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Opportunities & Insights from Across Our Community
Hi everyone, here’s what we have for you this week:
Be comfortable with your team members pursuing other professional goals. In this week’s episode of The Everyday Leader, Ann Kitare from Kenya shares how she has embraced new workplace trends over her 8 years at Fuzu.
Our next panel discussion will take place on 14 September. Join us to hear leaders from Cellulant, Shuttlers and ENL Group unpack how to set up new managers for success. RSVP here.
Read on for more details…
Building a team from scratch, maintaining continuity in the face of staff turnover and being comfortable with your team’s motivations
Here are a few highlights from the conversation with Ann:
Building from scratch requires embracing that you don’t yet have all the answers: Ann joined Fuzu in 2014, a year after it was founded, and was hired as the company’s first employee based in Kenya, supporting the founders based in Finland. She found herself needing to build out a lot of processes from scratch. It gave her a sense of ownership but was focused mostly on individual contribution in her first role as a Project and Research Assistant. Since she was helping establish the brand in its first key market, she grew accustomed to quickly learning on the spot, which she said meant acknowledging that she didn’t have all of the answers but would need to work hard to find them on the go through research and market engagement.
Establish structures to maintain continuity in the face of staff turnover at startups: Like most fast-moving startups, Fuzu has experienced its own share on team turnover. Ann has seen many people come and go throughout her 8 year tenure, and has personally kept the talent-focused mission on her mind to create a sense of continued purpose. She has also helped shape the necessary internal processes and structures to ensure ease of handovers so the engine keeps moving, including individual growth plans to provide more predictability for career planning. She even points to the benefit of new staff coming in with different ideas, which has helped her team evolve over time.
Be comfortable with your team members pursuing other professional goals: Ann has worked on her leadership skill of keeping her team members motivated. She does this in part by taking time to understand each person’s personal and professional motivations. She then makes sure to find ways to align their work and conversations on these motivations, even if they are not exactly related to the role or even their company or industry. This is particularly relevant in the new age of increased gig work, where professionals often have options and skills they can put to work alongside their work with you.
Panel Discussion: Setting Up New Managers for Success
CoffeeChat's panel discussion series hosts Talent and Learning & Development leaders from companies and organizations across Africa. Each panel discusses and shares insights on important topics around leadership development and supporting managers.
The panel's topic is "Setting Up New Managers for Success" with a focus on these discussion questions:
What are common challenges that first-time managers face?
Which types of support do new managers receive at your company?
Our panel will feature leaders from across the continent:
Kevin Wakuze, Group Head of Learning & Development at Cellulant, based in Kenya
Ijeoma Anunibe, Head of People at Shuttlers, based in Nigeria
Lailesh Sidaya, Talent & HR Manager at ENL Group, based in Mauritius
CoffeeChat is a coaching platform trusted by top companies across Africa. From interns to CEOs, CoffeeChat helps democratize access to personalized coaching sessions with peers and professionals to accelerate their growth. Visit www.coffeechat.co to get started for yourself or your team.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions shared by each panelist are their own and not that of their respective companies.