‘Let’s start with a caveat. I admire and love Uganda, but legally and all, am not Ugandan, …so my explanation should not be construed to have any political nuances, sivyo Ange?’ Mzee BSN firewalled himself as he responded to an inquisitive sales representative freshly recruited from college.
The staff orientation course we are conducting for one of our clients here was halfway its duration when the media got awash with voices and texts of Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja wondering how she is expected to supervise such highly qualified people. By coincidence, our second module in this orientation course is Responsibility at Work.
Structured at three levels from the elementary to the intermediate and advanced, this module is a must have for all employees at different levels in any organisation, be it private sector, public or NGO sector. The elementary level is tailored to welcome fresh graduates to the world of work. It is tinged with ‘shockers’ (in form of group work and self-assessment exercises) meant to ‘strike their eyes’ into the realities of the working world, both within their workplace and beyond; while the intermediate level targets middle level cadres being prepared for higher responsibilities and decision-making positions.
The third level(advanced) is for top executives, board members and policy makers who are the strategic vision-bearers for organisations and nations. Within varying degrees of sophistication according to the level offered, the module leads one to ask themselves one key question: what is expected of me in this current position?
Simplified, it leads one into internalising the key result areas of a given job function and the tasks to be executed. At the introductory level, which dominated the training since the majority of the participants were freshly recruited graduates, we focused on two key elements, namely self-management and working with others. Self-management starts with individual self-discovery in respect to the job and its key result areas.
The tool used in this self-assessment is replete with mundane but piercing questions such as ‘what time do I wake up on a typical working day’? and similar ones including prioritisation of tasks and managing bandits at work. At the end of which, each one will have self-discovered in their respective personality domains and the implication of this to their current job function and position. All this impacts one’s performance at work, thus the crucial factor of self-management. And since no one works alone in any organisation, the second element essential to performance is working with others.
Cardinal here is the mastery of what one needs from others in order to meet his key results areas and what others need from him/her in their performance. ‘This is very crucial’, Mzee emphasised. ‘It helps each plan accordingly…if you need information from a colleague that will require two or three days to obtain, please don’t come on the last day and ask for it…give your colleague time enough to get you the information…the same applies to your input into the performance of others…if someone comes for information from you at the last minute, have the courage to say ‘no’, and proceed with your own work’, Mzee concludes, adding that seeking to please others at the wrong time may affect your own performance.
As participants exchanged assessment tools for presentations, Ange, a cheeky sales representative shot the question: ‘could it be that Prime Minister Nabbanja meant ‘self-management’ when she said that she is not expected to supervise such highly qualified people?
Mzee gave the caveat and replied with a question: ‘from what we have learnt so far, ‘what do you think she meant’?
