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“Owing to the fact that this has become more challenging in today’s technological world, the book provides practical guidelines that every manager will find relevant in their position”, she said ahead of the launch in Accra.

Being a manager herself, Dr Obuobi has shouldered the responsibility of leading a team of excellent service staff for years. Chronicling her journey in banking, over the past decade, the author sums up her experiences as exhilarating and positively challenging.

“Indeed, being a branch manager presents a learning curve to all and each day poses an opportunity to grasp some additional knowledge, gain fresh insight or imbibe some new values-there is never a dull moment. This book is an eye-opener and a must-read for all managers in the banking sector and beyond”.

Motivation

She told African Eye Report ahead of the book launch that she was motivated to leave a legacy spanning her over a decade experience in branch management. Dr. Obuobi added that she also wanted the book to serve as a manual of branch management in the banking and financial industry in Ghana and other parts of the world.

In her words: “The Diary of a Branch Manager is not just a manual for branch management, but also a Diary that shares industry experience from more than six industry practitioners and experts on how to be an outstanding branch manager in the financial industry and outside the industry.

The book gives insights to value creation, profitability and impact”.

Targets

The target readers are Retail Banking Directors, SME heads, Regional and Branch Managers of Banks, Students, Relationship Managers and any Manager or potential Manager in and out of the banking industry who wants to excel.

Key chapters of the book

The five main chapters of the book cover insights relevant to all industries in relation to Productivity, Efficiency, Value Creation, Succession Planning, Customer Experience and Client Retention Team Development and Management as well Impacting Creation.

It also has five key areas under the discussion-Service Delivery, People Management, Salesmanship and Business Development, Operational Efficiency, and Risks Awareness and Management.

Furthermore, the book captured additional tips from industry players as well as checklist to effective branch management. In all, the book has 96 captivating pages which can hold readers for 24/7 reading relaxation.  Reader(s) can finish reading the book in less than three hours.

Looking at the worth of Knowledge shared experiences captured and the practical and relevant nature of the book, it is very affordable.

A copy of the book which goes for GHS105 (US$/17) can be purchased after the launch at the Banking College, Chartered Institute of Bankers secretariat, Mall Pharmacy, Accra Mall and A n C Mall, all in Accra. While those outside Ghana can purchase the book on Amazon.

Also interested buyers can order the book on genevievepearl.com for delivery in Ghana and outside the country.

Several copies of the book will be made available at T.EDGE Hub, Madina, a suburb of Accra. Or interested book buyers can WhatsApp +233 244 799909 for purchase.

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The systemic “silo” of leadership action and its fragmented organizational landscape has been steadily giving way to working partnerships and collaborations. Leaders have no choice if they are to succeed in addressing the mounting challenges and expectations of crisis response and objectives than to practice inclusivity through partnerships and collaborations. Unleashing the impacts of collaborative partnerships in essence brings together the cutting-edge thinking from beyond organizations of what an organizations needs to do in practice to partner effectively and combine it with the latest thinking of sustainable leadership development and inclusion.

However, establishing the reasons behind why leaders and organizations have to work with partners across countries, businesses or within their value chain is the desire to expand or the need to cut down costs. Whichever way necessary, the growth of partnerships and collaborations in recent years have accelerated, driven by the benefits of risk and resource pooling, technology convergence, industry value networks and knowledge diffusion.

Meanwhile, given the significant investment of both time and resources required to develop and manage collaborative partnerships, it is crucial to access the genuine potential to create value for partners, evaluate the impacts and inputs for common leverage. Therefore, ‘leveraging the impacts of collaborative partnerships for value creation’ as a leadership inclusion subject in this article would attempt to address the need for strategic partnerships and collaboration efforts and how to build leadership and institutional capacities for partnership success. Let’s talk collaborative partnership through inclusive leadership.

Partnerships

Key areas of partnership and collaboration agreements involve major decision by organizations in creating relationship through an expressed or implied commitment to satisfy a common goal. Partnerships must be viewed as more than a contractual division of responsibilities and resources for tackling a common goal. Much more, it touches on the power of relationships, leadership and organizational culture which predominantly aims to help organizations to understand the degree to which they are currently set up to be institutionally fit for partnering.

Every partnership would require that parties have in place the right strategies, systems and process, culture, capacity and networks to be able to partner effectively and better contribute to the sustainability of the partnership agreement for the benefit of the organizations or parties involved.

The resource sets out to support companies in understanding the potential of optimized collaborative partnering lays out how to undertake a diagnostic on the degree they are set up and operating to be institutionally fit for partnering. Meanwhile, while it may seem obvious that the creation of value should be the basis for all partnerships, the issue is often confused both by a lack of definition of what we mean by value and by the related question, value to whom?

Value Creation:

Today’s critique in leadership discourse includes a call on companies to include a broader set of stakeholders in their decision making beyond just their shareholders. It is a view that has long been influential in organizational build up, where it is frequently embedded in corporate governance structures.

The approach is gaining traction especially when organizations consider to travel the trajectory of collaborative partnership agreement where Value creation is the primary aim of defining the agreement and the entire business goal. Value creation for customers for instance help sell products and services, while creating value for shareholders, insures the future availability of investment capital to fund operations. Moreover, understanding what creates value will help leaders focus capital and talent on the, cost and profitable opportunities for partnerships growth and sustainability.

The question however is how well enough is? Value creation is inclusive for organizations anywhere in the world, that is creating long-term shareholder value requires satisfying other stakeholders as well. You cannot create long-term value by ignoring the needs of your customers, suppliers, employees and partners. Investing for sustainable growth should and often does result in stronger economies, higher living standards and more opportunities for individuals. Value creating companies and agreements create opportunities for job creation and stakeholder satisfaction.

Inevitably, there will also be times when the interest of a company’s stakeholders are not complementary. In this context, it is advised that strategic leadership decisions of all kinds consider trade-offs to satisfy inclusivity and mutually exclusive benefits.

Collaborations:

Collaborative partnerships speaks to agreements and actions made by consenting organizations to share resources to accomplish a mutual goal. Here, collaborative partnerships rely on participation by at least two parties who agree to share resources as finances, knowledge and people. The essence of collaborative partnerships for all parties is to mutually benefit from working together.

Collaboration may mean engaging stakeholders, managing customer relationships, negotiation, building networks, appreciating diversity and dealing with conflicts. Collaborations are not only necessary to get things done but in most cases it provides the impetus to build a design process for support so to increase capacity for leadership sustainability and optimum performance.

The obvious questions that arise are that, does the leader or organization has the capacity to enter into a collaboration or partnership with others? What is the value addition that are being brought on board as a result of the relationship and whether there is a clear plan for the collaboration agenda? It is suggestive to admit that, every effective collaborative journey is determined by capacity, the relationship, processes and outcome expectation which would necessarily be supported by skillful abilities of the parties to make it a success.

While there is never a perfect time for leadership collaborations, it is important that every leader in the collaborative agenda be as prepared as possible and with the capacity to work with other partners. Collaboration across leadership and organizations have emerged as one of the defining concepts of organization development and leadership inclusion in the recent times. This new phenomenon serves as a response to the limitations of the traditional leadership led approach to an all-inclusive development approach, seeing an essential paradigm for sustainable development.

Collaborative advantage

Our world has limited resources whether financial, natural or human and as a society we must optimize their use. The fundamental core of good partnership and collaboration is their ability to bring together diverse resources in ways that can together achieve more, more impact, greater sustainability, increased value to all.

The importance of partnership has been recognized fully by the UN, business and all leading institutions in international development. The 2030 sustainable Development Goals (SDG’S), the blueprint for global development represent a fundamental shift in thinking explicitly acknowledging the interconnectedness of prosperous business, a thriving society and a healthy environment.

Therefore, collaborations must lead to some benefits and advantages. Collaboration between different sectors in society to achieve sustainable development goals is becoming an increasingly common phenomenon worldwide. However, cross-sector partnerships are by their nature challenging, requiring collaboration between players from diverse organizations that may have quite different priorities, values and ways of working to be effective.

These challenges are typically reflected in all aspects of communication both within and outside the partnership. It is vital therefore, to identify exactly what these challenges are and how to systematically address them so that communication becomes a part of the partnership-building process, not a cause of persistent dissent.

Consequently, Richard Sennett intimated that, cooperation oils the machinery of getting things done, make up for and sharing with others what we may individually lack”. Collaborative advantage leads to finding effective mechanisms for creating economic value and mutual support.

Why Strategic Partnerships?

Individuals or Organizations enter into partnerships to either leverage, integrate or transform. In any strategic partnership collaborations, the partners remain independent, share the benefits from, risk in and control over joint actions and make ongoing contributions in strategic areas. Partnerships take time and effort. Thoughtful relationship-building strengthens trust, compatibility and ultimately the productivity of the partnership and the impact of work together.

The hypothesis underpinning a partnership approach is that only with comprehensive and widespread cross-sector collaboration can we ensure that sustainable development initiatives are imaginative, coherent and integrated enough to tackle the most intractable problems.

Single sector approaches have been tried and have proved disappointing. Working separately, different sectors have developed activities in isolation, sometimes competing with each other and or duplicating effort and wasting valuable resources. Working separately has all too often led to the development of a “blame culture” in which chaos or neglect is always regarded as someone else’s fault.

Essentially, partnership provides a new opportunity for doing development better by recognizing the qualities and competencies of each sector and finding new ways of harnessing these for the common good. What does each sector whether the public, business or civil society bring? The “core business” of each sector leads to quite different priorities, values and attributes.

Arguably, too many partnership have been entered into on the basis that collaboration is a good thing, with insufficient attention paid to the essential questions: what is the power of partnership as a mechanism, the intrinsic added-value it brings, towards delivering on the organizational goals and expectations and how would each individual partner gain net value from its participation?

Effective Partnerships

To identify, build and maintain an effective, sustainable and impactful partnership is to have adequate resources to invest in the relationship. Effective operations to develop and manage collaborative projects or programs as well as maintaining partner agreement, skillful leadership to guide the partnership and projects are needful for sustaining effective partnerships. It is worth mentioning as well that, effective partnerships thrives on partners who have skills, resources and commitment to support the project and partnership at each phase.

The journey for effective partnership must focus on maximizing value for the partners as a whole and for all the partners. Good collaborative relationships are initially created by routine interactions between organizations.

It is through the interactions that potential partners learn about one another, identify each other’s expertise and interest and begin to build the essential foundation of trust and respect for one another. It is also through experiences that organizations begin to identify potential candidates for partnership when the need for collaboration arises.

Building Leadership and Institutional Partnering Capacity

How do partners help to build the capacities of those institutions involved? It is to be noted that effective partnerships do not occur overnight. It takes time to build trust and understanding of how best to work together. Developing and maintaining partnerships requires ongoing commitment and effort. It is important to choose the right partner at the right time for both your organizations.

Building an effective leadership capacity for partnership is a question of helping institutions internalize the partnership’s lessons. Sometimes it is simply a matter of time, but more often it is a case of combating active or passive resistance. There are several different approaches leaders can employ to build greater institutional capacity in the institutions and organizations involved directly or indirectly in the partnership.

These can include bringing their experiences of cross-sector collaborations into the institutions in order to build organizational culture change, human resource development, dynamic networks, better communications and opportunities for getting out of the box.

Quite essentially, strategic partnerships are formed to address the competitive threats of imitation and substitution. These fundamental reasons must be addressed in the value channel area for the imitation threats whereas the response to substitution should lie in strategies at the business model level.

Ideally, businesses that decide to pursue or build partnerships should introduce changes at the strategy level, including organizational structure, processes and most importantly ensure commitment at all levels. Companies should clearly define the areas in which the partnership should be built based on its general strategy as well as its objectives.

Once the biggest challenges of leadership and sustainability issues are resolved, Partners both individual and collectively, need to have a moving on strategy in mind possibly from the very beginning and even articulated in the initial partnering agreement.

The Partnering Processes: ‘Dixon Model’

Establishing and implementing a partnership is basically a dynamic process. Each stage has series of specific steps and activities that need to be addressed. In the early stage, potential partners come together to explore the possibilities of a partnership, the overall purpose and the value to each partner. At the creating phase of the partnering process, the activities like deciding when to partner, developing collaborative bid proposals, designing communication processes, and developing appropriate protocols among others take place.

The next stage in creating partnerships ensures that, once there is commitment to proceed a detailed strategic partnership plan is developed, resources are considered and implementation commenced. At the commitment level, resources are mapped for the partnership to commence, strategic partnership agreement is developed, engage technical expertise to inform the partnership, build capacity initiatives with partners, manage and coordinate the partnership flow.

The last stage of the partnership sustainability level encompasses the establishment and review of the partnership deal flow to assess the delivery, continuation or otherwise of all that has been planned. Under this peculiar circumstances, monitoring commitments, reviewing and evaluating of outcomes, developing new strategic directions and the capturing of the key learnings to resolve conflicts and differences are desirous.

Interestingly, every partnership agenda is to champion relationship management, coordination and administration, communications, monitoring, awareness creation, resource mobilization and planning.

Securing the commitment of a partner through interest-based negotiation and the examination of certain critical governance and accountability issues of the partnering agreement is fundamentally crucial to the partnering agreement processes.

Key Partnering Challenges:

Strategic partnerships inevitably involve challenges that have to be resolved efficiently to ensure the longevity and success of the alliance, such as isolating proprietary knowledge, processing multiple flows, creating adaptive governance and operating global virtual teams.

According to research, reasons for the success or failure of most partnerships included the importance of matching the objectives, values of relevant stakeholders, effective governance and the necessity for a strategic partnership to be mutually beneficial.

In summary, however, if leaders and organizations would create value through collaborative partnerships and supports, they need to understand how to manage creativity and know-how to manage efforts and embrace building relationships today.

Discovery….Thinking solutions, shaping visions.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Frank is the CEO and Strategic Partner of AQUABEV Investment and Discovery Consulting Group.

Dr. Obuobi (Banker/SME Consultant and Leadership Strategist)

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The organizational agenda and commitment for inclusive leadership and action primarily facilitate positive intergroup interaction, reduce discrimination and generally foster harmony at workplaces. Building an inclusive leadership in essence is a critical leadership consideration and a drive for attracting and retaining productive employees, the maintenance of high moral and fostering of understanding among employees.

To talk about inclusion is to deal with the subject matter of diversity and equity in workplaces. To borrow the words of Verna Myers, “diversity is being invited to the party and inclusion being asked to dance”. The role of leadership to lead inclusively always has remained a challenge and almost impossible due to multiplicity of factors.

However, the pursuit for cultural change and transformation only become real when it is about the execution, the implementation and the understanding of the people within the organization for change and the reinforcement of discipline for leadership action. Obviously, remaining static is not going to make the business successful and if ever any organization needs to grow, adapt or change, sometimes a shift is necessary and this at times may mean a transformation from the top to bottom and inside to outside. As such, the best way to look into the future is to gain sense of where things are moving to instigate change. Changes could be as small as modifying processes and work design or as big as completely changing the direction of the company. Whichever way necessary, the strategy to get there is highly imperative.

Therefore, visible action taken by organizational leaders to move from the present to the future in order to achieve a specific outcome or benefit calls for creating a foundation to support the needs of the business infrastructures and a change in workplace conditions through the management of inclusive leadership imperatives. Any organizational change toward an open, evolving corporate culture is key that, opening up the way for leadership inclusion could lead to greater team alignment and achieving shared goals.

That notwithstanding, with businesses increasingly optimizing their diversity and inclusion activities, inclusive leadership is more relevant now than ever. No matter how great the company’s diversity metrics get, if leaders don’t have an inclusive environment that embraces all the differences of the employees and create a workspace where everyone can bring their true selves to work, great initiatives will fail.

Therefore, the need to establish the factors, the management and the relative impact leadership inclusion has for organizational transformation and success is what this article seeks to address. Let’s talk leadership inclusion for organizational transformation and change.

What is Inclusive leadership?

Inclusion is where people’s differences are valued and used to enable everyone to thrive at work. An inclusive working environment speaks about one in which every employee feels that they belong without having to conform, that their contribution matters and they are able to perform to their full potential no matter their background, identity or circumstances. An inclusive workplace has fair policies and practices in place and enables a diverse range of people to work together effectively.

The moral case for building leadership inclusion in organizations to champion diversity and equity inclusion is indisputable regardless of employee’s identity, background or circumstances because, it offers the platform for the development of skills and talents to full potential, work in safe, supportive and inclusive environment, fairly rewarded and recognized for work done and have a meaningful voice on matters that affect employees themselves. It is also vital for sustainability of businesses and economies because, everyone stands to benefit when the employees embrace and value the diversity of thoughts, ideas and ways of working that people from different backgrounds, experience and identities bring to the organization.

Why Inclusive Leadership?

We live in a diverse business world with diverse expectations from customers we want to attract, in the message we share or consume via various platforms and the markets we plan to expand. Inclusive leadership helps balance and adapt quickly to diverse scenarios and alternative perspective with an open non-judgmental mind to bring on the best results possible.

Leaders who are aware of their own biases and preferences, actively seek out and consider different views and perspectives to inform better decision-making. They see diverse talents as a source of competitive advantage and inspire diverse people to drive organizational and individual performance towards a shared vision. The inclusive leader is a loyal ambassador of diversity and inclusion, accept they are vulnerable and show it, they understand and adapt to various cultural norms, they are team players and eager to help and do what’s best for the team.

That being said, positioning organizational change and leadership inclusion within the wider context of diversity, equity and empathy initiatives is imperative. A well meaningful and sustainable transformation in individuals, teams and organizational culture underpin exploring the power of leadership inclusion in respect of diversity, equity and empathy in the workplace. Despite a common belief, every organization’s diversity and inclusion challenges are unique. Leveraging others’ best practices will only get the organization part of the way. And if you are a leader, it’s likely that not everyone who works with you will agree with.

Meanwhile, it is a fact that leadership involves making unpopular decisions while navigating complex relationships with colleagues, partners and clients. But often, one will need to get buy-in from the different people within the organization to convince them to change their mind towards a certain course. When individuals’ workplace experiences are driven by inclusive leadership, the result is a culture shift that reinforces diversity and inclusion, a powerful transformation and change. According to Dunne Moses, when organizations commit to merging empathy and inclusion and use that power to transform their organizations for the better, individual’s acts inclusive leadership and that, each has the ability to change lives, open doors and build bridges.

The Call for Organizational Transformation and Change

Businesses face challenges every day and so what would make the leadership think organizational transformation and change? The symptoms that may call for change may vary from performance related, culture-related and or leadership-related issues. Knowing what to look for and keeping a keen eye on those areas will provide insight into whether or not transformative change is required.

In every transformation agenda, a good plan is vital, and everyone involved has to be onboard for it to work. Rapid changing technologies and shifting business conditions globally are forcing organizations to rethink how they operate. Organizational transformation efforts are taking place at different levels of many organizations and this change efforts must seek to promote greater agility, faster innovation and increased engagement for the organizations competitive advantage.

The commitment to transform the organization means to embrace certain principles that reflect the values of transparency, inclusivity, adaptability, collaboration and community. In all transparent organizations, material decision and processes are open, collaborative and can be adjusted and revised if necessary. Organizations that are inclusive seek out diverse points of view and invite multiple perspectives into dialogue whenever possible. Flexibility and resilience are key elements of organizations that are oriented toward continuous learning and engagement which contributes to greater longevity. Shifting decision making to the frontline of business means teams can react faster to changing requirements and that, the employees in the organization would believe that work is better when more parties are involved and this lends the work to enhancements over time.

Meanwhile, maintaining a culture which supports the idea of employee voice is another challenge for diverse organization. When the organizational environment is not supportive of dissenting viewpoints, employees may choose to remain silent for fear of repercussions or they may seek alternative safe avenues to express their concerns and frustrations.

The role of leadership for cultural diversity, equity and empathy management

A study of successful multicultural organizations suggest that leadership is dependent on physical and social attributes of the individual , where the balance of managing relationship behavior and the task at hand underscore multicultural organizations. The combination of transformational leadership allows and encourages mid-level managers to use diversity as an influential resources in order to enhance organizational effectiveness. According to C.L Walck, managing diversity in workplace is the negotiating intersection across culturally diverse groups and contriving to get along in an environment characterized by cultural diversity.

The obvious questions are that, does the organization represent the diverse population at large? How diverse are the candidate being hired? Are the promotions doled out going to a diverse pool? How diverse are each of the teams and departments? What is the retention rate with diverse employees? To build a diverse leadership team is important to managing diversity in the workplace and to find answers to these loads of questions. Meanwhile, managing diversity is a deliberate effort to plan and implement changes to an organization’s systems and practices of managing people, so potential benefits from diversity are fully realized and potential disadvantages minimized.

Diversity inclusion must start from the top with a commitment from top leaders in an organization to change the existing culture to one of diversity inclusion. With that, the diversity change management processes would succeed. This diversity change management process includes analyzing where the organization is currently at through diversity audit, creating a strategic action plan, gaining support by seeking stakeholder input and holding individual accountable through measurable results.

Transformational change through inclusion management support covers an equal opportunity agenda for both the immediate need as well as long-term solutions. For short term, it implements new measures to minimize bias and procedures such as recruitment, promotion and communication. The long-term, however, is seen as a project of transformation for the organization. This transformation approach acknowledges the existence of power systems and seeks to challenge the existing hegemony through implementation of equality values. Through transformational change, the short term solutions affords the organization the time necessary to enact deep rooted culture changes leading to a more inclusive environment.

Empathy:

Empathy is the foundation of our ability to connect with each other on an emotional level and sets the stage for inclusion. Empathy is the ability to perceive and relate to the thoughts, emotions or experiences of others. Leaders with high levels of empathy are skilled at understanding a situation from another person’s perspective and reaching with compassion. Empathy in the context of the workplace simply means that employees are able to establish true, empathetic connections with one another that enhance relationships and performance.

The ability to be compassionate and connect with others is critical to our lives, both personally and professionally. Demonstrating empathy in the workplace is a key part of emotional intelligence and leadership effectiveness. Empathy however improves human interactions in general and can lead to more effective communication and positive outcomes in both work and home settings. Empathetic leadership means having the ability to understand the needs of others and being aware of their feelings and thoughts.

Effective empathy and inclusion in the workplace can change the game, shifting mediocre performance to a variant work culture that fosters the willingness of employees to invest discretionary effort and gain a sense of belonging. With increased levels of empathetic inclusion, all employees can experience enhanced curiosity, agility and innovation. The task is for leadership to set the right environment and demonstrate empathetic leadership to reap the benefits thereof.

Diversity:

The business case for diversity stems from the progression of the models of diversity within the workplace. Diversity represents the varied individual and collective identities and differences of the people who form the organization. Fundamentally, one of the greatest challenges any organization has when trying to adopt a more inclusive environment is the assimilation for any member outside the dominant group. Everything from organizational symbols, rituals and stories serve to maintain the position of power held by the dominant group. Nevertheless, when cultural diversity leads to conflicts, employees can be mentored and coached to adopt the necessary traits for inclusion into the privileged group as opposed to being embraced for their differences.

Clearly, managing diversity is more than simply acknowledging differences in people. It is suggestive to note that, work-teams which are highly diverse can be difficult to motivate and manage and cited miscommunication as a major fact. Meanwhile, the ability to recognize equality of opportunities in practice when all employees are enabled freely and equally to compete for social rewards is deemed necessary if any organization is to champion change in respect to inclusion. Another exciting viewpoint for managing inclusion is to compensate for actual barriers that prevent the marginalized employees from attaining their fair share of any benefit.

If diversity is better managed, it is shown to bring substantial benefits such as better decision making and improved problem solving, greater creativity and enhanced innovation, which leads to enhanced product development and more successful marketing to different types of customers. It equally affords the organization the opportunity of an enhanced abilities to compete in global markets whiles it allows for employees to feel a sense of belonging which increases their commitment to the organization and allow for unique contributions.

Equity

The quest for leaders to create more equity within their organizations by embracing and celebrating differences is critical for business success. The question is, does the organization realizes the need for additionality that can be brought by consciously searching for equity and inclusion?

According to Sadhguru, a seminal thinker on transformational leadership admitted that, when leaders truly are inclusive, they would naturally have an insight about everything. Then the right kind of people will naturally gather around the leader when they see a certain level of integrity in him or her. Indeed, to truly ensure equity and excellence, there needs to be a shift in thinking, mindset and systems.

Speaking about the concept of equity lays emphasis to fair treatment, equality of opportunity and fairness in access to information and resources for all. To achieve equity in the organization is to build the organization on respect and dignity. It is clear that the promotion of equity in organization supports the nurturing of excellence when more diverse pool of perspectives is available, therefore greater room for innovation.

In summary, to hold emphasis on intentional leadership inclusion practice is to push the discussion that, building inclusive leadership can assist organizations facing rapid demographic changes in their local consumer market and labor pool helps employee work and understand one another better. Diversity, equity and empathy inclusion initiatives therefore must start with the commitment from the top leadership to change the existing culture to succeed.

Discovery….Thinking solutions, shaping visions.

Written By:

Frank Adu Anim in Collaboration with Dr. Genevieve Pearl Duncan Obuobi (Banker/SME Consultant and Leadership Strategist)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The writer is a holder from University of Ghana and GIMPA BA in Political Science and MBA Finance respectively. He is the CEO and Strategic Partner of AQUABEV Investment and Discovery Consulting Group. He is an Executive Director and the Lead Coach in Leadership Development and best Business Management practices for Discovery Leadership Masterclass. He has authored several articles in Leadership, Business Strategies and Organizational Planning under Discovery Leadership Series. Frank has significant experience in Business Development, Strategy and Finance, Deal Origination, Transaction Advisory, Investment Consulting and General administration. He has interest mentoring and coaching young business entrepreneurs through Discovery Business and Entrepreneurship Program. He is a nominee for Global Excellence Business Leader Award by the Swiss School of Business and Management, Switzerland.

CONTACTS:

|Thought Leadership | Training & Dev. |Management Consultancy |Business Conference|

Email: frankanimgh@yahoo.com or aquabevinvestments@gmail.com

Tel: +233-0241824033/+233-0501324604

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We are proud to be associated with Dr. Genevieve Pearl Duncan Obuobi

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The event was held at Tarragon Edge SMEs ecosystem (T-Edge Hub) which provides a growth-oriented platform for knowledge, capacity building and resource sharing exclusively for SMEs, consultants and investors.

The well-attended event dubbed ‘Women Entrepreneurs Forum and Exhibition’ was held under the auspices of Upshift Global; Club G100, Financial Inclusion Africa and Genevieve Pearl Consult.

Two leading Ghanaian experts in business management who spoke at the event advised young entrepreneurs that the survival of their businesses is hinged on bookkeeping and record analysis.

According to them, bookkeeping which is keeping accurate financial records could be used to gauge the health of the businesses.

Dr Akorfa Ahiafor, the MD/CEO of Jireh Microfinance Limited, described bookkeeping as the difference between success and failure of businesses.

She added that bookkeeping helps businesses to plan their budgets, explaining that budgets are vital for businesses as they are the financial guidelines to success.

“With bookkeeping, you can assess your financial resources and manage income and expenses”, Dr Ahiafor stated.

“So we entrepreneurs fail to keep records of businesses, we will fail. It is not enough to keep records but to analyse the records as well”.

Hajia Amina Sammo, a leading Financial Literacy Consultant, added that bookkeeping makes filing a tax return easier for businesses that practice bookkeeping.

With a proper organization of records on your earnings, expenditure and others you won’t have to worry about scrambling for receipts and invoices because all your records are properly documented, she explained.

“Organization of financial records is very important. You should be able to easily assess your financial information at anytime”.

This will help when it comes to applying for grants, loans, or even attracting investors”, Hajia Sammo said.

Looking at the importance role bookkeeping and record analysis plays in the survival of businesses, the two experts encouraged the young female entrepreneurs not to be ashamed of sending their business figures to individuals and institutions to analyse for them.

Addressing the exhibitors, the President of WISE Network Ghana, Dr Genevieve Obuobi Duncan, said: “It is important for us to support businesses so that they can scale up and be sustainable”.

The exhibitors expressed their appreciation to WISE Network Ghana and its sponsors for providing the platform for them to showcase their products.

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Another developing and interesting concern that equally has become an urgent and pressing pivot around flexible and homeworking, mental health and employee engagement during and after the extended lockdown period calling for and requiring swift attention. These have landed the HR agenda squarely on the list of boardroom priorities and provide an opportunity for HR leaders to take the lead in recovering the efforts. How companies do this in a way that embarks resilience for long term performance will be part of what investors will be looking at when making their assessments under the ESG lens.

ESG performance as a driver of employee satisfaction is an important piece of what makes a company a great place to work. Research has proven that employers that have high employee satisfaction are attractive employment destinations. This is making ESG performance a competitive advantage for engaging and attracting employees.

Unsurprisingly, a large number of the people who work for companies are enormously driven by their passion for sustainability and the drive to see change. Hence, it is advised that, companies take certain steps to authenticate or implement measures that could ensure workplace security and reliability. This obviously would call for leadership vision and the clarity on what companies intend doing to forestall hope for the future. This vision for the future and the immediate action towards it creates engagement and support.

However, the driven concern and the passion for sustainability and change by all employers must be pivotal to Human resource agenda. To transform and build effective HR policy decision for a sustainable future means that, it aligns its policy framework for the purpose of a more successful people and happier lives. By this, this series looks into the strategic impact of ESG as a Human capital advantage. Let’s talk ESG compliance and the role of HR.

Compliance Challenges that Businesses Face:

Organizations are now making the shift to having clearly defined compliance departments that have dedicated software and tools to manage risk and regulatory compliance. Ideally, such departments are intended to safeguard against risks such as Safety deficiencies, Money laundering, Cyber breaches, Compliance lapses, Bribery and Corruption.

These targeted effort goes a long way in assuring stakeholders that all operations are within regulatory norms. However, these programs often fail to protect against the very transgressions they were meant to protect. Top reasons for this could include the gap between occurrences of such incidents, implying a false sense of compliance or a random assessment by a regulator that provides the existing program ineffective. Having said that, the very specific reason for compliance failure are often grouped under the following:

That Leaders that do not lead by Example

Whether an organization is going to stay compliant, be it by its own internal policies, industry-specific regulations or other standards, it is unmistaken rule that the administration remains a greater contributor. This may require the CEO and the board members having to champion and be responsible for all compliance issues.

In many cases however, a company’s administration employs an uncommitted approach to compliance. When leadership or key members only talk and take no ownership of the compliance program in place, they essentially create a culture that normalizes regulation’s undervaluing. Senior management’s responsibility to build and nurture a culture of compliance and failing to do this is one of the most common reasons for compliance failure.

Misaligned Compliance and Organizational Goals

Every organization operates with certain operational or business culture. This may be how the organization speaks to the world, how it is identified with branding and so on. These attributes inevitably speak to the grand scheme of things when defining such organizations goals. Therefore, formulating any compliance rule must seek to consider these parameters as essential keys for the organizations success. Moreover, a conducive and supportive compliance framework aligned with the organizational goals bring harmony and avoid the herculean task of the organization remaining non-compliant.

Misguided Incentives

When the organization use incentives as tools to promote desirable, optimal behavior, growth and professional gain, the intension is good but not sustainable. The unsustainability of this objective may breed misconduct in any form which may violate compliance regulations resulting in severe implications.

Lack of Compliance Culture

Compliance failure is also a product of an incorrect understanding of the compliance program’s function by many organizations. If a company views its compliance program as just another mechanic or obligation among the many legal requirements in place, a gap is created. This disconnect affects education and compliance training all through the institution thereby increasing its risk exposure. For this reason, it is important to instill compliance culture for without it, employees are not regularly trained or taught how to navigate real-life situations while operating within regulation.

ESG, a case for HR Compliance?

Compliance is among the critical functions of any HR department. The Human resource unit is tasked with making sure that hiring practices, workplace rules, treatment of employees and variety of other factors all comply with the relevant laws. One key role of HR department is bridging the gap between the company’s growth trajectory and objectives and compliance practices that influence activities such as hiring, employee development and retention. Striking the balance between strategy and compliance may start with a clearly defined set of goals.

In addition, policy setup, enforcing practices to follow these policies daily remain compliance imperatives for HR as well. HR compliance admittedly defines the process of formulating policies and procedures to ensure all employment and work-related practices demonstrate a thorough understanding of applicable laws and regulations while also being aware of the company’s larger human capital resources objectives. HR-related compliance issues center around employee-related matters, including when and how to pay overtime, employee documentation that must be maintained, administering benefits, hiring procedures and separation policies.

Arguably, companies of all sizes face increasingly HR complexities as the number of employment laws and regulations keep rising and the risk of penalties for non-compliance also perhaps never remain the same but greater. As such, whenever developing HR policies and procedures, business owners should know that, the business may be subjected to an audit from an enforcing agency that may levy fines and penalties for non-compliance. Not knowing or understanding compliance obligations is not an acceptable legal defense. The greatest challenge is that failure to comply with applicable employment compliance can lead to penalties, loss of business license, lawsuits from employees. Outsourcing HR functions to a trusted provider can equally help business owners better understand the laws and regulations that apply to them.

ESG Compliance and Impact on HR

Indeed, research indicates that, top employer by employee satisfaction and attractiveness to talent have significant higher ESG score. These findings suggest that ESG performance can help companies both improve employee satisfaction and attract prospective employees. By this, it is indicative that, satisfied employees work harder, stay longer with their employers and seek to produce better results for the company. Equally important are that, enthusiastic prospective employees strengthen a company’s talent pipeline and ensure the availability of crucial human capital. These guarantee the call for HR function to embrace ESG compliant culture for competitive HR advantage. Because remaining ESG compliant has its own benefits to companies as boosting:

Reputation

Businesses which are failing to meet the expected ESG performance standards should expect to see an adverse impact on their reputation in the long run. Typically are the issues of sexual harassment, race discrimination, gender imbalance, health and disability and their adverse impact on share value of companies. Again, as workforce strategy, ESG has become a competitive advantage in attracting and retaining talent and this is backed by studies that, when weighing up potential employers, millennials are hugely influenced by how a business responds to and tackles social issues.

Productivity

Companies with a strong ESG and labor relation propositions have better productivity. Addressing the widening gap between executive and workforce pay is directly linked to productivity. Fairer incentive structures can help drive an inclusive culture and employee engagement, which in turn can boost productivity.

Value

Research suggests that, by aligning all HR policies and rules in cognizance of ESG compliant parameters eventually promotes and enhances the value of the company. By this, almost all investors and stakeholders remaining keen to ESG performance and their expectation to see not just short-term plans but also how the core business model incorporates and deals with HR issues in the long term have advocated strong ESG compliance by all companies through a constructive HR policies to address human capital issues. By this, businesses that do not have an ESG and labor relations agenda will soon find themselves struggling to find investors, who recognize the need to manage these risks and promote compliance for the advancement and satisfaction of the human needs.

International Standards

As companies seek to expand and operate in other jurisdictions from where it started, they may be subjected to different operating labor laws for compliance. This feature or development may require companies to strengthen or adopt different sets of policy rules relative to employee warefare and well-being. Notably, while many countries operate in markets with labor laws that provide relatively low levels of protection to employees, businesses will no longer be able to rely on their geographical location and the laws that apply there. This is because, there are international frameworks that set out expected employment standards across the world by which non-governmental organizations, investors and other stakeholders and their media are now judging businesses. These include UN Global Compact, the international Labor Organization Conventions and Declarations, the international bill of Human Rights just to mention a few.

Legal Compliance

It is an obvious fact, the heightened level of compliance breaches among many companies in terms of gender pay issues alone in our Ghanaian context. That notwithstanding, elsewhere in many international companies, reporting issues of gap omissions is compulsory and non-negotiable. Understanding the company’s strategic priorities lays the foundation for a better understanding of different scenarios and how compliance concerns may impact decisions of HR. Hence, HR goals and policies should be designed to support company strategy with consideration for compliance implications. It is noteworthy to emphasize that, the benefits of getting HR compliant helps potential cost savings, drive employee efforts on core business functions as well as eliminating administrative burdens.

ESG and Employee engagement:

ESG performance as a driver of employee satisfaction is an important piece of what makes a company a great place to work. How does the company treat its people? How does the company interact with stakeholders? What is the culture? And does the company’s culture fit with its purpose?

Employees are fast becoming sensitive to discrepancies between what a company says and the way it acts. The benefits of committed workplace ESG practice show up directly in results. More satisfied employees work harder, stay longer, produce better results and are more committed to an organization. The halo effect therefore is that, people who work there and leave there speak well of it, so it becomes a self-perpetuating thing.

On the other front, investors want a clear plan that looks at all aspects of ESG especially the social element which is becoming a bigger focus. They want companies to have a program in place that looks at what they do to support employees at present, how well they are managing the wellbeing of staff and whether there is a roadmap to improve and develop this in future. Businesses that analyses how ESG principles affect their workforce and take steps to anticipate and control associated risks, will be better placed to improve profitability and reputation in the long run. As already intimated, ESG is a tool for business to measure sustainability using environmental, social and governance factors. Besides, businesses now are being scrutinzed by their ability to drive and shape policy changes that promote a positive human development, wellbeing and a better work environment.

ESG, the role of HR and Investor Requirements:

Key ESG HR issues concern how a company engages with its workforce with a strong focus on culture incorporating inclusion and diversity and how it looks at issues of pay and equality among others. The table makes reference to some benchmarks for HR ESG compliance:

Key HR Roadmap to Embrace ESG

HR leaders must design structures and policies around priority and objective areas that satisfy the greater good cross all functional teams and employees of their organizations. Proactive employers who want to reshape their workforce and develop a more sustainable business model have an opportunity to look at their employment framework and labor agenda to push for:

1. The implementation of financial wellness initiatives, not just to help employees, but to meet investor’s demands as well. Financial Literacy Programs in the workplace are a good start to assist the workers to be more financially secured whiles it seeks to impact the bottom line effect for employee productivity and investor satisfaction.

2. Communicate and Track impacts of Benefits

Employers should clearly communicate to workers through a well-designed benefits launches, straightforward sign-up processes and on-going messaging to help improve utilization and positive impact for workers on all benefits that they seek to promote and implement.

3. Include all workers

Employers should pay attention to workers who have low to moderate incomes by offering liquid emergency savings solutions, hardship funds, child savings accounts and employee stock purchase plans. Other plans or benefits that could as well go for the high paying workers should include retirement plans and health savings accounts.

4. Shaping an inclusion and diversity model to enable recruitment and retention of more diverse talent.
5. Looking at variable remuneration and linking it with ESG driven goals
6. Placing employee welfare and training and development at the heart of HR decisions.
7. Reshaping some employer policies and procedures with greater focus on ESG.

In summary, it must be emphasized that, businesses that analyze how ESG principles affect their workforce and take steps to anticipate and control associated ricks through effective HR policy framework and guide will be better placed to improve profitability band, reputation and investor support for its advantage in the long run.

Discovery…. Thinking solutions, shaping visions.

Written By:

Frank Adu Anim in Collaboration Dr. Genevieve Pearl Duncan Obuobi (Banker/SME Consultant and Leadership Strategist)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Frank is the CEO and Strategic Partner of AQUABEV Investment and Discovery Consulting Group. He is an Executive Director and the Lead Coach in Leadership Development and best Business Management practices for Discovery Leadership Masterclass.

Email: frankanimgh@yahoo.com or aquabevinvestments@gmail.com

The post DISCOVERY LEADERSHIP MASTERCLASS SERIES: ESG Compliance (Part III)… a performance impact strategy for Human Capital advantage appeared first on Genevieve Pearl.

The theme for the awards is “Promoting Free Movement of persons, goods and services across Africa”, whilst the theme for the forum is “The African Free Continental Area, a great opportunity for Africa”.

The event which is expected to serve as a platform for business development will bring together businesses and investors on the continent and the world over with the aim of promoting trade and economic development in Africa.

The occasion will equally be used to recognise and reward achievers and business as well as organisational leaders like the current Secretary General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala who have excelled in their vocations and businesses in Africa.

The two day event, which starts from 26th November to 27th November 2020 will consist of a forum, seminar, exhibition and awards with the aim of promoting made in Africa products and services.

Speakers at the forum will include  Dr. Mrs  Helen  Ndidiamaka  Godswill  Solomon; Dr, Victor Adoji, Economist; Silvie Potignon, Founder and  Director of  Sofa Services in Congo; Marlon  Weir, CEO, Africamarket.com in Rwanda; Louis Yaw Afful , Executive Director, Women in Africa Network; Dr. Genevieve Duncan Obuobi, Banking and SME consultant; Ogochukwu Chidibere Nweke, Vice President of Synergies institute Ghana and  Jean Malic Kalima, President, Rwanda Mining Association and Director Wolfram Mining  and Processing,

As part of the programme, about 100 inspiring individuals will be listed under the African Regional Awards. Others will be honoured with the TWARM Achievers, business and leadership awards in recognition of achievers and excellence in the region.

The event has been introduced to promote regional economic infrastructure and trade expansion in Africa, through the publication of annual in-depth research on African economies and trade developments.

The title sponsor for the event is the African Regional Journal with M&C Global as the second title sponsor. Other sponsors include BSystems, Wolfram Mining and Processing Limited, People Pay, Made in Africa and JRA cosmetics.

The Director General of the World Trade Organization Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said “I am honoured to receive this distinction and to be recognised as one of the inspiring individuals in Africa for the 2021 edition of the TARJ forum and Exhibition’.

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