you adore.

In a WhatsApp group that I recently joined, a member posted some apt and profound information about Usain Bolt: "He has won 9 Olympic Gold medals, ran 115 seconds, made $119 million and for those 2 minutes (that mattered), he trained for 20+ years, and that's the investment". Notice that the time taken to train is far much more than the actual races times. Usain Bolt hardly talked about his punishing training regime. When many people jog around a few blocks, they post it online for friends to write back, 'well done'! But it's a 'well done' just after half an hour. We are different, maybe some of us need external encouragement to do as the doctor prescribed: "five kilometres daily", he said! so just do it quietly please.

Type-3s know who to team up with and what roles suit them best. They know when to lead and when someone else must be captain. Type-2s will insist on leading even If they are not best suited for the role. Teamwork is a survival trait that one needs to succeed in a dynamic world. Understanding how to team up is critical to your well being. The wealthy man in our earlier story, onboarded the type-1 inclined Joe and Greg not only to help them out but to also show the town residents that they were now one big team and together, they would serve the world with the company's products. He was demonstrating that there was enough for everybody in the small town. With type-3s, everyone wins.

Type-3s know how to give back to society. Again, Joe and Greg are testaments to the rich guy's will to give back just as Mr. Mzuri gave him a chance to get to where he now was. They don't give back according to societal expectations but as they by themselves deem fit.

Type-3s are fairly forthright people. They always follow the straight and narrow path and hence the rich company owner's advice to the crowd that Joe and Greg would now account for their legally earned money.

Finally, they are good motivators. They pride in uplifting others. They know that people perform best when incentivised correctly.

So what happens to you if you are not type-3 or you are not sure if you are? Is there hope for you?

My answer is YES there is hope. What may have happened to you is that society could have succeeded in pushing you to the wall. This has left you with no choice but to create your own coping mechanism and in this case a self-rationalised compensatory mechanism.

Success is always everybody's dream destination in the journey of life. We have all seen the trappings that go with wealth. We want people to accord us the respect that is evidently accorded to the high and mighty. For instance, fundamentals at the global stage may make the rich man at the village level feel very ordinary in the city or even abroad, because the wealth threshold is much higher when away from the village. So the type-3 guy will be visiting the village because he has family and neighbours to remain connected to.

On the contrary, a type-2 guy will be going to the village to feel whole again financially because that is where he is accorded the same treatment as the very wealthy guys by poorer villagers. This type-2 guy's compensatory mechanism from the dimunitising intimidation is marked by frequent restorations of his factory settings by regularly going upcountry for a psychologically infused recharge. It is normally exhibited through big talk and an overriding effort to demonstrate the true trappings of success. The saying: "Jogoo ya shamba haiwiki mjini", captures this predicament. So, truly, do you go upcountry for a genuine visit or do you go for a psychologically aided recharge? Or a bit of both? Does your visit give hope to others or it takes away the little left in them because you are a verbally abusive mercenary? Please do the right thing if you fancy your chances of being a strong type-3 candidate.

If you discover that you are always finding a reason to justify your actions, then you are seriously compensating for your twisted true-lies.

Do you know why type-3s are not overly trendy in their dressing? They are as practical as it gets but they may blend in from time to time. The whole idea of fashion is a market development strategy with a wide appeal because 95% of the people are either pure type-2s or a mix of the other two but with a dominant type-2 influence.

Normally, well-known or very wealthy people set the trend and it blossoms because type-2 subscribers also want to look successful via what is in fashion. It is their short cut to the much sort after success and they get firmly seduced by this compensatory mechanism - they are busy faking it till they make it, but soon, their hopes give in to a newer fashion that came faster than their success illusion could deliver. And this goes on and on. So they keep spending on newer items to the delight of the fashion houses.

The most successful mass-market companies in the world need very few type-3s to set the trend and then they get a massive following from several type-2s who want to be part of the trendy mix. The same is true for politics and religion.

To confirm your type, please ask five unbiased people to give you their honest opinion. Once the truth is out, do not despair, take it in your stride and get yourself into what we recommend below.

If you know from the get-go that you are not type-3 then please do the following.

1. Find a genuine accountability partner. One who means well for you and can tell you off when you joke around. (Being a clear type-3 is the prerequisite for the accountability partner.)

2. Write down the 8 type-3 traits from this article and turn them into goals. Four can be achieved in the short term (30 days) and the remaining four can be achieved over the long term (6 months to a year)

3. Act out the scenes by talking to your accountability partner like the person you want to be. Roleplay is a powerful tool. Have your acting sessions weekly.

4. List down the new examples of real application in the real world and discuss them during your review.

5. Review the program monthly

6. Like mentoring sessions come to an end once the objectives are achieved, only end them three months after perfection is attained.

Many good training sessions go to waste because they never give you a chance while in session to practice what you have just learned. You find yourself back at work and taken aback by the in-tray issues. You then only come out to say: "that was a nice course". But you never get to apply it or nurture it into a winning habit because you never got the chance to build up some true experience around it in class. And please do not build another compensatory mechanism around these steps. Good luck.