Company leadership needs effectiveness-Centenary Bank boss

Business is moving fast and to keep up, business leaders at all levels need to know how to pick up the pace and be effective.

Fabian Kasi, the managing director Centenary Bank has appealed to business leaders to be swift and effective to achieve positive results.

Kasi said that transformative leadership requires leaders that serve.

He said leaders should not fear responsibility or making mistakes.

"There is a Kiswahili saying that if you fear being seen naked you will never have a child," Kasi said.

Kasi said this while making a presentation on the topic: ‘Shifting the Gear. Change management in hard times'.

This was during the 25th Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Uganda annual seminar. The seminar took place at the Imperial Resort Beach Hotel, Entebbe.

He appealed to leaders to communicate six times using all modes of communication.

"What sort of leadership is required in hard times? It's leaders who see possibilities where others see limitations. Leaders who take risks. Leaders who use influence and power. Who lead to serve," Kasi said.

Kasi highlighted the hardships like other business the bank has faced such as; hardship in movement, limited social interaction, working from home and difficulty in effective performance management.

Other difficulties included; harsh economic environment, forced changes from outside, the short term pressure against the long term view, decision making highly centralised and quantitative approaches displaces qualitative approaches.

He explained that hard times call for the protection of staff and clients and increased use of technology.

"In hard times there is a need for both strong management and leadership."

"There is a need for leaders who are agile and swift, forward looking, ready to transform and think differently," Kasi said.

He noted that every cloud has a silver lining which provides opportunities to take account of.

He said that to achieve this requires rethinking business models to attain efficiency.

The bank has focused on financial inclusion, reduction in the use of cash, financial literacy and called for increase in savings.

"We need leaders who achieve results. Leaders who transform. They need scenario thinking and planning amid uncertainties. If you cannot tolerate critics, don't do anything new or interesting".

He cited sayings such as: "In the new world it is not the big fish that eats the small fish, it is the fast fish that eats the slow fish. It is no longer the survival of the fittest but rather for the fastest".

He informed leaders that when they are planning for change, they should involve all stakeholders who will be made up of resistors 20%, bystanders 60%, helpers 10% and champions of change 10%.

He said the challenges of managing change during hard times requires; managing multiple teams, differentiating the needs of multiple sites and updating appropriate documents to align with changes.

Other requirements for management during hard times involves; reversing a problematic or ineffective change, quickly gaining appropriate approvals, juggling multiple simultaneous changes.

He quoted a management guru, Peter Drucker, who said that: "The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence, it is to act with yesterday's logic."