Why Lead?

Our word for the year within the why lead community is Consistency. This is the year of doing what you do consistently, it's the year of solving problems consistently. It's the year of getting things done consistently. It's the year of loving consistently. It's the year of building up people consistently. It's the year of operating with integrity consistently. It's the year of innovating consistently. It's the year of learning consistently and it's the year of leading consistently. And since this is the year of consistency. We would like to begin the year by asking the question, how do we achieve our most important goals?

Thank you to everyone who has been part of this journey. A special thank you to my producer Isaac McDonald from Eternal Entertainment. 

In a world where servant leadership is on the up and up. In a world where books like Leaders Eat Last and Put People First can be bestsellers. Hopper stands up and says, as a leader you need to operate with the mindset of "Me First" or as he says it in Swahili, "Mimi Kwanza" This ideology seems destructive on the surface, but once you understand it, it can change your whole life. 

Anna Bwana shares her leadership journey and the different elements that contribute to her success. She talks about privilege, luck, failure, mentors, hard work, and assertion. If you're interested in becoming a better leader. Listen to the end.

In leading change and in building diverse teams, you will be challenged to think and operate outside the box. In this episode, we are laying out a blueprint as per Tribal Leadership and Remember the Titans. And the big question we are asking is, How do you transform a dysfunctional team that seeks the elevation of self at the expense of others and entity, to a functional team that is selfless that lives for the elevation of others and entity?

Decision making is one of, if not the cradle of leadership. Some people say vision. But vision without making a decision to pursue it is vapor-nothing-useless. From the dawn of time, humans reigned on earth because of the strength and maturation of their ability to decide. The strength and maturation of this ability was and still is far more developed than that of any other species in discovered living things. In this episode we’re asking the question, what do you do as a leader when what has worked in the past does not work anymore? The truth is many of us have had to deal with this reality in this one of a kind year we’ve had. And so to have this conversation I am joined by Fausta Musokwa, who is the Interim Executive Director of Tanzania Media Foundation.

Disclaimer: We recorded this episode in a busy coffee shop. So please bear with the background noise and the occasional coffee grinder. 

Today we will be looking for connections between financial stress and workplace productivity. We will also look at the role of leaders/organizations in eliminating this stress, or better phrased, “Knowing that financial stress stifles creativity, productivity, and innovation, should leaders try to step in and help their teams eliminate this stress? If yes then how? If not, what is the cost?” And beyond this, what responsibility does the individual have towards making sure they operate with less of this stress so they can be highly productive and innovative.

Stories, and especially films are a great platform to rehearse life without the consequences of real life. Films help us rehearse positive reactions to failure. Films help us rehearse resilience. Films help us rehearse empathy.  Films help us rehearse courage. And when we have to deal with similar situations in real life, we've been given the upper hand. This same applies to leadership. We can rehearse leadership through prolific leaders depicted in some of the most iconic films. To experiment with this idea, we're breaking down leadership practices from the film Saving Private Ryan. 

People like to bring up the fact that Oprah, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Michael Dell, and many other hyper-successful leaders never graduated from University. As if that decision was the X-factor to their success. This argument that has completely undermined the role of formal training in the development of leaders has taken deeper roots with Millenials, but hopefully, not for long...