New Talk by Siphiwe Moyo: The Pain of Preparation

Brand New Talk by Siphiwe Moyo

The Pain of Preparation: The things you go through when you’re being prepared for a significant assignment and HOW you should respond

#ComingSoon  #NewTalk. 

I know I’m a striker. The leadership team (EXCO) knows I’m a striker so why am I in the bench? Why am I the twelfth man, giving other players drinks when the coach knows I should be the opening batsman?

I’ve been working on this new leadership development presentation for a while now and I’m almost ready to present it. This is exclusively for talented junior and middle management employees who are being earmarked for significant roles. You know those that are on 9, 8, 5 and 6 on The 9 Box Performance and Potential Matrix? It would be most relevant when you are launching a new leadership development programme such as a JMP, MMP, NMDP, SMP, SMDP or learnership.  It will prepare delegates well for the journey that they are about to embark on.

#ThePainOfPrepation #NewTalk #LeadershipDevelopment #ThePainOfPreparation

www.siphiwemoyo.co.za

Email: siphiwe@siphiwemoyo.co.za

Professional Speaker, Siphiwe Moyo releases his new book, #StagnationMustFall

Why do some people seem to progress in their lives and careers and others don't? In #StagnationMustFall, career development specialist Siphiwe Moyo explores this question. He suggests 50 mindset shifts that are necessary and provides 50 practical lessons that you can apply immediately to progress in your life and career.

Some of the lessons in the book include:

• Width without depth will limit your career progress
•  Learn the language that has weight in your organisation
• Work yourself out of a position
• Use the exit and return senior strategy
• Use the downgrade to upgrade strategy
• Go horizontal to go vertical strategy

Release date: 19 November 2015

To pre-order, please email Ofentse on the following email address: ofentse@siphiwemoyo.co.za.

A call to join the Public Sector

Many people have been complaining about the level of political grandstanding that is happening in our Parliament lately. There are concerns that while politicians are busy shouting at each other, we are not, as a country, dealing with the serious challenges that we have. We do have serious challenges in South Africa such as unemployment (particularly youth unemployment), poverty, inequality, the slowing economy and many more.

Look, this is my view: political grandstanding is part of the game. That is what politicians do and it is not about to change. What would make our country succeed though is having skilled people, who are camera shy working behind the scenes to make the country work. I believe, for example that ordinary Members of Parliament, the so-called backbenchers should not be aspiring political leaders. The ruling party and opposition parties should appoint technocrats and administrators who will work while their leaders are competing for media attention.

The same applies to Government. Ministers and Deputy Ministers are politicians. They will continue to do what politicians do. We can’t change that. What we need is the professionalization of the civil service. From the Director General, Deputy Director Generals, Chief Directors, and Directors and all the way to the lowest position, we need people who have skills.  We need people here who do not necessarily have political ambitions. We need professionals who can just get on with the job. Of course, professionals need an environment where they will be given enough autonomy to do their jobs. Politicians need to give professionals space to do that. They need an assurance that they will not be made scapegoats when politicians have messed up.

One of the biggest challenges we have in our country though is that the skilled professionals want nothing to do with the Public Sector. Many of my educated, middle class friends wouldn’t be caught dead working for the State. Here’s my question then: if all the skilled professionals are not interested to work for the State, who will? I will tell you who will. The people, who are unskilled, politically connected and low ranking politicians who could not make it to the list of Parliament or any similar lists will do it. The problem with those people is that, at the core, they are politicians who are probably bored with office work. They will collect their salaries at the end of the month but will not add much value.

We need skilled professionals to join the Public Sector desperately. Will you consider working in the Public Sector? Your country needs you.

Regards,

SM.

Are you connecting with your team?

Ten Ways to Improve Your Connection Skills:

According to the Center for Creative Leadership, weak connection skills hold many managers back from becoming effective leaders. They base this on a recent book written by Michael Lee Stallard. I thought I would share with you these ten tips to facilitate connection adapted from Stallard’s new book:

		1.    Recognize varying connection needs. Learn about the people you lead and be flexible in how you build connection with them.
		2.    Be present in conversation. Give people and the topic your full attention.
		3.    Develop the ability to empathize. When someone expresses an emotion, it’s OK for you to feel it too.
		4.    Develop the habit of emphasizing positives. Look for ways to acknowledge excellence in the work — and in the way people go about their work.
		5.    Control your tone of voice. People react to the delivery of your message before they hear its content.
		6.    Negotiate with the mindset to solve a problem rather than to win. A competitive mindset can lead to disconnection and distrust.
		7.    Provide autonomy in execution. Don’t micromanage, but monitor progress and be available.
		8.    Learn and apply the five languages of appreciation. People respond to different types of recognition. Gary Chapman and Paul White’s book, The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace, is a great guide.
		9.    Apologize when you make a mistake. Own up, tell people you’re sorry.
		10.         Develop social skills and relationship skills, and recognize the difference between them. Social skills are important for casual interactions, but relationship skills create deeper connections with fewer people. SM

I won’t give up on the vision of a non-racial and non-sexist South Africa!

The easiest thing to do when incidents such as what happened at a Curro school yesterday happen, is to throw our hands in the air and declare that “we knew that this Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s rainbow nation thing was a farce” or “the vision of a non-racial and non-sexist South Africa died with Mandela”. The easiest thing is for all of us “to go back to our people” and to our comfort zones. It is so tempting to give up on the vision of a non-racial SA, it really is but I refuse to give up. Not because I’m some motivational speaker who is forever optimistic. Not because I’m some naive apologist who thinks there are easy solutions to our past but because the alternative is frightening. I get discouraged often but I will fight on. Aluta Continua!!

Siphiwe Moyo

South African Learning & Development Landscape in 2024: Ten years on – am I seeing into the future or am I seeing things?

I spend a considerable amount of time thinking about skills development or what some may call learning and development in South Africa. The reason is very simple: I believe I was born to contribute to skilling the unskilled. I was part of many meetings in the mid 2000s where we discussed the “skills revolution” but that conversation is no more. In 2006 the government established a short-term skills intervention called the Joint Initiative on Priority Skills (JIPSA), which was led by then Deputy President, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka that was going to spearhead the “skills revolution”. A lot has happened since. The Honourable Membathi Mdladlana who was Minister of Labour led skills Development then. I met the honourable Mdladlana a few times particularly when I participated in the National Skills Summits. He has been shipped to Canada now as SA ambassador to that country.

In President Zuma’s administration, Skills Development was moved to the Ministry of Higher Education & Training led by Minister Blade Nzimande and has culminated in the formation of the Human Resource Development Council of South Africa (HRDCSA) which was chaired by Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe and I assume will be taken over by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa. The HRDCSA has already developed and launched the National Integrated HRD Plan. Ok, enough with the background. I think I can see into the future and I want to suggest seven ways I think the Skills Development/ Learning & Development/ HR Development landscape will look like in 2024.

1.     Many South Africans will finally regard being an Artisan as “cool” though not enough: I don’t know if you know, 2014 to 2024 has been declared “the decade of the Artisan” by the Ministry of Higher Education and Training. By the way, it was in May 2007 when Minister Mdladlana said the following: “Artisan development remains a vital program if the government’s skills revolution in the form of ASGISA were to be accomplished” he continued to say ““As part of our response to the JIPSA’s call to increase the numbers of artisans to 12 500 per annum in order to meet the 50 000 target by 2010, we have embarked on a number of interventions”. Minister Mdladlana singled out SEIFSA and the MERSETA (companies where I worked) for praise, saying the duo had heeded the call and took leadership in this regard. Artisan Development has eluded us so far but I have a sense that Minister Nzimande has taken this as his main project and he cannot afford for it to fail. I’m certainly going to join him in spreading the word, everywhere I speak, that it is cool to be an Artisan because we desperately need Artisans as a country.

2.     SETAs are not going anywhere: Sector Education & Training Authorities are not going anywhere. There are some who think that SETAs will be scrapped soon but this is absolutely not going to happen. If you read the chapter that deals with Skills Development in the National Development you will immediately see that SETAs are not going anywhere. I do feel though that some are now trying to change SETAs into government departments, which was not the intention.

3.     Training Budgets will be smaller after adjusting for inflation: The SA economy is not doing very well. Unless we meet the economic growth target of 5% by 2019 as the President said, companies will be struggling and consequently our training budgets.

4.     Mobile Learning will be on steroids: Watch the space; in 2024, almost 50% of learning will be done in a mobile or table phone.

5.     Learning & Development will still report to HR: There are some in our profession who think that L&D will soon report directly to the CEO or the Managing Director of a business. Well, this is not going to happen. Get over it!

6.     Accreditation will be less of an issue: You must understand why people insist that every program must be accredited now. There are two reasons. The first is the current grant system means employers are pushing for accreditation. The second reason is that due to the fact many people in this country didn’t have an opportunity to get qualifications; accredited programs offer them this chance. This would have changed in 2024. Accreditation is very important but it will be less important in 2024 where most employers will be training people for the skill and less about catching up on qualifications.

7.     The Learning & Development Industry will have an ‘African” feel: For many years L&D in South Africa was modeled through the international, but mostly American, L&D Industry. A few months ago, the L&D community decided to take a new direction and rename ASTD South Africa, the African Society for Training & Development and to quote our current office bearers “Although still a strategic partner of ASTD International (American Society for Training and Development), our focus will be more on adding value longer term in influencing Senior Leadership in LEARNING and DEVELOPMENT in Africa. This ensures that with the new image we have more flexibility to centre our efforts on actual local challenges in Training and Development. Although it is still early days, many of us will work hard to see how this journey will evolve and by 2024, the industry will have a different feel. Oh by the way ASTD International, at the recent 2014 convention, have also changed their name to Association for Talent Development.

Siphiwe Moyo is a Skills Development/Learning & Development Maniac.