Guardian

TO succeed in an unstable business environment like Nigeria, entrepreneurs have been advised to build sustainable work ethics, seek appropriate training and patiently nurture their dreams.

The charge was made by American business trainer and life coach, Ms Lee Follender, in an interview with The Guardian, at Amuwo-Odofin, Lagos, where she facilitated a two-week training organised for select business executives by Purpose Power and Lifestyle Design International (PPLD).

Follender said one of the major reasons why entrepreneurs find it difficult to survive is because they are not trained in the art of business management.

She said:  “Somebody gets out of school and say, ‘I want to be an entrepreneur.’ They buy products and go on to the street corner to start selling. They don’t know the strategies of running businesses.

“They don’t know how to keep track of what they buy. They don’t know how to manage inventory. They don’t know how to manage their daily receipts. There is no system to train them to do that. One of the things that training does is that it gives insight into the missing pieces that will make them successful. It doesn’t matter whether they are entrepreneurs or they are working for large companies, the same things are missing; things like working as a team. If you have two or three people working together, they can accomplish a lot more than one single individual.”

She said organisations and entrepreneurs would be more successful if they work together, stating that because there are missing links; people don’t know how to work together.

“You know, the more individuals are successful, the more successful the country is going to be. And it is just the same in the corporate environment, the more individuals are successful in the corporate environment; the more the company will be successful. It makes much difference if some of these entrepreneurs would go to work for companies for one or two years and get some training on communication skills, book keeping and those things that are important to run a business. Then when they go out to do businesses on their own, they will be better prepared.

“Now they don’t have such knowledge; they only go out and try to run a business. It is very difficult when you are not trained to do that,” she said.

Follender, who has put in 30 years to top management training, commented specifically on the just-concluded one. She said: “The training is experiential and transformational. What it would theoretically do is to have people see their own power; see a possibility they didn’t see before they did the training. The training is about the process of transforming the work environment in Africa.

“The programme is about training the trainers. The normal programme is delivered in a very unusual way. It is delivered one day a week for six weeks unlike most training that take you off work. The way we looked at it was that many times people don’t come to trainings because they don’t want to miss work. In our model, they can come one day a week, 9 to 6 and they have assignments to carry through the rest of the week.

On how business organisations can leverage the skills of their employees, she said: “Executives need to leverage the skills and abilities of their subordinates; they do that through appropriate training and development. There is not much of that going on. This is because systems thinking and innovative thinking and team work aren’t about what you do. It is about who you are. It is about people taking responsibility and getting their own power to make a difference in the environment.”

She jokingly hinted that the most challenging carrier decision she has taken was coming to Nigeria. According to her, “what I heard was that it was very dangerous in Nigeria and I shouldn’t come, and that I would probably get kidnapped, that the country was very backward. The people will not be interested in hearing anything about growing and changing.

“But that has not been my experience; the people are amazing. They put up with things that are extraordinary and frustrating and they keep smiling. They are the warmest, most friendly, enthusiastic people I have ever met. I haven’t met anybody that hasn’t been nice.”

She continued: “I think they are just tired of struggling and they don’t know how to get out of it. It is like a vicious cycle. My first encounter was in the airport, when I saw that they had no system to manage the baggage. People were stumbling to get their suitcases. The people that worked there didn’t seem to know how to help the travelers. The man that was trying to help them was dropping the suitcases faster than they were coming down the ramp. He was struggling to keep up with the speed of the luggage that was coming down the ramp. It was crazy. And the amazing thing was that in all this the people were smiling. And the traffic is unbelievable. In all, the people are great; the conditions are terrible.”

Follender has coached teams in Dell computers and several other blue-chip companies in the United States. Few weeks ago, she had an encounter with a crop of Nigerians. Comparing her experience with trainees in her home country and those in Nigeria, she said: “the people of Nigeria are remarkable. I can tell you that they are inspiring to be able to put up with what they put up with and are still smiling. I told my host yesterday that there is a special door in heaven just for Nigerians and when they die they are definitely going to heaven, because they have had hell dealing with the streets of Lagos. I think the biggest difference is that in America we have systems.

“We are not perfect and we have a lot of growth in many areas. At least, our business environment is conducive to listening to people, giving people power and having progress. Well, you can see the progress.

“The thing that is surprising about Nigeria is that, as I look around, there are a lot of unfinished projects; buildings just go up and then just stop; complexes that people start building, then the building just rot; there is no completion, there is no support system for those things to succeed and that is the thing that is missing here. The people need support in making their dreams come true and in America, there is a little bit more in terms of support in structures and systems to fulfill on peoples dream.