Leadership lessons from combi drivers part 2

Dr. Wilbert R. Mutoko (PhD, FHEA) is a business doctor, financial wellness speaker, business strategist, researcher and senior lecturer at undergraduate and master’s degree level for business management and entrepreneurship & business leadership at the Botswana Accountancy College School of Business & Leisure. Dr. Wilbert is the author of four books entitled: 15 Secrets for Personal Financial Success – A Simple Step-by-Step Plan for Financial Freedom | 16 Mistakes Singles Make Volume One – A Guide to Successful Dating & Courtship that leads to Blissful Marriage | What you have is Enough - How to become wildly successful in finance and business starting from where you are now. | The fourth book is a free pdf - | Financial Freedom – It’s your turn for financial success. You can get the free ebook by emailing or sending a WhatsApp message to the author. All the books are available at Exclusive Books (Riverwalk) and Bala Books (Rail Park Mall). Dr. Mutoko writes in his personal capacity. For feedback, you can contact him on email: wilbertmutoko@ gmail.com. Or WhatsApp: +267 71 824 591.

By Dr. Wilbert R. Mutoko (PhD, FHEA)

Leadership can be learned. Whether you were born a leader or not, you have an equal chance to learn how to lead. One of the ways in which leaders and potential leaders can learn is by looking at the way good combi (minibus or taxi) drivers lead. In this article, we will extract some leadership lessons from combi drivers. This is part two of the series on the leadership lessons to be learned from good combi drivers. In the first part, we looked at vision, reputation, multitasking, calmness, focus, and marketing/sales. In this series we look at patience, delegation, customer care, and being good with numbers.

Patience

Good combi drivers are patient. At the taxi rank, If you pass by the taxi rank, combis operate in queues. The drivers wait patiently for their turn to load either by sleeping, or playing games. They also have to be patient while loading until the combi is full or has enough people to do more than breakeven. Similarly, good leaders develop patience in planning, implementing strategy, building a winning team, and attaining organizational goals. Any impatient leader will easily become a patient. This is so because and impatient leader is more likely to develop emotional turmoil, which affects the business and performance negatively.

The other day I was talking with one CEO of a large enterprise whom I will call Tim. Tim told me that if he goes to negotiate funding from a financial institution and the manager don’t fund his company, Tim recourses to other financial institutions. If he still can’t get the funding, he will be patient enough to either fund the project internally or shelve it until a year in future when the problem manager who declined to lend the money either retires or moves to a different company. Thus, he will go back to the financial institution to start negotiating with the new manager. How many leaders do you think are that patient? Many people would give up completely if a bank manager refused to give them money. However, Tim has a different mindset.

Another example of patience with leaders is that sometimes it takes time to recruit the right people in your organization. If you lack patience, you end up hiring the wrong people who will give you headaches in the organization.

Furthermore, as a leader, you should acknowledge that change management is not easy and it needs patience. This is so true especially when you decide to change the organizational culture. You cannot wake up one day

to find all employees excited by the change. It takes time.

The last example is that as a leader, you should be patient to work with new employees, new suppliers, and new customers. It takes patience to build lasting relationships. Good leaders can learn something from combi drivers’ level of patience.

Delegation

Have you seen someone looking like the driver of a combi starting the engine of the combi, driving the combi a bit and calling out for customers, only to realize later that the real driver is a different person? Drivers understand the power of delegation. They can ask the conductor to sit in the driver’s seat and look like the driver. Furthermore, while the driver is busy driving, s/he can delegate one of the passengers to collect money. In many countries, in a combi, one passenger just assumes the role of fare collection, and begins to collect the fare and giving fellow passengers change.

Good leaders should similarly avoid burnout by avoiding overworking by giving some of their duties to junior employees. Delegation allows the leader to concentrate on key activities. Furthermore, delegating some duties to juniors empowers the juniors and could motivate them. However, some leaders will never delegate because they either fear that the juniors will mess up the job or they may end up taking their job. Nevertheless, good leaders know that to lead well, it is crucial to delegate. As they say, ‘good leaders develop followers, while great leaders develop other leaders.’ What sort of leader are you? How good are you at delegating? If you avoid delegating, what are your reasons for that?

Talk less

Many combi drivers talk very little. Their focus is on filling the vehicle and transporting the customers to their destinations. Great leaders are generally known to be less talkative unless it is necessary. Being too talkative causes a leader to lose sight of crucial matters. Talking too much may mean that a leader is not listening enough. As a leader, it is necessary for you to listen more than you talk. Good examples of quiet leaders that achieved or are achieving great things include: Albert Einstein, one of the most famous physicists; Bill Gates, Founder of Microsoft, one of the world’s richest people of all time and greatest performing CEOs; Sir Isaac Newton, one of the world’s best scientists; Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of former president of the US, Franklin D. Roosevelt, a shy and reserved woman who was very impactful and gave hundreds of speeches during 1933 and 1945 when she was first lady; Mark Zuckerberg, Founder of Facebook, is said to be shy and a bit reserved, but he is highly impactful; Larry Page, co-founder of Google, is a quiet and reserved leader. In Botswana, some reserved leaders that avoid talking unnecessarily include most of the traditional chiefs; Ramachandran Ottapathu, CEO and founder of Choppies; Satar Dada, Founder of Dada Group of Companies; Serty Leburu, Executive Director of Botswana Accountancy College; Mpho Moremong Gobe, Founder of MG Properties; and many more. There are many more leaders we can learn from: Warren Buffett, Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, Michael Jordan, Charles Darwin, Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak, Barrack Obama, Al Gore, and the list goes on. Which other names did I leave here? Can you add more names, especially applicable in your country? Do you agree that leaders should reduce talking for them to be more effective just as good combi drivers do?

Exceptional Customer Experience

Some good combi drivers care for their customers such that they help with carrying luggage, carrying children on and off the vehicle, and in some cases, they can drop some customers at their doorsteps. Good leaders should take good care of their customers. If you neglect the customers’ needs, you soon get out of business, especially in these days where competition is stiff. Great leaders ensure that their employees are well taken care of, hence the employees will take good care of the customers. As a leader, you should therefore take your employees as your customers, please and inspire them. In turn your employees should do the same to the customers. Can you comfortably say that your organization delivers consistent exceptional customer experience? If not, Why? What can you do differently as a leader to ensure that your organization or department will deliver exceptional customer experience to give you a competitive advantage?

Good with numbers

Most combi drivers have high levels of understanding and experience with counting money. They can count money while driving at the same time. Furthermore, they should give change accurately, lest they either disappoint customers or they short-change the company. Similarly, good leaders should be good with numbers. When I listen to entrepreneurs pitching or just sharing about what they do, I listen carefully to the details which include financial figures. Of course, you may not be great with figures, but it is essential for you to hire the right people who understand the figures and get them to simplify the figures for you.

I wish you the best of every success as a leader. Together we will sail through this crisis.