Smart and timely investments in human capital will play the central role in shaping the trajectory of African nations in the coming decades, for a number of reasons. These include large youth populations in many countries, and the rapidly growing and changing skills demands of this technology-intensive century.
Without a greater supply of homegrown talent in areas such as agriculture, energy, extractive industries, construction, manufacturing, and information and communication technology, it will be hard to build prosperous, inclusive, and resilient economies that can compete and succeed globally.
This can be leveraged by:
- Connect your vision and goals with individual performance. Specific goals and expectations linked to a common, compelling vision provide a sense of purpose, contribution, and focus. Provide the time, tools, and training to accomplish the job. Doing more with less does not mean doing everything with nothing. Reinforce the idea that quality is important and you want everyone to succeed.
- Make recognition and encouragement a priority. Sincere recognition ensures that your stars don’t look for a better environment in which to utilize their talents. It tells the poor performers that you are willing to acknowledge their value rather than only look at the negative; and it communicates that good performance matters to the majority of your team that does a good job every day.
- Address poor performance. Good employees grow weary of shouldering more than their share of the performance load. Straightforward, sincere efforts to help people improve will show up through a change in the individuals’ behavior.
- Use honest mistakes as a learning opportunity. The most important lessons often come from mistakes. How are honest mistakes handled in your organization? People who feel punished for honest mistakes avoid the risk that is inherent in innovation. Communication becomes closed, and the opportunity to share valuable knowledge is lost.
- Remove a barrier every thirty to sixty days. Ask your staff to identify and prioritize the obstacles that prevent excellence. Begin with those that can be accomplished quickly and provide visible results. Utilize staff at all levels to design and implement solutions. When the list is exhausted, create a new one and renew the effort.
- Live your values. Policies and practices that are inconsistent with value statements are a leading cause of mistrust. Consider an audit of your key policies, practices, and processes to determine those that are most out of step with an environment that engage your staff.
