When Employed Managers Prove To Be Better At Their Side Hustles From Within

Ever heard that Mr. Tumbo Kombo was once a good leader but these days, the tyrant in him makes him a totally different person?

Or, Sally is the quintessential manager with a pleasant work ethic today and a welcome change from her intimidating style five years back?

These are often the conversations that juniors have amongst themselves. What they never get to analyse are the circumstances that led to such changes. Or if such traits are a smoke screen to things occuring elsewhere.

Leaders, like engines, are the results of many moving parts that when in tandem produce likeable results. Let us focus on just four of those. Environmental, personality, financial and capacity. Let us examine them then end it with a story.

Environmental factors cause many possible outcomes. We can look at them in two ways. Individual circumstances and independent circumstances.

Individual circumstances emanate from what the person has control over or are unique to that individual. Name, level of education and family are part and parcel of an individual. These can either advantage or disadvantage someone and take their toll in the workplace.

Independent circumstances are those that the individual has no natural connection to them. These include the powers that be in the workplace, the composition of the workforce and one's place in the office.

Personality is about an individual's behaviour, mannerisms and conduct. On a continuum of pleasant to horrendous, one can be correctly placed depending on how this is projected or experienced by colleagues.

The financial aspect is all about access and utilisation of finances. These could be personal or work-related. Money may not in itself bring success, but without it, one is unlikely to succeed. Its presence has a direct influence on the other three factors identified for this article.

Finally, capacity is a crucial element in determining a leader's fitness or competitiveness for any role. Capacity covers skills, knowledge and experience.

Let's bring them home with a story from the corporate world.

Two great managers at an organisation set out to establish a side business of their own. TBE Ltd derived from 'Two Bank Executives' is born.

The two have no immediate plans to quit their lucrative jobs as executive managers at a reputable bank. They have access to credit facilities and free business analysis skills at their beck and call, given that Relationship Managers and the Risk department staff wish to remain in their good books.

Each of the partners picks a relative of theirs to represent them in the company formed to provide advertising services to corporate organisations in need of publicity.

TBE shows promise and experiences good cashflows. But the more the business thrives, the more the two representatives running the business clash. Ego games mark their disagreements. Peter feels that because he is a graduate of business administration, he is better suited to head the business, after all, all the big accounts are his.

James also feels that he should be in charge because like the street smart guy, he has managed to keep all the concerned authorities at bay owing to his relationships with key people in both levels of government and other government agencies.

Each fires those aligned to the other and the business losses some key accounts and fails a crucial industry audit.

Mr. Kombo and Sally are actually the partners in this business. And they go over to TBE's offices to sort things out. Back at the bank, they usually are forthright and mostly balanced in addressing problems save for the fact that we know what others think about them. Peter represents Kombo and James is Sally's point man.

The normally rough Kombo is quite considerate when dealing with the matter at hand. It is Sally who is actually rough. Both display personalities that are the opposite of what they are at the bank and it confused the two guys.

Sally tells the two guys that when she is dealing with her employer's money, she is extremely diplomatic because she is paid to do just that. But when handling her private interests, she is ruthless. She gives both guys an ultimatum to either work together or quit. They have a week to disclose their decision.

Tumbo agrees with Sally and tells the two men to await a further decision on the day they reveal their way forward on teamwork.

As things pan out, Peter and James come to a truce and pledge to work in the best interest of the company. This pleases the partners and they then let out what was up their sleeve.

They call Antony into the room. He'd been sitting quietly at the reception area. He is introduced as the substantive CEO, and henceforth, Peter and James report to him.

Antony was an old hand in the advertising business. He knew all the people that mattered in the industry and had excellent relationships with key advertisers.

To Peter and James, it felt like a hard kick on the face, the kind that takes a few teeth out, for they literally felt toothless.

Antony swiftly gave them job descriptions that made Peter the Commercial head and James the Head of Operations. They got steep KPIs and had to account for their time and results at a weekly senior management meeting.

James also agreed to his targets with the board and won their agreement to pass by the office informally as they wished but strictly adhere to the board schedule for reporting purposes.

James and Peter tried hard to discredit Antony but the impressive results posted and attributable to Antony silenced such negative efforts.

At a board meeting where James and Peter were invited to report on their respective areas, Antony raised the matter of separating blood relations and professionalism. He had no issue with their relations but insisted that unprofessional conduct would be punished going forward.

The board was in agreement. And things smoothed out. The company continues to grow.

So, what really happened?

Sally and Tumbo from the outset put in place a watertight partnership agreement.

They both agreed that they were career bankers and would remain as such. They had talked about their two tallented relatives over the years and had promised each other that if they set up a company together, those two would be considered.

And when the business showed promise, they opted to step up the gears. They had approached Antony way before setting up TBE and agreed to bring him on board once the business could afford him.

Tumbo and Sally knew that guys who had hustled in small business ventures and had no experiences gained from the corporate world, were best at starting companies from scratch. They had seen it with the banks's customers. And that is what they did.

The week before Antony joined TBE, Sally and Tumbo had been on a strategy session with him. Nothing was left to chance. They had the right doses of Environmental, Financial, Personality and Capacity factors. Do you?