Francis Egbuson

I ran into the excerpt from a new book by former spiritual adviser to President Barack Obama, Joshua DuBois. It quotes lyrics from a song by Nina Simone titled “Feeling Good”; Birds flying high, you know how I feel Sun in the sky, you know how I feel Breeze drifting on by, you know how I feel It’s a new dawn! It’s a new day! It’s a new life for me And I’m feeling good. —Nina Simone, “Feeling Good” DuBois in making his point that no matter what is happening around us, we still have the choice on what to keep our focus on, also quotes Psalm 59 which narrates the Psalmist choices in the midst of crisis: See how they lie in wait for me! Fierce men conspire against me for no offense or sin of mine, Lord. . . . They return at evening, snarling like dogs, and prowl about the city. They wander about for food and howl if not satisfied. I will sing of your strength, in the morning I will sing of your love; for you are my fortress, ...

As we match towards 2014, it is important to remind ourselves about why we do what we do as business. Why do customers continue to rely on our content, delivery capability and follow-up. Why do we continue to get referrals and why do people who attend our workshops give us 9 or 10 in our post workshop assessments. To be sure, our plan is to run a profitable business, with solid margins and great pipeline of future business. But as I reflect, what keeps Julia Nansubuga  - a 6-7 month pregnant woman running through the parking lot of Uganda Revenue Authority to deliver a proposal ahead of time, is not the profitability of the business or the prospects of future options. And as the ex-Google Uganda employee opined “this is great and I know I am in the right place”. That “right place” is right because of our mission. As FranklinCovey Executive Vice President, Sean Covey put it in his December memo to owners, “ In the end, we do what we do because we care about our mission....

It took my family and I almost two hours to get to the airport at Entebbe on Saturday. Traffic crawled along and we thought there was an accident on the way. But we crawled along until we go to Entebbe, no accident, just lost of cars and trucks on the road. We arrived at the entrance and we were told that our favorite airline gate was closed. We pleaded with airport security and airline representative but we were told that we were late - gate closed an hour ago. So we called our travel agent who insisted that we could still board because aour seats were "available". She said "you be an African and put something in that man's hands". The "that man" was the supposed supervisor. I said "put something in his hands?", "yes!" was the response. So we ended up staying the night in Entebbe for the next flight where we did not have to "put something in that man's hands" and where I did not have to prove the authenticity of my...

A client of mine asked a question a few days ago, after a few hours of our second requirements gathering session, “what is your success rate, I mean do you have sure fire way to change human beings..”. This client was expressing a feeling most have when it comes to investing in themselves or their staff. “Will I really change?”, “Can old dogs learn new tricks?” others might ask. You at the bottom of these questions are long held beliefs that it is difficult to quantify investments in training, especially in programs or processes that involve change in human behavior. But the good news is that old Dogs can learn new tricks and it takes about 28 days to begin to see evidence that adults have learning new behaviors.  The process as Samuel Smiles reminds is in forming new ways of doing things and overcoming the old ways that maybe working against us. The quotation now made famous by the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People program, Samuel Smiles says the following: “Sow a thought,...

                                                                                                                               I spent about 12 hours today flying from Entebbe, Uganda to Dar Es Salaam. What started out as a simple process to catch a flight turned out to be quite exhausting. I arrived at the Entebbe Airport at about 6:45 am in morning for a 9:45 a...

The Saturday October 26th 2013 New Vision newspaper cared a double spread titled "Lazy, thieving Ugandans give jobs to Foreigners", of course that was enough to interrupt my breakfast of fruit salad with honey, yogurt and nuts at Javas Cafe. Javas Cafe is probably an appropriate place to read this headline because it has a staff that is representative of both local and foreign workers who do a great job of providing predictable service and consequently lots of repeat customers. So I paused to read more. Quoting the former Executive Director of the Uganda Investment Authority, Dr. Maggie Kigozi, Some Ugandan employers take on foreign workers because Ugandans lack skills and are not trustworthy, "We lack experience because our companies are still young. When Uganda was embroiled in chaos in the 1970s, Kenya was peaceful and growing her skills in the hotel and banking sectors. That could be the reason why they have good managers,". The other "undoing", acc...

During my recent trip to Kigali, Rwanda where I facilitated a public workshop on the 7 Habits of Highly Successful People - Associates program - I ran into a Chef at hotel where we stayed. With one hand in the pocket while he prepared my omelette with other hand. What an image, first I thought this guy must be quite serious or just having a bad morning. So I asked "you a very serious Chef" I said and without thinking much the Chef responded "all the time". Wow, I thought, a serious Chef with one hand in his trouser pocket claiming to be serious "all the time". I almost dismissed it as another one of those hotel experiences that fits between a hotel room with no AC or fan and a Waiter who told me drinks like "Stoney" and "Krest" bitter lemon are Ugandan drinks!. But I thought a little more about it. Chefs like this one or employees who by their attitude make customer experiences unpleasant are the very reason businesses lose customers...

There are little things that make the experience to a hotel, shop or restaurant memorable, at least for me. Take my visit to the Spa at the Park Hyatt in Macka Istanbul for example. I found a notice - see picture - which listed 14 items that are available upon request!. Now I had to re-read the list a couple of times to be sure. Everything from toothpaste to shaving kits.  Very thoughtful of the hotel. I contrasted this with my local gym back home where to get a polythene bag to put your wet clothes will incur the ire of the attendant. Toothpaste? "no, that is for hotel guests only" is the polite but never-you-ask-again response that you get. So you can imagine my joy when I saw this sign. Which also got me thinking. On arrival, the guest relations manager came out to welcome my wife and I. She made the point of mentioning our long history with the Hyatt properties and welcomed us back. As a gold passport member of Hyatt, we got upgraded on the spot. What a way to beg...

I had the pleasure of attending the 30 year anniversary of my high school Edo College Benin-City. The function was held at the Holiday Inn in Brent Cross London where most of our friends from the Class of 1983 gathered to celebrate and give thanks. What an evening, from the smartly dressed black ties to the beautiful wives, it was a great evening to remember. I met folks I had not seen in 30 years, Jerry B and his lovely wife reminded us that couples can still dance like it was "1983!. Solomon Osagie - sorry Dr. Solomon Osagie gave a rousing speech which recollected the history and achievements of Edo College. But Solomon saved his best lines of the night for the unfortunate ICC (Bishop Kelly College) alumni who showed up to lend support. Bishop Kelly College (ICC) was a neighboring school on the same road in Benin-City. Gideon, Omodon (now Gideon Chukwualim) was still his subdued self, intellect and dance steps still intact. Emma Ikhifa (although graduated a year or so later...

African Time During our wedding over 15 years ago, my late father-in-law walked in through the side door into waiting room where the wedding party was awaiting to be ushered into the main reception hall. Without much hesitation and as if to respond to the anxiety inside me that we were over one hour late – “Africans have time, white people have watches”. While this did not offer much consolation, I reflected a bit on the thought that we did not have to be anxious because “we have time”. I almost forgot about this thought from my father-in-law, until a couple of days ago during a dinner with two American friends. One them – Benjamin made the point that his experiences in Uganda in the last 5 years or so has thought that Ugandans and consequently Africans invest “more time into relationships” than make commitments to be “on time”. So Benjamin will have us believe that rather than keep our commitments to an appointment, we kept our commitments to relationships. Well, my im...

We just arrived from Kigali, Rwanda where we hosted Franklin Covey global productivity practice leader Kory Kogon. Morning event with the Rwanda Private Sector Federation was awesome. We had about 90 plus guests for the morning event. Attendees were drawn from key private sector organizations and they came early to listen to Kory Kogon. Kory delivered the core thesis of the 5 Choices - that with today's paradox of instant access to data and poor decision making, the 5 choices provide the mindset, skill set and tool set to provide focused attention, improved decision making and greater physical and mental energy at the end of the day. The 5 Choices to Extraordinary Productivity are: Choice 1 : Act on the important, don't react to the urgent In today’s world, people are drowning in email, overwhelmed with demands, and trying to do more with less. 5 Choices participants explore how to filter vitally important priorities from distractions so they can make a real contribut...

Kory speaking on the 5 Choices - Feb 15 2013 in Uganda  Having just concluded a 5 Choices To Extraordinary Productivity workshop with Kampala Serena Hotel, it is great to be heading to Kigali on Wednesday to see Kory Kogon. Kory Kogon is the global productivity practice leader for FranklinCovey and she will be speaking at a breakfast event at Mille Colline Hotel on Thursday July 11th at 8:00 am. Kory is really the author and chief evangelist of 5 Choices. This invite only event is been organized by our firm CEMM - www.cemmgroup.com - and the Private Sector Federation of Rwanda - www. psf .org.rw- . Now for the uninitiated, 5 Choices is designed to ensure that we focus on our highest priorities that enable us leave a contribution in our selected roles in life. With 5 Choices you can act on and schedule the big "rocks" (major priorities) with clear attention, focused decision while increasing your energy levels. In a world of big data, alerts, pings and multiple decis...