From A Bird's Eye View: On People

Over the course of my career I've had the privilege of working in both local and multinational companies, and with bosses of different nationalities. I have also been given the opportunity to manage a team of two, to a team of more than two hundred, both here and abroad.

Allow me to distill my key learnings so far when it comes to retaining talent and motivating people to perform:

(1) People will do their best to over-achieve (and will succeed most of the time), when you give them clear directions, realistic stretch goals, ample support, and most importantly empower them with trust;

(2) If your people know more than you about something (say a geographical area, or a skill), step aside and give them the bandwidth to do their thing. One of the surefire ways to demotivate someone is to tell them exactly what to do, what steps to take, when they clearly know more about their area of expertise;

(3) Money and other perks will attract people to join a company, but at the end of the day (among other things), the corporate culture and how the boss treats them will determine if they will stay for the long-term.

We do not know everything, and we cannot possibly be better than everyone else around us. Once we truly understand these key truths, we will be on solid footing to make a real difference as a leader.

#Culture #Leadership #Motivation #Inspiration #Performance #Trust #HR #Talent