Francis Egbuson

The beef in the stew was very chewy so I told the Chef who happen to be inspecting the Buffet at that time, and his ready response was ‘’Ha it is Ghanaian Cow, African meat’’. And He went on to explain how you are supposed to know that Beef from Ghana and Africa for that matter is supposed to be this chewy. I promptly apologised and thanked him for taking the time to educate me. Yes, like a number of things you run into in these parts, the ready explanation is ‘’this is Naija’’ or ‘’This is Africa’’ and we get comfortable not minding the fact that this references now mean poor service, mediocrity or part of the process of ‘’nation building’’. Consider the ‘’nation building’’ excuse provided by Dr. Edward Omane Boamah, the Ghanaian Minister of Communications for the brochure that was printed to commemorate the Ghana Independence Day celebrations last month. According to one of the Ghana newspapers, ‘’the brochures were characterised by incomprehensible grammatical expressions, p...

I went to a face to face meeting with the Head of Human Resources of a large telecommunications company in Kampala a couple of years ago. After waiting for about thirty minutes the receptionist told me that my meeting had been rescheduled due to a previous meeting that ran over. The following week I came back and the same receptionist, to my surprise remembered my name. It is true what Zig Ziglar said that the ‘’sweetest sound in anybody’s ear is the sound of their name’’. Now on this occasion I was impressed that the receptionist took the time to notice and remember me the next time I showed up. I don’t know if it was part of their customer reception training or experience but it felt that way. Now As I go through each day, it has become customary for me to make mental notes or take pictures of people or places or products that deliver extraordinary service. It brings great relief because there is no shortage of the opposite – poor, thoughtless or flat out bad experiences. H...

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...