Taaka Awori, the Chief Executive Officer of Busara- Africa spoke about leadership tips that will help businesses reset in a presentation on the Citi Business Festival on-air series on Monday, June 6, 2022.
The Busara Africa CEO stressed that it will be very difficult to reset a business without the right kind of leadership.
“Everything rises and falls with leadership. It is very hard for your business to grow beyond your growth. So resetting your business, particularly for SMEs, will highly depend on you. Because you feel the impact of leadership at all levels.”
“If you are a leader, and you are not committed to digital transformation, and innovation or you are not open enough to innovation from different spaces, you won’t be able to transform to reset your business post-Covid-19.”
Taaka Awori was quick to clarify that leadership is not about titles and positions, but the ability of any member of a team to step up and influence to achieve a common goal.
She urged those in formal leadership roles to create conducive environments for members of the team to exercise leadership.
“This means the leader will have to work on themselves. He needs to work on his ego, and be humble enough to take suggestions from people he superintends. They need to unlearn what leadership means and practice a different kind of leadership.”
She highlighted how leadership can help businesses reset.
Embrace failure and build resistance
She said no business is immune to failure, but what distinguishes leaders who bounce back is how they respond to crisis and failure.
“I don’t think there is any business that has not seen 10 failures for every success story. It is not a straight line. It is about the valleys and highs. There is no business that can say it has had a smooth run. The difference is how they respond. It is very important to reframe failure as a clarifying moment,” she said.
Understand value and empower others
Taaka Awori stressed how critical people are to resetting a business.
“Unless you are a ‘solopreneur’ you will need people. Resetting your business is not something you can do alone. It is something you do with your team. Leadership is about relationships. One’s ability to empower others and put them first is key to resetting and rebuilding a business.”
Lead change
The Busara Africa CEO noted that one of the key leadership competencies for this new normal is the ability to drive change.
“Leadership is about change. Management on the other hand is about maintaining the status quo. In a bid to reset your business, you need to drive change.”
She said change should not be seen as a project, but as a mindset.
“Many times people see change as a project, there is nothing wrong with it, but we need to realise that change is more than a project. It has to do with a mindset and culture that is constantly open to change. Leaders need to learn how to constantly drive change.”
The entire month of June is dedicated to business on Citi TV and 97.3 Citi FM.
The Citi Business Festival is an extensive program of business events and on-air activities providing inspiration, business ideas, and information to persons who are starting, building, or growing their businesses.
The on-air series will air on the Citi Breakfast Show on 97.3 Citi FM every weekday.
ABSA Bank is the main sponsor of the Citi Business Festival 2022 and supported by MTN Momo and MTN Business Support, IT Consortium and the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), and GIRSAL.
