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...