How to build self-confidence in a team

Increasing confidence in people goes well beyond short term business gains it improves the lives of people.  Try putting these 5 confidence-building strategies into place to improve the performance of a member of your team;

1. Give More, Not Less. Most managers who see people struggling with their confidence remove or subtract tasks or responsibilities. This is wrong. By giving people more responsibility and duties, it forces them out of their comfort zone and allows them to gain confidence. They achieve things they never previously accomplished or thought they could accomplish.
2. Stretch Their Thinking. I love sending my team examples of the successful work of others in our field. It gets them thinking about ways to do their job better or more efficiently. Once they are successfully able to execute these new ideas, they are more confident in the work they do and the business gets a better product.
3. Be a Positives Influence. I am a huge believer that the people you surround yourself with influence how you feel about yourself. Work to build others up, be 100% honest, and make good decisions both personally and professionally. It’s all about leading by example and being a positive influence every single day.
4. Celebrate Successes. Celebrating successes early and often is the easiest thing to do on this list, but it’s the least executed. It can be as simple as saying “great job” or as big as creating a visual reminder for individuals to keep on their desk. They are beacons of light or “bright spots” that can keep confidence high even on days that are a struggle. I have found celebrating personal success can often be the low hanging fruit to ensuring that confidence is built every single day.
5. Give Authority. One of my mentors always told me " delegate authority, not tasks" Authority is much different than tasks and authority can come in many different forms;   By giving any type of authority to individuals, an instant transfer of confidence takes place because you are showing someone you believe in them. This can be as simple as telling them a decision is theirs to make and you will stand behind them no matter what. 

The concept of Depreciation and compound interest in real life

I love paradoxes.

You know what is the greatest paradox that I find? Our entire educational system is geared towards giving us skills to earn money, without ever teaching us about money.

--- They don't teach us how to save money, how to invest it or how to make money work for us.

---Neither do they teach us about the concept of opportunity cost of idle money nor the relationship between risk and return.

---Nothing is taught about how the equity markets functions or what is the difference between a stock and a bond.

---All of us are working towards earning money for retirement planning. God knows that we are not taught any of that stuff either.

That brings me to the question of the day.

What do I think are the most important concepts everyone should be taught right from childhood?. 

I think there are two financial concepts that everyone should learn. One is the concept of depreciation. Other is the concept of compounding.

Simple words, big ideas. Simple concepts, big outcomes.

First about depreciation. As everyone knows, depreciation is the reduction in value of an asset due to normal usage of the same. It is the cost of 'wear and tear'. Companies love depreciation. It allows them to reduce their profits and pay less tax to the government. And this can be done without paying a single penny as cash outflow. 

No cash outflow, claim expense, reduce tax. Great, isn't it?

Not so much if you are a salaried employee. As a salaried employee, in Kenya, as in most other countries, you cannot claim depreciation on your assets. That doesn't mean that you are immune from the effect of depreciation. Remember that glamorous, sexy Toyota Car that you had purchased off the shelf from the Toyota Dealer? The moment the ownership changed hands, even without you so much as driving it out of the proverbial 'Gate of the Dealer', the car has lost about a fifth of its value. If you pay USD. 7,000 today and want to sell it tomorrow, you will be happy if you can get USD. 6,000 for that vehicle. Just the notional change of ownership has reduced the value of the vehicle. That is the pernicious impact of depreciation.

How can you escape this impact? Buy used car. If you wait till January to buy a used car purchased in September of the previous year, you will be able to buy a three months old used car at almost 4/5th of Ex-Show Room Price. You are not losing anything. You are getting an almost brand new car and the previous owner is paying for the depreciation. 

If the previous owner is a business man, he will be happy to conclude this transaction. He can claim both depreciation and the loss as expenses and pay lower tax on his lower profits.

That is smartness. Both from you and the business man...

The awareness about depreciation also teaches us that there are some assets, land being the most extensively quoted, that do not depreciate in value. In fact they do appreciate in value. So is the case with shares of good companies purchased at fair value. Their prices tend to appreciate over a period of time.

Purchasing assets that will appreciate in value is called Investing. Buying assets that will depreciate in value is called Expenditure.

So lesson one, if you have money and want to buy assets, make sure to buy those which will appreciate in value. Buy Investment assets. In case you want to buy depreciating assets, make sure that someone else pays for the initial depreciation. 

The second concept is the power of compounding.

They teach us compounding during our school days, of course, they do. Who can forget all those complicated formulae about compound interests and geometric progressions that we were asked to (nay, forced to) learn during those childhood days? We are finally out of it, now that we are adults, aren't we?. Compound interest is for kids, not for salaried employees like us, correct?

Not so fast, mister. Not so fast....

Compounding impacts every one. In that sense it is an 'Equal Opportunity Cost' employer. Compounding is the reason why small, innocuous amount of money, smartly invested consistently over a period of time, end up as huge values. As you keep on investing small amounts of money regularly, that money is silently, unobtrusively working to create more money for you. 

That is compounding. 

The value explosion has nothing to do with the amount you invest. Value explosion is due to the rate at which money creates new money every day, every hour, every minute, every second.....

That rate at which money explodes is the rate of compounding. Technically it is called CAGR (Compounded Annual Growth Rate).

Power of compounding also means that earlier you start investing (purchasing assets that will appreciate in value), more are the benefits of compounding. 

Power of compounding is what increased the amount of USD. 10, 000 invested in 1980 to become almost USD. 20,000,000 in 2015.

There is another hidden insight to compounding. It is Investment Acceleration. In some sense it is like acceleration in a car. 

What does acceleration do in a car? Progressively it reduces the time taken to cover the same distance. Initially you cover 10 Kilometers in about 7 minutes. As you accelerate, you cover 13 Kilometers in the next 7 minutes and 17 Kilometers in the next 7 minutes and so on. As a corollary, an accelerating vehicle will cover same distance in progressively lower time.

(Don't do this on the highway. This is a mathematical illustration).

Compounding is a risk less investment acceleration. Let us say that you buy a share at Ksh. 50 . If the share price touches 55, you would have got 10% return on your investment. Which means a 10% appreciation in share price leads to 10% of return on investment.

Now assume that the share price has touched Kshs. 100. At this price, a 10% appreciation in share price (from 100 to 110) is equivalent to 20% (10/50) return on your original investment. If the share price touches 200, you just need the share price to go up by 2.5% for you to achieve 10% return on your investment.

Can you see the investment accelerating?. Same percentage appreciation in price, multiple percentage appreciation in your return on investment. This is compounding.

Best of all, this acceleration is never ending, unlike acceleration in a car.

Do they teach these in schools? No, of course not. Even if they teach compounding it is to show us in the receiving end. An example question on compounding will look like this.

'Mr.Ram borrows Ksh. 100, 000 from a bank at an annual interest of 10% with a promise to pay back the principal and accumulated interest at the end of five years. How much will Mr.Ram pay to the bank at the end of five years:

a. If the interest is calculated as simple interest.?

b. If the interest is calculated as compound interest? '

As you can see, in this question Mr.Ram (you and me) is always a borrower who has to pay back principal and accumulated interest to the bank. Mr.Ram is never an investor. As per the questions asked in the school, Mr.Ram always is at the receiving end of compounding. He is never the beneficiary of compounding.

Instead of the above question, the school could ask a question like this. Both the questions evaluate the same concept, vis. compounding.

'Mr.Nilekeni purchased 100 shares of Infosys at Ksh.100 in the year 1994. By 2014, the number of shares had increased to 1000 and the share was trading at Kshs.1000.

a. Calculate the CAGR on Mr.Nilekeni's investment.

b. If in 1994, Mr.Nilekeni had invested Kshs. 10,000 in a Bank deposit at 10% interest rate, compounded for 20 years, what would be the value of Mr.Nilekini's deposit in 2014.

c. Based on the answer to a. and b. above, if you were Mr.Nilekeni in 1994, where would you invest your money? What are the factors that you would consider? 

This question teaches a lot. It teaches the benefits of investing, multiple options of investing and the benefits of investing for the long term. It also forces the student to consider the risks associated with various investment options.

Now , that is education.

So there. 'Depreciation' and 'Compounding' are the two topics about money that every individual should learn in school. 

 It will help reap 'compounded' rewards.

Our intangible cultural heritage is vital, but goes unrecognised

Traditional games played by most Kenyan children involved enacting various social scenarios and practical thinking and creativity.

I watched a video on social media in which a little girl is imploring her parents, “Help me mother! Help me father!” though not in those exact words.

She is worried about technology and its increasingly important role in the lives of parents at the expense of nurturing and guiding their children. Ironically it is to the credit of the same technology that many people will get to see that video.

The child lauds technology as innovation, creativity and modernization – all of which should be good products of a growing society – but also rightfully points out that they cannot replace nurturing and guidance, which are the primary roles parents are supposed to play in a child’s life.

Parents are using video games and sweets, and spending most of their time on laptops or WhatsApp.  In a professional context, the child is decrying the acquisition and protection of material heritage at the expense of intangible heritage.

Intangible or ‘living’ forms are the traditions that are inherited from one generation to next, and are the main mode of transmission of knowledge and principles that enable us to interact with nature and the universe.

It also transmits traditional technologies and crafts which have been proven to be very environmentally friendly. Why would a parent want to give their children sweets in place of mental, spiritual and psychological nurturing?

PLAYING 'HEADMASTER'

Sugar lacks essential nutritional elements that help in physical and mental development of the young.

Sweets increase a child’s propensity to obesity, especially when combined with video games which involve little or no physical activity, not to mention the dental bills that are likely to follow, the never- ending coughs and many other side effects.

If parents critically examine the benefits of video games, they may find that it is cheaper, and healthier, to buy a child a real ball than a football video game. Many supposedly ‘science fiction’ games that involve violent conquests by aliens and other forms of life are actually 99 per cent fiction and 1 percent science!!

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Traditional games played by most Kenyan children in the past involved varieties of enacting social scenarios and role-playing, with actors chosen among children. Though recreational, these games served as a mechanism of knowledge transfer.

A child would for example be given the role of headmaster and they would do their best to demonstrate the authority of the headmaster.  A child given the roles of mother would practice nurturing, guidance and carrying out other roles and chores that are designated to mothers.

Even if our highly educated and modern society is happy to throw around words like ‘practices make perfect’, it does not care to encourage children to practice various roles and responsibilities in traditional games, since they earn enough to buy video games.

LEARN BY DISMANTLING

The world recognized this need when the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) adopted the Convention for the safeguard of intangible cultural heritage in 2003. In daily life, this means protecting and safeguarding those simple things that are appropriate for the heritage in question, by ensuring they remain an active part in the lives of today’s generations.

To keep interest in such simple things is to protect the intangible heritage of our country which reaffirms our common destiny and identity, not to mention the knowledge that they transmit.

We fail to appreciate the creativity children show when they see a lorry on the highway and afterwards spend time to make a similar one using locally-available materials.

We claim modernity, but are unwilling to pay to make the transfer of knowledge from our children to their age-mates possible. A parent will buy a child a video game, but will not want the child to dismantle it in an effort to establish how it works. We are only willing to adopt technology as consumers.

Lack of appreciation and understanding of what is truly ours in the face of globalization is the biggest threat to our future.

It does not even take a cent out of our 2-trillion budget, but is in our heads and our hearts.  Why don’t we use it again?

NYS is a noble idea! Do not politicize the project.

Caleb Otaru (Left) and Steve Umeme (Right) In Service 2004 - Kisii Sub-Unit!

Many people have blindly commended the Kenya (Jubilee) government for its commitment to ensuring that the dream of empowering the youth is alive! One of the areas that they highlight is the Sh25 billion allocation towards youth employment and re-engineering the National Youth Service (NYS) as a vehicle for transforming and empowering the youth.

As an NYS graduate, I wish to shed some light into this matter! I took time to go through the revamped NYS structure and objectives and I think it would be counter-productive to demonize this good initiative!

In line with the Jubilee manifesto, the government is committed to revamp and restructure the NYS into a robust and dynamic institution to drive the youth transformation agenda. As I have realized, the revamped NYS is a key ingredient in ensuring that the Kenyan youth are more empowered and play a greater role in the development of the country.

The danger of having a large non-working population is that the country may experience rising crime rates that will eventually result in higher insecurity rates than today.

Therefore, the NYS can be one of those deliberate measures that will boost job creation. Otherwise, we are looking at a potential crisis that will see the country’s future go to the dogs as we witnessed during the 2007/08 post-election violence.

It is therefore saddening that, this past 2 weeks, we had to witness deliberate political machination that led to the destruction of one of the projects by the NYS in Kibera. It is sad that there are still politicians that will incite the youth to destroy development projects for political gains!

I must commend the youthful Kibra MP Ken Okoth who has refused to be drawn into this kind of politics and his commitment to having the NYS projects continue. He has made it clear that there has been transformation in his constituency and he would wish to see more.

I must also commend the Devolution Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru who acted swiftly when she realized that there were people who were trying to siphon funds from the NYS. The CS acted in the right manner in ensuring that the taxpayer does not lose money and that the dream of transformation is not put in jeopardy.

It is therefore discouraging to see some elected leaders oppose these programs under the pretext that they have not been involved and consulted. While leaders have a role to play in their community, this must not stop the government from initiating programs that directly benefit the youth.

No Kenyan should allow politicians to kill the dream of empowering the Kenyan youth who hold the torch to the country’s prosperity.

The new NYS is a noble idea that must be protected by all Kenyans. Following the three recruitment cycles, the NYS contingent has grown from 6,000 to 31,000 in just slightly over one year. Another 10,935 recruits will be recruited in September 2015, to bring the total to about 42,000.
We must realize that from the NYS policy document, this servicemen and women are not the only ones who are benefiting from the programme. They are working hand in hand with the youth in the communities that they have been deployed in.

For instance, in Kibera, the youth working alongside the NYS have a channel to make money daily and they improve their surroundings. They are receiving more than Sh. 400 a day working as casual laborer’s – this is even more than others have been getting by walking to Industrial area and doing similar jobs.

We must also avoid being told that the NYS is only working in Kibera. We know that they are also in Mathare, Kisumu and Mombasa, and there are plans to have the new recruits build 1,100 dams and pans each year as well as do mechanized and manual road construction at county level.
The re-branded NYS now operating under the mantra “True to self; True to Country” and aimed at having more young people gain skills and knowledge that not only helps them grow but the country also develop. The NYS graduates are training thousands of youths in different skills in the 47 counties per year in a period of between four to six months. JUST WHICH POLITICIAN IS BLIND ENOUGH NOT TO SEE THIS!?!!

In short, if NYS can reach more than 300,000 youth in one year, the intention is to create the one million youth match in four years. This is a social transformation army, armed with skills and charged with the responsibility of transforming the other youths.

The new NYS does not stop there are as once trained, the youths will be linked up to the Self Employment Programme Unit (SEPU) for start-up loans with Sh1 billion already set aside for this. Life skills are also important and the trainees will have to make a mandatory saving and SEPU will match the savings with some funds to enable them start up.

The plan to have the NYS take over traffic control in selected parts of the country and provide security for slum areas and in non-strategic government installations is also a welcome development. This will release other security agencies such as the police to concentrate on dealing with insecurity that has been dogging the country.

NYS will also have a security firm where Kenyans can hire NYS guards to protect them making them the alternative to militia groups and vigilantes. This is one of the many ways that we can deal with unemployment in the country and have a community that is economically empowered.

And so just like we dedicate a lot of resources to handling other issues such as insecurity, Kenya must make a deliberate attempt to make NYS one of the ways of dealing with unemployment. We will have solved half of the issues facing the country such as insecurity, poverty and drug and substance abuse if we handle unemployment among the youth.

Financial muscle synergy??

Telecommunication firms are now facilitating mainstream banking, clearing the air that mobile banking will overtake banking in halls.
Mobile money has transformed the way people transfer money.
For instance, a farmer in the village can now sell his produce and deposit the money on his phone - a sevice that is easily available and accessible in the village. He can then transfer the money from his mobile network to his bank account. All this is now possible without stepping in a banking hall: Talk of convenience!!

Mobile money is fast becoming a preferred banking option for customers. To tap into that growth plan, different banks have had to roll out mobile banking services to not only simplify banking but also create convenience for its customers. this intergration happened in Kenyan years back! Uganda is quickly adopting this move and its expected that banks will reap huge from this platform! This will give banks a chance to deepen financial services and reach the un-banked population in the country.

“Today, over 19 million people have access to mobile phone services and of this number, over 14 million use mobile money services, on this platform, customers send money to any mobile phone, mobile money and any bank in any country and also withdraw, using the same platform. You can also pay utilities, school fees and buy airtime for any telecom at a favourable service charge  per transaction.
Mobile wallets 

Currently in Uganda, Banks with mobile wallets include: Centenary Bank’s cente mobile, dfcu bank’s dfcu mobile, among others. With mobile banking, one can do balance enquiries, mini-statement requests, bill pay payments such as electricity and pay TV, funds transfer to nominated accounts, Full statement requests and pin changes.
This effectively moves Uganda closer to achieving the paper-less economy! The Ugandan population should now be anxious to see this integration go further to include goods payments on a wider range of retail outlets, payment for government services, tendering and even individual tills to transact with family and friends!
NOW THIS IS FINANCIAL MUSCLE INTEGRATED!

Kenyan budget 2015/16 summary

Partying will continue as smokers and drinkers fund the budget, Kenyans will still travel and pay hiked fares with a smile, Landlords will literally transfer their 12% tax on to tenants but still occupancy will remain steady at between 80 & 100%! The budget has a deficit of close to 700 bilion! Good thing is, there is wider catch with govt bonds having reduced initial investment to 3k from 50k! Here is a listing of major gainers and losers;

LOSERS

1. Smokers, alcohol lovers and motor vehicle importers – The excise duty bill proposes new charge on harmful items be levied on cigarettes, alcohol, motor vehicles and plastic bags.

2. Lottery operators – They will be taxed at 5 per cent of turnover; bookmakers at 7.5 per cent.

3. Motorists – Fuel is expected to go up after the road maintenance levy went up by Sh3 per litre of petrol and diesel.

4. Tooth paste manufacturers – Import duty rate for plastic tubes used to package toothpaste has been raised from 10 to 25 per cent.

WINNERS

1. Landlords – A tax amnesty was announced for landlords on all arrears to improve revenue collection.

2. Prison officers – They will henceforth enjoy similar duty-free import privileges as members of armed forces.

3. Police – The minister has allocated Sh1.7 billion for medical insurance for the police. He also set aside Sh7.7 billion for leasing of police and prison vehicles.

4. Film makers – To build up film industry, all payments by foreign producers to local actors and crew exempt from withholding tax. Excise duty on imported film products has also been removed.

5. Youth – Employers will get tax rebate for employing 10 or more youth for 6-12 months. This is to encourage hiring of interns and apprentices. Mr Rotich also allocated Sh850 million to Uwezo Fund, Sh500m to Women Enterprise Fund and Sh300m to the Youth Enterprise Fund. He also set aside Sh25bn towards youth employment and re-engineering the National Youth Service.

6. Pregnant women – Sh59.2 billion was set aside for preventive and curative health services of which free maternity health is Sh4.3 billion.

7. Teachers/education – The minister allocated Sh181 billion to TSC including for 5,000 new teachers, and Sh17.6bn for the laptop programme. He also allocated Sh335.7 billion for education: Free day secondary education funds raised to Sh32.7bn, free primary education to Sh14.1bn.

8. Athletes – Mr Rotich set aside Sh1.8 billion to construct stadiums in Nairobi, Mombasa and Eldoret.

Why I think ladies get it wrong!

Many ‪#‎LADIES‬ are known to base their marital decisions on things that will not endure a life-time. These have led many of them into wrong marriages and life time bondage. We need to identify and deal with them:

1) HEIGHT: Every girl’s dream is to marry a tall, dark guy with a baritone voice, I wonder where they got the idea that tall guys are better in marriage. Hey Girls, tall guy can give you tall problems; it is not the height that matters but the depth of the guy in God and in character.

2) MUSCLE: Muscular and heavy looking guys are also lucky, they are seen to be good suitors, and girls do say “they look manly” “they look like real men”. Sorry Girls, muscles do not make a real man, character and ability to shoulder responsibility do. A guy with muscle without character will use his muscles to deal with you and batter your beautiful face.

3) A WELL SET HOUSE: A guy with a well set house is the dream of any girl any day. Many girls will throw caution into the wind to grab a man who have a house with King size; beautiful
Italian Settee, micro wave oven, well stock freezer, home theater, refrigerator, gas cooker, Plasma TV,6 by 6 bed, well stuff Kitchen, Dining
table, washing machine, dish washers, split unit air conditioner etc is a dream catch for girls any day. Sorry girl, a well set house is good but it may be a well set trouble if the guy is not a man
of character, manners or discretion, he will make the house look like a prison yard for you.

4) FAT BANK ACCOUNT: Girls are fond of trying to know how rich a guy is by checking the guy’s phones for bank alerts. They joyfully decide to marry a guy when they discover the guy is very rich with fat Bank balance. What a mistake? They don’t want to know where the money is coming from; they don’t even want to know what the
guy does for a living. What concerns them is the money that is available to be spent. Many girls ended up finding themselves entangled for life in this kind of situation, don’t base your marriage on GREED, it won’t turn to GREEN.

5) PLACE OF WORK: Some of our girls are in the habit of making marital decision base on the place a guy works. You dare not talk of marriage
to them if you are a Teacher or civil servant. You dare not propose them if you are working with a small firm, or one man business. What an error?
Girls note that, that a guy works in ACCESS BANK does not mean he will give you ACCESS to his heart or peace of mind. A guy that works in SHELL may put your life in a SHELL forever, you may not be the FIRST in the life of a guy that works in FIRST BANK, a guy that work in GUARANTEE TRUST BANK may not GUARANTEE your future. He may be working in NESTLE but not
SETTLE you at home, So it is not about where he is working but about who is working in Him, God or devil.

6) ROMANCE: A young lady said, “The guy is romantic, hot and sexy, i will marry him” Stop girl!!!!, Romance is not enough for marriage. The truth is, most so called romantic guys don’t
remain like that after wedding. Marry a guy base on qualities that will endure, romance don’t last forever, go and ask married women.

7) TYPE OF CAR: A whole lots of girls will be enticed by a guy driving a big and expensive car. Some will not even go out with a guy that does not have a car. If you want to mess yourself as a
guy, ride on a bike to go and propose to a lady, you will hear the story of your life. Ladies, a guy that has a CAR may not CARE for you, life is not about CAR, it is about marrying somebody that will CARE for your future. AND: Most girls will readily marry anybody with US or UK passports, Lots of girls have destroyed their lives in the process of looking for somebody with a foreign passport to marry.

9) HIS PERFORMANCE IN THE CHOIR: It is funny that some ladies are ready to get marry to some guys because they are very good in the choir, they can
play Sax, keyboard, drums, trumpet and sing tenor and Bass very well, I wonder whether they want to start a choir band in their houses.

10) RICH PARENT: Children of Rich parents are easy target for many young girls not because they are in love with them, but they know they
will have access to money and connection. Many of these guys come from rich are pompous, cocky, proud and will be terrible and irresponsible husbands and fathers tomorrow but
girls will not care about that, Most of these girls do live to regret their wrong decision. Don’t marry anybody just because the parents are rich, marry the person for who he is and the love you share together.

11) FELLOWSHIP LEADERSHIP: Many Christian ladies are ready to die to marry brothers that are in the executives of their Campus fellowship.
They fight tooth and nail to get the attention of these brothers, some even go to the extent of offering their bodies. Many of these ladies think that the best of all men are in the executives of the Campus fellowship, they’ve forgotten that A PRESIDENT OF THE FELLOWSHIP MAY NOT BE A RESIDENT OF HEAVEN.

12) BEDROOM EXPERTISE: One of the most stupid way to make a decision who to marry as a lady is to base it on how good, sexy or terrific a Guy is, in
the bedroom. If you base your marital
decision on a man’s sexual prowess; you may end up with a play boy instead of a Husband. You may end up getting marry to a sex hunter, instead of a real lover, a universal sperm donor who will sleep with your sister, house maid, friends, girls in the neighborhood, his secretary and anything in skirt that cross his paths.

DON’T GO FOR SEX GO FOR SENSE?