Self-assessment important in business – Cobbah

Ms Esther Cobbah, Chief Executive Officer, Stratcomm- Africa, has appealed to firms to assess their leadership qualities from the customers’ point of view, which is mainly about how customers perceive the quality of services they receive.

She noted that a good leadership brand could only be determined by the sort of commitment the leader gives to the customers of his or her firm and not just by being labeled ‘the boss’ by subordinates.

Ms Cobbah said this during the 2016 edition of the Leadership Conference organised by the Jospong/Zoomlion Group of Companies which attracted staff of the company nationwide who are in leadership positions to a five day conference at the Pentecost Convention Centre at Gomoa Fetteh in the Central Region.

She spoke on the topic “Establishing and Maintaining Your Leadership Brand”.

She noted that rather than just tracking employees’ commitment to a firm, a company should also try to calculate the impact of employee’s commitment on customers.

“By grounding a leader’s results in customer expectations in this way, a firm begins to build its leadership brand and one best way to do that is to open up feedback sessions to customers,” she advised.

She noted that leadership brands evolve from the values that inform or drive the cultural expressions of one’s leadership conduct and style.

“Thus the intangible aspects of a brand identity which are the values one holds become the foundation of the brand, while the activities and outward expressions become the building blocks of the brand cemented together with the intangible elements of that brand,” she said.

Ms Cobbah advised leaders to build a good reputation that draws others to their examples and leadership style, as a leader’s brand becomes appreciated and attractive when resonate with the needs of people.

She charged people who want to be great to always endeavour to focus on providing services to those they lead, and not to lord it over them.

“Being in the field of communications, one of the things that I have been struck by is the failure of various innovations and initiatives which are not well connected to the situation of the intended beneficiaries of the initiative, which to me is worrisome,” she said.

Ms Cobbah advised leaders to always listen to the opinions of their subordinate as communication was not a one way affair, adding that those who seek to lead must be willing to listen and learn from others.

She urged leaders to inculcate in them the attitude of humility as it was dangerous for them to give the impression of being know-it-all and also not appreciate the contributions of others.

“It is in being able to see the good in others and mobilising contributions from various players that the power to lead is most clearly manifested,” she added.

She urged leaders not to lose sight of their moral compass and their mission and succumb to maltreatment because of power.

Ms Cobbah entreated leaders to always opt for enduring brands as such brands were enduring such that they blaze on even after their bearers who were long gone.

She said the most powerful way to develop leaders who have a customer lens is to give them job assignments that often take them out of their comfort zones and putting them on the field to assess their performance.

She entreated leaders at all levels of the Jospong Group to learn to master both the core skills of leadership and the essence of the leadership brand of the Company to increase the value of the Group.

“By focusing on leadership and not just leaders, and by evaluating everything from the customer’s perspective, you will create the institutional systems and process that will sustain the Group and its values year by year,” she advised.