Nicole and Elvia have worked with the leadership of several cooperative unions in Ethiopia and Uganda. It was such a journey every instance!
Challenge
How can we strengthen the leadership of our union? Is our structure fit for successfully achieving our strategy? What are best practices to align from strategy to planning on all organisational levels?
The Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union and the Oromia Agriculture Cooperatives Federation in Ethiopia and the Ugandan Cooperative Alliance in Uganda all had similar questions which we approached in a tailor made way.
Approach
Several online meets helped us to get the questions and challenges clear, after which a tailor made programme was made which was delivered live in Addis, Adama and Kampala. With an interactive 3 day programme for each union with lots of exercises, group work and lively discussions, we focussed on practical learning applicable for the union and gaining deep new insights on what leadership actually means.
We worked for all unions on three lines of leadership:
– leading in the context
– leading one self
– leading others
Outcomes
Leaders discover who they really are and how that affects the way they work. They discover that it helps to understand one’s own style and behaviour before seeking to understand others. Working through the performance cycle from strategy to annual planning to personal planning gave insights in cascading and monitoring goals. Such a relief, it is not so difficult !
Learning on formal and informal structures in organisations helped in setting clear task divisions and understanding informal flows in one’s company.
