Francis Egbuson

It is common to get requests from clients who want to have a team building session as a way of boosting employee morale and engagement at work. And these clients should worry about employee engagement. According to Gallup research, top 25% of teams - the best managed and engaged versus the bottom 25% in any work place - the worst managed - have nearly 50% fewer accidents and have 41% fewer quality defects. What is more, teams in the top 25% versus the bottom 25% incur far less healthcare costs. So having too few engaged employees means our workplaces are less safe, employees have more quality defects.   But whether a two day off-site that combines some ''here is what we want to accomplish'' presentations and motivational speeches is the answer is a different matter. In fact we know from our work that it is usually not the answer. We let our clients know that the best teams are built during the week in the office. According to Gallup in it's Q12 employee engag...

A former chief executive of one of America’s top twenty technology companies was having lunch with his beloved wife of over 35 years at a restaurant just outside Atlanta when another woman with three kids approached their table. A little uncomfortable but focused, the chief executive looked up and waited for the encounter. A few minutes into it, the lady with three kids, said to him ‘’I know you may not remember be but I was project manager in one of your divisions and led project that delivered significant value to the company and you wrote me a letter’’. At that point, the woman reached in her hand bag and produced a typed note with several coffee stains and presented it. The chief executive stunned but barely able to recall the lady but remembered that writing letters of recognition was a practice he had adopted for most of his career, stood up and shook hands. The lady said that ‘’you were one of the few people who ever believed in me and today am the Vice President of AT...

On my recent trip to Lagos, Nigeria, a taxi took me to a rendezvous point to meet an old school friend of mine. The taxi dropped me off at popular pot on Victoria Island named ''Tantalizers''. I paid him and walked to wait in front of the restaurant. But as I called m friend on phone and looked around to ensure that I was aware of my surroundings - after all, this is ''Lagos''. To my surprise, the taxi driver came back and waited with me. I asked ''chief what are you doing here'' and he replied in a calm almost inaudible voice, ''Oga, I want make sure your friend come''. The taxi driver came back to ensure that I was safe before leaving!. Wow, all the talk about this ''Lagos''. According to the BusinessWeek magazine, ''Lagos not only has a severe crime problem and extremely poor infrastructure, the city has inadequate housing, sanitation, and medical facilities. Moreover, the risk of being caugh...

I'm Starting With The Man In The Mirror I'm Asking Him To Change His Ways And No Message Could Have Been Any Clearer If You Wanna Make The World A Better Place (If You Wanna Make The World A Better Place) Take A Look At Yourself, And Then Make A Change (Take A Look At Yourself, And Then Make A Change) -           Michael Jackson in ‘’Man in the Mirror’’ A participant in a workshop I facilitated a few months ago narrated the ordeal of having a Manager who did everything to frustrate her work. And as some of the heads in the room shook, you could tell that this participant’s story was not made up. In fact one of the human resource officers in the room confirmed the story and looked straight me with this question ‘’now how do deal with such a situation?’’. I tried to generate options from the rest of the participants by asking ‘’how can we use any of the skills or tools we had discussed so far to help in such a situ...

Just before lunch today, I visited the customer care centre of my telecommunications company to inquire about my data service. For the last few days, my email delivery to my phone was very spotty. As noon today, the last delivery was from yesterday evening. A review of the mail history showed that two days, no email was delivered. I walked into the service centre and made my way to one of the agents who listened to my explanation and promptly handed me over to another support person who was at that time helping another customer out. The support person took my phone and tried to carry out two conversations at the same time. I waited for my turn each time to provide details and the support person moved his attention from the other customer to me and back. About 10 minutes into this, I was privileged to get his undivided attention – so I thought, before he disappeared to the back – later I found out, it was to consult the data guru (name I coined for the technical escalation p...

The flight Purser on our flight from Dubai to Entebbe earlier today came to welcome my wife and I on-board. I noticed she had a hand held device that provided our background information –previous flights, seat and meal preferences, etc. The Purser took her time and answered question I posed about Emirates in-flight crew selection criteria, interview process, type and duration of training, etc. Earlier the ground staff at the check-in counter directed that I take all seven passports of my family and after identifying each one, said ‘’have them take a seat across, we will only need you during the check-in process’’. Here again, I asked a few questions about Emirates employee selection process and training. The attendant mentioned that she observed that Emirates recruited a lot staff from the hospitality industry because ‘’we know how to smile’’. In the two encounters above, I thought it is one thing to have a service process designed it is quite another thing to have engaged em...

I called the Emirates Airlines to book a flight from Entebbe to Dubai in December and in between on availability, the reservation agent took time to ask me ‘’what plans do you have for the holidays?’’. Oh, that was a surprise, usually when I call to make hotel or airline reservations, beyond the customary greeting of the day, I have grown used to the pause which is usually punctuated with ‘’are you still there’’. Was this agent using a script, I wondered. But the agent continued effortlessly to keep me engaged while he answered all my questions. I went on to book an Economy ticket, even though it cost one hundred and forty dollars more that Fly Dubai (the recent low cost carrier on this Entebbe-Dubai route). No surprise here as the American Express yearly survey on customer experience found that three out of four (74%) consumers say they have spent more with a company because of a history of positive customer service experiences, similar to the past two years (75% in 2012; 73% i...

A Human Resource supervisor at a local bank told us recently that her Boss rated her a poor team player. And she wanted to know what she could do to change that situation. Beyond the rating, she felt she was working under a ''bad Boss'' for a number of other things she wanted to keep confidential. Her colleagues and I told her during the workshop that she could do any one of the following: 1. Find out from her Boss what she can do specifically to be a better team player 2. Ask her Boss to support her (coach and mentor) in the process 3. Take full responsibility for implementing the action plan from (1) and (2) above 3. And if (3) above doe not work, look for the possibility of getting another Boss at her current place of work or elsewhere Now the last recommendation  was met with stiff opposition. Another participant reminded me of the harsh job market that makes it almost impossible to get a low level job. Current unemployment in Kampala is 11% according ...

Not long a ago a prominent Ugandan Journalist stopped our Franklin Covey display at the entrance to the Sheraton Hotel Ballroom and made a comment to my Client Partner Boba Kabaramagi ''this stuff doesn't work..I don't believe in self help''. And he left leaving Boba reeling from his harassing behaviour. When Boba narrated the story, I thought  ''this stuff doesn't work?''. Now for those who do not know about the company, Franklin Covey is the product of the merger between the late Dr, Stephen R. Covey (7 Habits of Highly Effective People) Leadership Centre and Hyrum Smith's Franklin Planners. Today Franklin Covey is a New York stock exchange listed company with a mission to enable greatness in people and organizations everywhere and vision to impact billions of people throughout the world in how they live and work to achieve their great purposes. At Franklin Covey, we help, as Bob Whitman, the global Chief Executive Officer (CEO) pu...

Judy - The Manhattan Grille My wife and I had dinner today at The Manhattan Grille located inside the Grand Hyatt Dubai - next to Wafi City. We may have another Grand Hyatt in Dubai by the next time we visit, just like The Hyatt Regency - for the longest time, we had one in Deira and now there is a new sprawling complex called Hyatt Regency - that is a piece for another time. Back to our dinner. After waiting for twenty minutes, I went to the bar area to request one of the waiters to come take our orders. And that is how we met Judy, the waiter who by his deliberate choice to engage with us beyond our orders for Nebraska Steak, recovered the evening. Judy, who is Chinese, told us of his remarkable story of working in a 500-seater restaurant in Geneva, Switzerland, where he learnt French by memorizing client order and repeating it to his supervisor. With very helpful clients and a support supervisor, Judy is now able to speak flawless French (my wife, who is a...