LIFELONG LEARNING CURVE INFO
UMCSCE is a great place to meet and study with other entrepreneurs. Members of UMCSCE learn on regular basis through extensive educational programs for entrepreneurs through a valuable program called “FORUM” whereas entrepreneurs meet from Tanzania and across the globe and share business experiences and issues. Together we solve problems and move businesses and lives forward. UMCSCE focus on the education, experience, and skills that every entrepreneur should require it.
1. Lifelong learning means that entrepreneurs must read lists of biographies of successful entrepreneurs.
2. Lifelong learning means that entrepreneurs must go to hear successful entrepreneurs speak at events.
3. Lifelong learning means that entrepreneurs must read magazines, books and newspapers as well as articles about successful entrepreneurs, and they must spend time with other entrepreneurs to share and grow from each other’s experience – all in an attempt to try and acquire knowledge from the past mistakes or successes of other people, rather than to go through these things the hard way on their own.
4. Lifelong learning means that entrepreneurs must actively seek out new ideas, listen to people’s ideas and comments, love meeting new people and hearing new ideas.
5. Lifelong learning means that entrepreneurs must search for internet, go to events and attend training courses.
6. Lifelong learning means that entrepreneurs must build up a network of contacts and mentors who they can ask for advice, information and ideas.
7. Lifelong learning means that entrepreneurs must go to events specifically to expose themselves to new people to listen to what they have to say.
8. Lifelong learning means that entrepreneurs should learn how to build their brands, a team, resources, systems and security.
“If my eyes can see it, if my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it, I know I can archieve it”
Jesse Jackson – African American Leader.
“They destroyed my marriage. They abused me physically and mentally.They could take everything, except my mind and heart. Those things I would not give them away and I decided not give them away”
Nelson Mandela (Madiba)
1. WORK WITH INTENTION:
• The 3 Components of Performance Time.
“if we take care of the minutes, the years will take care of themselves” – Benjamin Franklin.
• By Edgardo Kabulwa Welelo, Master of the Game and UMCSCE Founder, aka Mr. Street Smart, aka Mr. Street & Self – help education (edgardowelelo@yahoo.com), 1st September, 2021 & Beyond.
• Everything you want to accomplish in life requires an investment of your time, so when you want to improve your results, you must consider the fact that your supply of time is limited. Even in this era of innovation and technological advancement, time, more than any other resource, is the limiting factor. Let us face it, everything requires time. It is the one truly universal condition. Even more vexing is the fact that the supply of time is completely inelastic. No matter the magnitude of demand, the supply is fixed. Moreover, it is perishable. And yet, time is perhaps the most squandered of all personal resources.
• To become great, you must choose to allocate your time to your greatest opportunities. You will have to choose to spend time on the difficult things that create your biggest payoffs. To be great you will need to live with intention. This will require you to be clear on what matters most, and then to have the courage to say no to things that distract you. You will need to guard your time intensely, delegating or eliminating everything possible that is not one of your strengths or does not help you advance your goals. To be your best, you must intentionally align your time and activities with your strengths and your unique capabilities. When you do, you will also experience a new and ever – increasing level of performance and satisfaction. To achieve this level of performance will require that you carve out time for the strategic – those actions that are important, but not necessarily urgent. Strategic activities don’t typically have an immediate substantial returns in the future. To stay focused on your strengths, you will need to manage your interruptions and keep the low – pay off activities to a minimum. Inspite of the priceless value of time, many people engage each day on its own terms. In other words, they satisfy the various demands of the day as they are presented; spending whatever time is needed to respond without giving much thought as to the relative value of the activity. This is a reactive approach in which the day is controlling you thus preventing you from performing at your best.
Time Blocking
• The key to successful time use – intentional time use – is not trying to eliminate these unplanned interruptions, but instead to block out regular time each week – dedicated to the strategically important tasks. We call this performance time and find that it is the best approach to effectively allocating time that we have ever encountered. Performance Time is an easy – to – use system that allows you to operate like the CEO of your business and life by spending your most valuable asset – your time – with intention. It utilizes a simple time – blocking system to regain control of your day and maximize your effectiveness. There are three (3) primary components of Performance Time; strategic blocks, buffer blocks, and breakout blocks.
STRATEGIC BLOCK
1. A strategic Block is a 3 – hour block of uninterrupted time that is scheduled in advance. During these blocks, you accept no phone calls, no faxes, no emails, no visitors – no mental interruptions. You focus all your energies on the preplanned items – the strategic and money-making activities. Doing so concentrates your intellect and creativity and produces breakthrough results. You will be astounded by the quantity and quality of the work you produce. For most people, one strategic block per week is sufficient.
BUFFER BLOCK
2. Buffer Blocks are created to deal with all of the unplanned and low–value activities – like most email and voice mail – that arise throughout a typical day. Almost nothing is more unproductive and frustrating than dealing with constant interruptions, yet we have all had days when unplanned items dominated our time A Buffer Block allows you to take what would otherwise be an efficient activity and make it more productive by grouping it together. In this way, you can handle each item expeditiously and move through the list with some momentum. This allows you to stay focused throughout the day on the important activities. For some, one 30 – minute buffer block a day is sufficient, while for others, two separate one–hour blocks may be necessary. The power of buffer blocks comes from grouping together activities that tend to be unproductive so that you can increase your efficiency in dealing with them and take greater control over the rest of your day.
BREAK – OUT BLOCK
3. One of the key factors contributing to performance plateaus is the absence of free time. So often, entrepreneurs and professionals get caught up in working longer and harder. This approach is an energy and enthusiasm killer. To achieve greater results what is necessary is not more hours. On the contrary, often it is more free time. A Break – out Block is a minimum 3 hour block of scheduled time that is devoid of any work related activities and thoughts. It is time set aside to rejuvenate and replenish. Use this time for fun. Enjoy the hobbies in your life. Spend time with family and friends. Play golf. Go shopping. Get some exercise. Go fishing, or sailing —whatever you like to do that is non – work-related. You need this time to rebuild your reserves and to open yourself up to fresh ideas and perspectives. Benjamin Franklin said, “If we take care of the minutes, the years will take care of themselves.” Everything that we achieve in life happens in the context of time. The reality is that if you are not purposeful about how you spend your time, then you leave your results to chance. While it is true that we control our actions and not our out comes, our results are created by our actions. It stands to reason that the actions that we choose to take throughout our day, ultimately determine our destiny. To realize your potential, you must learn to be more mindful about how you spend your time. Living with clear intention goes against the powerful natural tendency to be reactive because it requires you to organize your life around your priorities and consciously choose those activities that align with your goals and vision. When you use your time intentionally, you waste less of it and spend more of it on your high – value actions. Intentionality is your secret weapon in your war on mediocrity. The key to successful time use is not necessarily in eliminating unplanned interruptions but in regularly blocking out time for the important activities. Just gaining control over a few hours each week often has a dramatic effect. Learn to use your time with greater intention and you will not only be more effective, but you will also feel a greater sense of control, less stress, and increased confidence. Try Time Blocking, it works!
Is Your Company Delivering On Its Sales Promises?
2. By Edgardo Kabulwa Welelo, Master of the Game and UMCSCE Founder, aka Mr. Street Smart, aka Mr. Street and Self – help education (edgardowelelo@yahoo.com) 1st September, 2021& Beyond.
• Any sale – from the smallest consumer item to the largest enterprise – wide solution imaginable – is about much more than simply providing a product or service. A sale is really about delivering a promise to the customer. Unfortunately, many companies have no idea what their sales promise is. Sure, they may have a company vision or a mission statement, but those things usually don’t address the specific processes the company uses to deliver value to its customers. A true sales promise goes way beyond a tangible deliverable. It is about the customer’s interaction with your company throughout the sale cycle. It is a sense that everyone from every department is aligned on customer satisfaction. It is about the service and interaction with the company after the sale. It is about making customers feel confident that your company as a whole – not just a single product, service, or salesperson – can deliver the results the customer wants and exceed expectations. In essence, it takes every single department to fulfill your company’s sales promise. When you actively define the promise you want to make to your customers and then make sure everyone in the company knows what that promise is, you can deliver on your promise is, you can deliver on your promise and exponentially grow your sales. So, what is your company’s sales promise? Following are some suggestions for making sure your sales promise is crystal clear.
Define your promise to your customers.
• In order to deliver on a promise, you first have to know what the promise is. Get the various department together and ask them, “What do we want our customers to experience as a result of working with us? What do we want our promise to be? “Then listen to the issues or expectations each department brings up. Having this conversation in a group format with the various departments represented is crucial because people need to see how the different departments work together to deliver on the promise. Of course, the billing department wants to send out accurate invoices and reminders, the engineering department wants to create workable solutions, and the shipping department wants things shipped on time. But if no one sees how their process impacts another department’s process, then the process as a whole will break down along with the sales promise. Therefore, after you define the promise in general terms, pay attention to the small details of the promise. Look at everything, including customer callback times, product turnaround time, billing cycles, shipping times, customer service follow up, etc. Be specific. Simply saying, “We
promise to call customers back quickly” is not specific. What is quickly? One hour? Four hours? Two days? Without the details defined, it is easy to break the sales promise.
• Provide ongoing training about the sales promise
• Once you have the promise defined, provide ongoing training to each team member on what the sales promise means and how everyone in the company can work together to deliver on the promise. Educate all new hires with the promise and details of the sales promise, and ensure that current employees are always on board with the message. Also, make sure everyone in every department can clearly communicate what the company’s sales promise is and how they and their department play a role in fulfilling that promise. Make it clear that everyone – accounting, shipping, R&D, customer service, and every area in between – is responsible for fulfilling some part of the sale and impacting some aspect of the customer’s experience. Finally, as part of the training, ensure that everyone understands it’s their job to hold each other accountable for delivering on the promise and train them on how to do so. Remove the corporate silos, where departments operate in a vacuum and train people how to communicate across department lines so they can all work together to ensure that the sales promise gets delivered to every single customer.
• Promote the sales promise to customers in a broad and global way
• With all the details worked out and everyone in alignment with the company’s sales promise, it is time to communicate that promise to customers. But customers don’t need or want to know all the detail work you have just done. They simply want all those details to flow smoothly as they interact with you. A good sales promise from a customer’s perspective is something broad and global – something that resonates with people. Perhaps all the detail work you have just created gives customers “the easiest shopping experience ever” or “the best casual dining atmosphere” or” the latest technology innovations simplified.” Whatever your promise is, promote it in a way that speaks to what the customers truly wants. With that broad and global sales promise being promoted, employees will then be empowered to use the newly – created processes to go above and beyond to exceed the customer’s expectations. For example, Udzungwa Mountains College Trust (UMCTO) has a sales promise on offering college students the best service possible – from the quality of study materials – all written by professionals in their fields, to Student Advisors – who have been specially chosen for their ability to help students, aiming to offer college students only the best, that is UMCTO promise. To fulfill that promise, the UMCTO has many internal processes created. Additionally, everyone in the organization knows the promise and their role in fulfilling it. That is the power of a unified sales promise.
• A promise for a profitable future.
• When the people within your company focus on the fact that everyone in every department is involved in the sales process, creating and living by a sales promise is much easier. So if you want to grow sales and create a following of raving fans who are eager to do business with you, get started on your sales promise today. Remember, the sale is just the start; the promise is ongoing.
How To Screen A Company For A Good Culture Fit
3. • Contributed by Udzungwa Mountains College Students Club of Entrepreneurship (UMCSCE) 1st September, 2021& Beyond) club @umcsce.co.tz
• Maybe you have read about it in books and articles. Maybe your friends or family members have boasted experiencing it, but you are still not convinced it is real. How does it feel to truly love the place you work, and does your workplace truly love you? Is a loving relationship between you even possible? To answer these questions, there is one terrifically central concept that you and your organization must adapt if you are ever to enter a mutually loving relationship; a good culture fit. This lies at the very center of your happiness regardless of job titles, job descriptions, desk space, office views and all the other “hearts and flowers” that come with being in a relationship with your organization. The question remains; how can you screen a company for a good culture fit? Perhaps more importantly, how can you do this before getting in too deep and risking heart break?
• Why Do You Need To Screen For Culture?
• Shouldn’t it be obvious if the two of you are not meant for each other? No immoral, unethical or organization hides that easily under a drape of warm, fuzzy advertisements and happy people. Maybe it is not quite that extreme, but there are organizations that are hanging in limbo. They have not quite figured out what is most important to them, or they have not shared it with everyone in the organization. There is a doubt, uncertainty. Any one that has ever been in a relationship knows that including those ingredients will spoil even the most ravishing of appetites. Then there are those organizations that have made up their minds. They know what they want, and they know what is important to them. But, despite all of the good aspects of the job, you can’t seem to launch yourself fully with the company’s vision. Wouldn’t you rather know now that you won’t be truly happy, rather than waiting around, hopelessly dreaming of the day when your company changes its philosophy?
A Good Culture Fit Is A Must
• All of the above leads to unfulfilled potential, lack of focus, boredom and discontent – none of which are loving relationship material. According to the Gallup organization – which pioneered the Gallup 12 Poll to measure employee engagement – employee engagement stems from the manner in which an organization conducts its business. This statement focuses on how a company conducts business on a day – to – day level between co – workers, superiors, leadership teams, departments, vendors, clients, potential clients, partners, and so on. All of these are the very components of culture. Additionally, discretionary thinking is a large part of any relationship. Are you 100 per cent focused on your organization? Are you thinking about it when you are not at work? Discretionary thinking is what you do when you actively pursue a thought – spending it on exactly what you want to think about – at your discretion. What happens when you actively want to think about your organization, or your organization’s goals and your goals? Of the total thoughts an individual has in one day 60,000, according to the Institute for Human Health and Human Potential – the average person spends 8% – or 4,800 thoughts – on work – related tasks. If you throw discretionary thoughts into the work – thought mix, you can easily double that number. Think about the collected effect of an entire workforce doubling their work thoughts each and every day. How much more successful will that organization be? It sounds like a place that cultivates a great culture. In fact, it sounds like these employees would love their job. To prevent these realizations that you spent your “good years” playing house with an organization with which you can’t picture yourself growing old, you should start from the very beginning – before even going on a first date – by giving the company a sound culture fit screening.
The screening Process.
Screening for culture fit is not as daunting as it may sound. In fact, several experts in this field have conducted studies, creating several tools and exercises that you can use.
1. Study the company’s website (s) and find out everything that is important to it. Does it prominently list its core values? If it has core values listed on its website, match those with your own core values. If there is a disconnect there is no getting around these fundamental pieces of both the organization’s and your personal foundation. If your values differ, then it is probably for the best that you bow out of this dating game and move on.
2. If core values are absent in an organization, ask yourself: will this cause me stress and anxiety? The answer almost always is yes. If the organization does not know what drives its decision-making, how can it help lead you or cultivate leadership skills in employees? How can the two of you grow together? Lack of direction and values leads to an increase in stress level and unhappiness – major break–up material.
3. If a company does have core values that match your own, are those values visible to everyone in the workforce? If they are – hanging on the wall, displayed as the background on computer screens, thumbtacked up in cubicles – then the workforce is in alignment too. Sometimes, organizations may have great core values, but how effective can those values be in leading decisions and actions throughout the company if there is no incentive to act upon them? The answer is, unfortunately, not very. Screening for culture fit should be the foundation of any job hunt or decision to stay with a certain organization. If both the company’s culture and core values do not line up with yours, there is little hope that the two of two of you will grow old and gray together. You might experience a brief infatuation with the hefty paycheck, the extra paid weeks’ vacation, the corner office with a view – but there are just distractions from the truth. The truth is that without a good culture fit, it is extremely difficult to love your company.
4. Your Team – Building Exercises May Not Be Creating A-Team
Contributed by Udzungwa Mountains College Students Club of Entrepreneurship (UMCSCE) 1st September, 2021& Beyond)club@umcsce.co.tz
• Building a team requires three (3) basic elements, and they are the same perpetual needs that all team leaders have: engagement, education, and development – all with a twist.
Engagement – with a twist.
1. Sometimes it is a simple – like a handshake – and other times it is a complex – like securing buy – in for a high – dollar project – but engagement always involves obtaining a “yes“ from the other person. This agreement begins a cooperative relationship that seeks to align goals, minimize a judgmental response, and keep the momentum going (even during the naturally – tough times that are bound to come). The commitment of marriage, for example, is symbolized by an engagement ring. In business, commitment is demonstrated with a signed letter or contract. In both instances, engagement is an agreement that both parties will move forward and seek more specific agreements. When people are engaged (in both the marital and business context), there is an interior feeling of security that assures each person that they will work together. This agreement can not be secured in one event. Just as hospital have a heart monitor on every patient, team leaders must constantly monitor the tell – tale signs of stress, unrest and frustration. This involves listening to what the team says and what they don’t say, and, may be, what they cannot say. Here is the twist; listening closely to both the words and the feelings of your team members allows you, as the leader, and those who work for you to feel your engagement. Paraphrasing and empathy are the perennial, highly reliable skills that will help you steer clear of becoming judgemental. When you are in tune with your team member’s unique “heart beats” of engagement, you will know when somebody becomes an outlier. Only then can you use your other skills to bring them back aboard.
Educate – with a twist.
2. Too many meetings are based on lectures. This repetitive structure might have worked for multiplication tables in primary school, but no longer. When teaching adults, presenters actually waste valuable educative time thinking that dumping data, spreadsheets, bullet points and manuals onto people will somehow enlighten them. The word “education” comes from the Latin word “educare”, which means “to lead out” or – “draw forth from”. Socrates knew this when he asked questions in order to “draw forth from” his students. While this might make sense on paper, it is a more significant shift in how we can really envision meetings. We still, by and large, run our meetings with a speaker or presenter who often says, “is it ok if I take questions later?” These people will then read their power point aloud, droning on and on, while the audience pre – reads each slide and then waits for the presenter to finish. Instead of a 60 – 90 minute lecture, what if ……….
• The presenter didn’t see this as “my time”, but saw “our time” as an opportunity for the team to talk with one another about the essence of the issues.
• The team divided into groups of three, brainstormed three or four concerns for the future, and then had the expert facilitator give a 10 – 12 minute reflection on each of the concerns.
• Simply have a Q& A session.
• The expert asked the audience questions, guiding the team toward answering the question“ what do we need to do to prepare for the future we want to make?” Here is the twist; when we ignore that education is really about drawing forth from our collective experience, we waste incredible resources already present in our teams. Witnessing this collective knowledge is a strong formative element for a team. This is often what scientists experience working on a project during a “think tank” session, or what a Broadway cast feels on opening night.
Development – with a twist.
3. This is the most important, yet most often ignored, element when building a team. In an effort to move forward quickly, many leaders start sharing the” takeaways” from the experience before the team has caught their breath. When team leaders say, “I hope that you realized this horseback riding taught us to better listen to one another just as we did with our horses, “They risk the team saying, “what? I thought we just learned there is some beautiful scenery here!” instead, team leaders should consider asking;
• What did you notice when you tried to steer your horse too hard?
• What did you learn about your colleagues’ lives during the ride?
• For those who have never been horseback riding, what skills did you learn?
• Aren’t those skills some of the same that we need in our office?
• Here is the twist: just as we rely on crockpots to slowly heat and mold a meal’s flavors together, we must allow the individuals to apply the lessons for themselves.
Team – building – with a twist.
4. So, it is OK to take the team golfing, horseback riding, or out for drinks, but don’t think that activity alone will build the team any more than a reception with fine wine and tasty cheese will foster interesting conversation at dinner. Reconsider how you educate, and how you think about education because everyone will learn more when the collective team experience is drawn forth. Finally, understand that the act of looking back on what the team learned and experienced together is a vital part of becoming a team and building one.
