“Whether you believe you can, or you can’t – you are right.” Henry Ford. Mindset is a key cornerstone of leadership. “Mindset and Perspectives” was therefore one of the topics that the participants of the Women Entrepreneur Transformation Programme (WETP) explored. The programme kicked off in February and is run by the Ghana Climate Innovation Centre (GCIC) at Ashesi University and is facilitated by leadership transformation facilitator and coach, Rachel Allan.

“Our minds are infinitely powerful. This is important to understand so that we can actively choose how we experience ourselves and the world around us,” says Rachel introducing the topic. “As leaders, we shape our organisation’s culture, our teams, and our own experience by what we believe and how we respond. Mindset can be intentional, and overtime choosing the most effective mindset for a situation can be natural. If you believe you can – you will. It’s that simple – well, almost. Female leaders are trained to help them get a clear understanding of what impact they want to have and to choose their most resonant mindset to maximise their impact at work and at home. This results in authentic leadership, increased confidence, and positive impact on themselves in their private and professional lives.”

While exploring “mindset and perspectives”, WETP participants were encouraged to put theory into practice, and take personal responsibility for their choices.

To be intentional with our impact, we must first become aware of ourselves, and of our way of thinking: observe what we do, when we do it; as a result, we can consciously and pro-actively choose our perspectives; and commit to our actions accordingly. Eventually, we can influence the impact we have on our cultures and all areas of our lives.

“I am more and more convinced that our happiness or unhappiness depends more on the way we meet the events of life than on the nature of those events themselves,” already said Alexander von Humboldt.

Our minds and thoughts have more influence than we realise, so our perspectives on issues and events can set us up for success, or failure. Often, we blame external circumstances for what happens to us. But most often those are the aspects we do not have control over. One of the few things we do have control over in life is how we respond to any given situation. That change of perspective alone is powerful. When we shift our mindset, our choices change, and eventually, it influences the impact we have.  We move from being a victim of our circumstances to shaping our reality.

Participants were invited to critically ask themselves: Who do you want to be as a leader? What impact do you intend to have in the world? And: Where do you get stopped?

But how do you actually go about adopting a potentially different mindset? Some “perspectives” the participants investigated in the programme include:

• Envision your “Future Self”: What would the “60-year-old you” tell you?
• The “Appreciator”: Whatever the situation, good or bad, what can you appreciate about the situation you are in? What are you learning from this experience?
• The “Curious” one: Recognise that you may not understand a certain situation, but you can step into finding out more, and ask questions.
• “Just like me”: If you thought of the other person as “he or she is just like me”, what would you learn? (Check out this video by TV2 Denmark “All That We Share”)
• The “Victim”: When you feel powerless and life is happening to you, where do you stop taking active decisions?
• The “Responsible” one: Do you do everything alone, do you carry the whole world on your shoulders, do you forget to ask for help?

For each topic of the programme, there is recommended reading and additional resources. This month included Carol Dweck who researches “growth mindset” (check out her TedTalk “The power of believing that you can improve”), and the “Anatomy of Peace” by the Arbinger Institute. The latter explores four key perspectives, or “boxes” people usually find themselves in: the “worse than”, the “better than”, the “I deserve”, and the “need to be seen” box. It encourages readers to discover in which box(es) they find themselves in certain situations, and suggests a changing perspective, and meet other people as if they were “just like me”.

“Exploring different perspectives allows us to try out and experiment with different intentional impacts in real life. It can be incredibly liberating to know that one minute you are ‘hooked’ in a negative mindset, and the next you can step out of it and be highly effective. This increases our range as leaders – so we are more resourced to respond adequately. And this builds self-trust, a quality we all thrive in,” says Rachel.

Another powerful leadership tool is asking for help. It is one of the most simple ones, though it can often been seen as a sign of weakness. But moving this perspective from ‘not being good enough, vulnerable, or weak’ to appearing as a leader who empowers others, who is authentic, who listens, who receives input and feedback, who doesn’t hold all the answers. By asking for help, insights, or feedback, leaders empower others and step away from “isolation at the top”.

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together,” says an African proverb.

One of the participants, Marigold Abiss Adu, shared her experience in the process of exploring “mindset and perspectives”: “It is becoming increasingly clear that I am one with my business. I am navigating my internal and external environments. Challenges can affect me personally, and my business.”

Marigold is the Executive Director and Co-founder of Global Bamboo Products Ltd (GBPL), a bamboo-cultivation and processing business. Having completed her bachelor’s degree in Psychology, Marigold worked in different corporate institutions to acquire experiences outside of GBPL. Marigold has worked in business development, marketing and sales. She is also a Mandela Washington Fellow. She likes painting, design, singing, cooking, and simply making people and herself happy.

“My leadership intentionality has increased significantly thanks to the WETP that encouraged me to critically look at the way I am thinking, and adopt a perspective that resonates best with my goals. Now, I pick my mindset, and I am clear what the desired impact is. I know how to engage with my teams and my colleagues. I am more assertive in a defined and productive way. It’s not business as usual for me now. I consciously choose, which means my business and team and the way I lead are more aligned. It’s changing the way I do business and the results I achieve.”  

The Ghana Climate Innovation Centre (GCIC) is a pioneering business incubator whose objective is to support entrepreneurs and ventures involved in developing profitable and locally appropriate solutions to climate change mitigation and adaptation in Ghana. The Centre’s key focus is on building businesses operating within the areas of energy efficiency, domestic waste management, solar energy, water supply management and purification and climate-smart agriculture. GCIC is part of the World Bank Group’s infoDev Climate Technology Program. Supported by the governments of Denmark and the Netherlands, the Centre is managed by a consortium led by the Ashesi University College and including Ernst & Young, SNV Ghana, and the United Nations University Institute for Natural Resources in Africa.

The GCIC Women Entrepreneurs’ Transformation Programme (WETP) is one of the mentoring and coaching programmes created by the GCIC on the belief that inner leadership creates outer impact, and aims to unleash the untapped potential of female entrepreneurs. The 2018 programme is created in partnership with global leadership transformation facilitator and coach Rachel Allan.

In April 2018, following a rigorous three months of entrepreneurship classes, GCIC organised a two-day residential retreat, the Wellbeing Retreat, for its second Cohort of entrepreneurs. The Wellbeing Retreat forms part of the bouquet of holistic incubation services provided by GCIC and designed to provide the incubates with an avenue to be inspired, mentored and instructively learn from established transformational business leaders from across the African continent.

Inspired by James C. Collin’s book, Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos and Luck-Why Some Thrive Despite Them All, this year’s Wellbeing Retreat was themed Great by Choice: Social Enterprise, Transformational Leadership and The Intentional Business. Being Great by Choice is exactly what GCIC hopes to inspire its entrepreneurs to be- to rise up to the challenge of being at the cusp of something great in the green economy they operate in.

The Retreat saw speakers with substantial business leadership and or entrepreneurial experience from across sectors and industries share their thoughts, lessons, successes, joys and pain from their own business and leadership trajectory

Lucy Quist, a member of the GCIC Advisory Board and a trail blazer across Africa in the STEM and women’s business leadership space kicked off the retreat with a TEDx style talk labelled The Bold New Normal – a discussion on how entrepreneurs can take bold steps away from the norm and create shared prosperity through entrepreneurship, career and technology.

The entrepreneurs also enjoyed a session on starting, operating and growing their businesses with intent by Nana Kofi Acquah. Using examples from his own international career and entrepreneurial journey, Nana Kofi distilled upon the entrepreneurs the necessity of being purposeful with an idea, the responsibility of being patient with its delivery and the privilege of transforming oneself, one’s team, one’s clients and the society in the process.

Kofi Owusu Nhyira, CEO of Nsano was blunt with the entrepreneurs as he shared experiences from his entrepreneurial journey- the highs, the lows and the key lessons he learnt from it all. GCIC’s Executive Director, Ms Rukayatu Sanusi, led a workshop dubbed Leading Authentically where she encouraged the entrepreneurs to embrace the responsibility of leadership, ensuring that they led their businesses with their ‘whole self’ – strong personal principals, values and ethics that would ensure that their businesses, their teams and their innovation could go the long haul and enjoy the success they all crave.  She encouraged them as innovators and entrepreneurs in the green space to come up with indigenous solutions to national challenges rather than ‘cutting and pasting’ from developed economies.

Following a viewing of the TED talk by Simon Sinek, ‘Start with Why”, Charlotte Ntim, at the beginning of the second day, led the participants through an reflective session where they deconstructed their ‘why’ and shared with the audience what that ‘why’ means to them as an individual, as a business, as a business leader and as a citizen. The participants also had an insightful session where Alex Bram, Hubtel CEO, and Samuel Yeboah (Mirepa Capital CEO) shared lessons on their experiences in entrepreneurship, the deliberate process of carving out a viable business model, engaging with consumers and continuously meeting their needs.

For the women entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs working in the circular economy, waste-to-energy and waste-to-wealth sector, Chinwe Ohajuruka of Comprehensive Design Services (CDS) shared how she came into her entrepreneurial journey and how she manages to balance life and work as she operates her business into international acclaim. The two-day retreat came to a close with Arnold Parker, Managing Director of African Finance Bureau, sharing strategies on building a transformational business.

Head over to our YouTube page and watch videos of the event and listen to the various speakers share their experiences.

The Ghana Climate Innovation Centre (GCIC) is a pioneering business incubator whose objective is to support entrepreneurs and ventures involved in developing profitable and locally appropriate solutions to climate change mitigation and adaptation in Ghana. The Centre’s key focus is on building businesses operating within the areas of energy efficiency, domestic waste management, solar energy, water supply management and purification and climate-smart agriculture. GCIC is part of the World Bank Group’s infoDev Climate Technology Program. Supported by the governments of Denmark and the Netherlands, the Centre is managed by a consortium led by the Ashesi University and including Ernst & Young, SNV Ghana, and the United Nations University Institute for Natural Resources in Africa.

2nd April 2018 | By: Ashesi University External Relations

A year after the Ghana Climate Innovation Centre (GCIC) inducted its first cohort of entrepreneurs, the innovation hub is looking to make deeper impact within the climate space across Ghana.

Located on Ashesi’s campus, the GCIC, in the past year, has engaged with entrepreneurs in a wide range of areas within the green energy space. From bicycles produced from bamboo, to water purification processes, to recycling charcoal, to domestic waste management, the centre is helping small to medium scale companies expand their impact within their communities.

“Internally, we’re growing, not just in terms of numbers, but in terms of our focus,” says Ruka Sanusi, CEO of the GCIC. “We have a better understanding of the purpose and practice of incubation, and what the profit of incubation is about. Knowing what good looks like is really useful. We’ve engaged with a number of incubators in both the developing and developed economies, and we’ve identified key components we can incorporate within our context to enhance our impact, not only for the entrepreneurs, but for the country at large.”

In the past year, the incubation hub has awarded $124,900 in grants to its incubates, published an industry report and continues to provide a wide bouquet of services to the entrepreneurs. Additionally, through their road-trips across the country, the GCIC is helping raise awareness among locales as to how they can help to protect the environment.

“Learning from the earlier cohorts, we are creating clearer and more structured goals for not only ourselves, but also for the entrepreneurs,” she said. “What is really important is that incubation is not just about giving grants, it’s also about incubating innovations that will not only have economic benefit, but will also have environmental impact and social benefit as well. So as a team, we have a responsibility to do this well. As cohort one graduates at the end of May 2018, we’ll collect pre- and post-incubation metrics, CO2 emissions reduced, carbon footprint, number of households reached, so we can measure how well we are actually doing.”

“Everyday it becomes clearer to us that the centre has a lot to offer Ghana,” she explained. “I’m  glad we’re bringing people to the fore about the reality of the entrepreneurial journey. We hope to significantly reduce CO2 emissions, impact households, create jobs, and connect entrepreneurs with the right resources to create the needed impact.”

The Ghana Climate Innovation Centre (GCIC) is a pioneering business incubator whose objective is to support entrepreneurs and ventures involved in developing profitable and locally appropriate solutions to climate change mitigation and adaptation in Ghana. The Centre’s key focus is on building businesses operating within the areas of energy efficiency, domestic waste management, solar energy, water supply management and purification and climate-smart agriculture. GCIC is part of the World Bank Group’s infoDev Climate Technology Program. Supported by the governments of Denmark and the Netherlands, the Centre is managed by a consortium led by the Ashesi University and including Ernst & Young, SNV Ghana, and the United Nations University Institute for Natural Resources in Africa.

Change, they say, begins from you and this assertion is really true. One young woman decided that the change she wants in her community must begin from her. In her quest to help clean the environment, she started a business that will achieve this goal and, at the same time, provide employment for many. Read on as Mariama shares her story with the B&FT’s Inspiring Startups on how she began Yensom Enterprise— a plastic waste recycling company.

Mariama Iddrisu is the CEO of Yensom Enterprise, a social enterprise. She has a DBS in Accounting from the Sunyani Technical University and also has a diploma certificate in Commonwealth Youth Development from the University of Ghana, Legon.

She has previously worked as a teacher and also worked in two rural banks in Sunyani. After two years of working with the second bank, she had an appointment at the Brong Ahafo Regional Coordinating Council where she worked as a secretary. Currently, she is an employee with the Department of Urban Roads in Sunyani.

She has previously worked as a teacher and also worked in two rural banks in Sunyani. After two years of working with the second bank, she had an appointment at the Brong Ahafo Regional Coordinating Council where she worked as a secretary. Currently, she is an employee with the Department of Urban Roads in Sunyani.

It all started with a cholera outbreak

In 2014, while in her last year at the University of Ghana, there was a cholera outbreak in the country. Mariama wanted to find ways she could help her community. So she started organising cleanup exercises in her community. She observed, during those cleanup exercises, that they gathered a lot of plastic bags— mainly from sachet water—and dump them. So she thought about how those plastic bags could be put to good use.

Then, she went to the Sunyani Technical University and asked the students at the Department of Dress Making if they could do something out of the plastic bags. The school gave her one national service person to work. The student was able to design a bag, an apron, and raincoat, out of the water sachet bags.

Mariama started showing the products to people and they were all amazed what has come out of the waste they produce. So with that excitement, people started requesting to buy some of the products. Others even bought in bulk to go and sell in other communities.

Today, a project she started with just one product has metamorphosed into many. She now produces laptop bags, travel bags, school bags, purses, and other small bags—all from sachet water bags.  Through this, she has provided employment for six people.

 

The vision

The vision of Yensom Enterprise is to utilise all the plastic waste in the Brong Ahafo Region by converting it to useful products so she can help help the environment clean and provide employment for many.

Challenges

It wasn’t easy for Mariama to carry on with her vision. Even though, people admired the products she made from the plastic bags, others passed comments that discouraged her.

“When I started, some people felt I was wasting my time. Sometimes when people see me go round to pick the plastic bags, they ask whether I really think I can clean Ghana, and if that is my aim, then, I am worrying myself for nothing. Others also told me that they were giving me a few days, I will be frustrated and stop.”

Mariama said if she hadn’t kept her vision alive, those discouraging comments could have made her stop.

Then comes the most common of all the challenges—financial. For a business that recycles waste and turns them into useful products, it is obvious that it requires modern machines to do so. But Mariama has no such money to do that as she finances her business personally from her savings. Because of this, she has to rely on manual methods of production.

How education has helped

“If I had not been to school, I wouldn’t have been able to do what I am doing now. It was through education that I realised I had to do something for my community. And education also gives one the confidence to believe in what he/she is doing. So for me, education has really benefited me.”

Empowering women economically

Mariama believes that the economic empowerment of women is very necessary for the development of the country and for their families. Hence, women should put in all the needed efforts to work hard and gain incomes to support the home.

How government can support

“If you have the vision and the system doesn’t support, it would be very difficult to achieve your goals. I remember when I started, I once went to the DCEs office to ask if they could support me since it was a social project, but no one was ready to even listen. So government should be willing to listen and support entrepreneurs in the country.

Again, government programmes should be devoid of politics. There is no point in government introducing a programme and only those who have affiliations with the government in power are the only ones to benefit. So government should detach politics from policies and programmes targeted at supporting entrepreneurs,” Mariama said.

Advice to the youth

“I want to advise my fellow youth to be critical thinkers. They should be people who are ready to solve challenges in the community. And especially to my fellow young women, I advise they should develop their talents and be entrepreneurial, even when they are employed.”

 

The Ghana Climate Innovation Centre (GCIC) is a pioneering business incubator whose objective is to support entrepreneurs and ventures involved in developing profitable and locally appropriate solutions to climate change mitigation and adaptation in Ghana. The Centre’s key focus is on building businesses operating within the areas of energy efficiency, domestic waste management, solar energy, water supply management and purification and climate-smart agriculture. GCIC is part of the World Bank Group’s infoDev Climate Technology Program. Supported by the governments of Denmark and the Netherlands, the Centre is managed by a consortium led by the Ashesi University and including Ernst & Young, SNV Ghana, and the United Nations University Institute for Natural Resources in Africa.

 

Story written by Obed Attah Yeboah (Business & Financial Times)

 

Eight inspiring women – all leading and or working within a pioneering green business and being incubated by the  the Ghana Climate Innovation Centre (GCIC)– are part of GCIC’s Women Entrepreneurs Transformation Programme (WETP), an initiative of GCIC with the objective of supporting women entrepreneurs within the incubator to elevate their entrepreneurial adventure and become extraordinary. When they signed up to the programme in February, many of them didn’t know what to expect. GCIC together with leadership transformation facilitator and coach, Rachel Allan, invited them on a transformative leadership journey.

The women of the WETP are united through their passion for environmental issues and the ambition to make this world a better place through how they lead and operate their businesses. During the programme they have explored themes such as self-awareness, personal responsibility, overcoming challenges, resilience, and speaking up.

Recapping their experiences so far, four of the women entrepreneurs shared insights into their very personal journey:

“I got an idea of what success really means for me, and what the essential things are for me. Life doesn’t end when I don’t do everything. I learned to take care of myself. I’m not competing with anyone, I get where I need to go in my own time. The results might only show later, but I will get there.” Esther Laryea, Farmable World.

“I learned that what I perceive as failure is not necessarily true. Life is a beautiful painting, so everything contributes to the big picture. I learned how to ask, shout, cry for help. I lost some friend down the line. But I learned: What is true to me is important if I want to move forward and grow.” Marigold Adu, Global Bamboo Products Limited.

“The WETP came at the right time. My family and my business had been going through a lot of challenges. The biggest success came from discovering the ‘quiet’: the belief that everything is possible, really made things happen for me. That small, ‘still’ moment is the spark for me to create my future. When I met my future self, I loved her: she was calm and at ease and found a way to love and accept everyone, which is something that I need to be able to do in order to lead a truly authentic business. And maybe I am already growing into her.” Sefa Gohoho-Boatin, Arela Chemicals.

“I was pregnant when I joined the WETP. It came at a good time in my life, and an opportunity given to me. There was a part in me that was locked, and that I had to unlock. I know I have arrived. This is me, who I am. I have helped a lot of people, I shared with people what I learned. I have created courage. Courage opens doors. I am alive, I live a whole life, this is me.” Priscilla Morny, Moringa Connect.

The 6-months Women Entrepreneur Transformation Programme aims to unleash the untapped potential of female entrepreneurs. It guides the participants to transform their leadership to a more authentic one. The process encourages them to speak up, speak their truth, and, as authentic leaders, have an increased impact in the world.

This transformation happens when women discover and uncover their life purpose, and start committing to bold leadership action. From experience, leadership coach Rachel Allen knows that the biggest results often manifest months after the programme and is therefore curious to follow the development of the participants, both on a personal and a professional level, beyond the programme.

Coming toward the end of the programme, the WETP participants have established a new community of like-minded women, a support system. What’s more, they have started acting as role-models to other female entrepreneurs by sharing their experiences. Ultimately, leading from the inside out, they will guide their businesses purposefully, authentically and consciously. With their clear visions for themselves, their families, communities and businesses, they are ambitious and confident to tackle some of Ghana’s most pressing climate change mitigation and adaptation  challenges.

 

The Ghana Climate Innovation Centre (GCIC) is a pioneering business incubator whose objective is to support entrepreneurs and ventures involved in developing profitable and locally appropriate solutions to climate change mitigation and adaptation in Ghana. The Centre’s key focus is on building businesses operating within the areas of energy efficiency, domestic waste management, solar energy, water supply management and purification and climate-smart agriculture. GCIC is part of the World Bank Group’s infoDev Climate Technology Program. Supported by the governments of Denmark and the Netherlands, the Centre is managed by a consortium led by the Ashesi University College and including Ernst & Young, SNV Ghana, and the United Nations University Institute for Natural Resources in Africa.

 The GCIC Women Entrepreneurs’ Transformation Programme (WETP) is one of the mentoring and coaching programmes created by the GCIC on the belief that inner leadership creates outer impact, and aims to unleash the untapped potential of female entrepreneurs. The 2018 programme is created in partnership with global leadership transformation facilitator and coach Rachel Allan.

 

In June 2018, Black Umbrellas honored top performing Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) with awards aimed at showcasing black-owned businesses in South Africa that are sustainable, profitable and create employment opportunities for those in their communities.

The Black Umbrellas is an Enterprise and Supplier Development (ESD) incubation organization that partners with the private sector, government and civil society to address the low levels of entrepreneurship and high failure rate of 100% black-owned businesses in South Africa. The Black Umbrellas is one of the enterprises under the Cyril Ramaphosa Foundation and has nine incubators countrywide.

Black Umbrellas (BU) established the National Enterprise Development Awards (NEDA) in recognition of the achievements of the entrepreneurs in their business incubation program. The awards recognized the SME that had created the most jobs, the best performing company, the best Black Umbrella ambassador, the national overall winner and the incubator of the year from all their nine incubators. The businesses within the Black Umbrellas incubation program over the past 6 years have collectively generated a turnover of R2.6 billion, created and maintained over 11 000 jobs and have a combined Net Asset Value of R 1.1 billion.

GCIC Executive Director, Ms. Rukayatu Sanusi, stated when talking about the importance of incubators in creating scalable and sustainable SMEs: “Well structured incubators with a holistic approach to the entrepreneurial journey provide entrepreneurs with the requisite, critical knowledge, insight and mindset shift that can enable them to go the long-haul with their business, and experience the business as well as personal success that they crave.  The key is to be intentional.  Intentional about your entrepreneurial journey, and intentional about your incubation experience – going through it as an experience that can provide the foundational and the transformational premise that can put you in pole position for investment readiness, extraordinary business leadership, as well as business success.”

Being invited to the awards  ceremony was a great honor, but also served as both a challenge and inspiration to GCIC. “Knowing that one of the entrepreneurs, two days  after the awards ceremony, opened  a multi-million rand  facility showed how an entrepreneur can successfully leverage an incubation experience. For an entrepreneur to be able to source that sort of funding, he or she must operate their business in a manner that not only demonstrates professionalism and best practice, but also in a manner that proffers leadership credibility, insight and foresight.” Ms. Sanusi stated.

Seeing the high quality and caliber of entrepreneurs and global partner corporations including SMEs in their value chains was also a key learning point.  “It was really encouraging and for me it made me think how we as GCIC can support our entrepreneurs to appreciate the picture that this could be them, they could be the ones in the supply chain of companies like Total, who as we all know, just opened the first solar-powered filling station in Ghana. If global corporations with operations in Ghana are seeking out for clean tech small and growing businesses to include in their supply chain, how do we ensure that our entrepreneurs partner with them? How do we support our entrepreneurs to bring their clean technology innovation up to speed for big corporates to generate an interest in working with them?” She stated.

The Ghana Climate Innovation Centre (GCIC) is a pioneering business incubator whose objective is to support entrepreneurs and ventures involved in developing profitable and locally appropriate solutions to climate change mitigation and adaptation in Ghana. The Centre’s key focus is on building businesses operating within the areas of energy efficiency, domestic waste management, solar energy, water supply management and purification and climate-smart agriculture. GCIC is part of the World Bank Group’s infoDev Climate Technology Program. Supported by the governments of Denmark and the Netherlands, the Centre is managed by a consortium led by the Ashesi University and including Ernst & Young, SNV Ghana, and the United Nations University Institute for Natural Resources in Africa.

“Emotional Intelligence is a way of recognising, understanding, and choosing how we think, feel, and act. It shapes our interactions with others and our understanding of ourselves. It defines how and what we learn; it allows us to set priorities; it determines the majority of our daily actions. Research suggests it is responsible for as much as 80% of the “success” in our lives.” – J. Freedman

Coming towards the end of the 6-months Women Entrepreneur Transformation Programme (WETP) at the Ghana Climate Innovation Centre (GCIC), and building on learnings and discoveries on topics including accessing inner leadership, self-awareness and self-care, mindset and perspective, and overcoming challenge and failure, the participants of the programme explored how to build resilience, and the role emotional intelligence plays in leadership.

WETP is a 6-months leadership programme run by leadership coach and facilitator Rachel Allan at GCIC. It is an integral part of GCIC’s agenda to provide the innovative women entrepreneurs of its cohort – eight in 2018 – with the technical and advisory services that allow them to elevate their entrepreneurial journey — and to become extraordinary leaders.

Some of the questions focused on emotional intelligence that Rachel asked the participants, suggested a link between resilience and emotional intelligence: How do you navigate your emotions to maximise your impact in your life?  What role do emotions play in business?

Emotional intelligence (EI) has often been defined as understanding yourself and others, and as being able to read, understand, be aware of, regulate and control emotions, while resilience has been defined as the ability to bounce back from (or “deal with”) the stresses or setbacks that life presents.

People react to different situations in different ways, and our reactions are based on who we are and our awareness of ourselves. So, knowing what triggers a reaction is fundamental to leadership action.

EI has been increasingly high on the agenda as a leadership tool in recent years. From a leadership perspective, EI is the ability of “transforming emotions”. All emotions are useful information about our well-being, regardless if “good” or “bad”. For example, negative feeling states can stimulate leaders to take risk and being good risk managers in their companies. Nonetheless, in general, positive feelings are indicators of well-being.

Dependent on our culture, showing emotions might be seen as a ‘weakness’, and they might be used to shame others in the workplace. But, in fact, as leaders, we don’t need to remove emotions from business. Emotions are information. How we use and manage this information is key. It is essential to become aware of our personal triggers, so we can choose how to respond: How we create the space, to slow down and respond consciously in emotional states, has a significant impact on how we are received. As humans, we always experience emotions, so knowing how to use them, supports leaders in the choices they make.

The first step in emotional transformation is to be aware and accept one’s current emotional state. When we have compassion for ourselves, we end being stuck in whatever emotional state we are in. It is important to stay true to and align our values across the various contexts we operate in – be it as an entrepreneur, or in our private life – in order to be authentic, knowing our authentic self and purpose, and act accordingly.

WETP participants read “Emotional Intelligence 2.0” by Travis Bradberry.  Additional resources included a series of TED talks that share insights on how to develop emotional intelligence.

Managing various roles and responsibilities can be stressful. It is therefore important to identify ways how to manage such potential stress. The book “EI 2.0” runs the reader through a step-by-step programme on how to increase one’s emotional intelligence using the four core EQ skills – self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management – to achieve one’s goals and one’s full potential:

• Personal competence is the ability to stay aware of one’s emotions and manage one’s behaviour and tendencies. Self-Awareness is the ability to accurately perceive emotions and stay aware of them as they happen. Self-Management is the ability to use awareness of emotions to stay flexible and positively direct behaviour.
• Social competence is the ability to understand other people’s moods, behaviour, and motives to respond effectively and improve the quality of relationships. Social Awareness is the ability to accurately pick up on emotions in other people and understand what is really going on. Relationship Management is the ability to use awareness of one’s own emotions and the others’ emotions to manage interactions successfully.

(For a free worksheet and further information contact Rachel Allan on LinkedIn.)

Rachel urges: “Don’t forget: emotional intelligence isn’t fixed, it can be learned and taught, and it is a life-long process as you undergo constant changes as an individual. Leaders who are emotionally intelligent earn more, get better results and are happier consistently, regardless of where in the world they work.”

“As you train your brain by repeatedly practicing new emotionally intelligent behaviours, your brain builds the pathways needed to make them into habits. Before long, you begin responding to your surroundings with emotional intelligence without even having to think about it. And just as your brain reinforces the use of new behaviours, the connections supporting old, destructive behaviours will die off as you learn to limit your use of them,” says Dr. Bradberry.

 

The Ghana Climate Innovation Centre (GCIC) is a pioneering business incubator whose objective is to support entrepreneurs and ventures involved in developing profitable and locally appropriate solutions to climate change mitigation and adaptation in Ghana. The Centre’s key focus is on building businesses operating within the areas of energy efficiency, domestic waste management, solar energy, water supply management and purification and climate-smart agriculture. GCIC is part of the World Bank Group’s infoDev Climate Technology Program. Supported by the governments of Denmark and the Netherlands, the Centre is managed by a consortium led by the Ashesi University College and including Ernst & Young, SNV Ghana, and the United Nations University Institute for Natural Resources in Africa.

The GCIC Women Entrepreneurs’ Transformation Programme (WETP) is one of the mentoring and coaching programmes created by the GCIC on the belief that inner leadership creates outer impact, and aims to unleash the untapped potential of female entrepreneurs. The 2018 programme is created in partnership with global leadership transformation facilitator and coach Rachel Allan.

 

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter.” Martin Luther King Jr

The 6-months Women Entrepreneur Transformation Programme (WETP) at the Ghana Climate Innovation Centre (GCIC), run by leadership coach and facilitator Rachel Allan, covered the following topics centered around leadership and focused on the unique experience of female leaders: accessing inner leadership, self-awareness and self-care, mindset and perspective, overcoming challenge and failure, building resilience and the role emotional intelligence plays in leadership, and, finally, speaking up.

The WETP is an integral part of GCIC’s agenda to provide the innovative women entrepreneurs of its cohort – eight in 2018 – with the technical and advisory services that allow them to elevate their entrepreneurial journey — and to become extraordinary leaders. The programme aimed to unleash the untapped potential of female entrepreneurs. It guided the participants to transform their leadership to a more authentic one. The process encouraged them to speak up, speak their truth, and, as authentic leaders, have an increased impact in the world.

Speaking up built on the learnings of the previous months, where the participants explored, discussed and identified their life purpose, and how this links with professional purpose, as well as authenticity, among others.

As leaders, we set the tone for the culture of our businesses. Awareness and conscious choice will help us communicate – with the aim to create an environment which engages and inspires staff to be themselves, share their views, speak up, find solutions and take ownership for their actions, and to, ultimately, achieve better results.

“Inspire the hearts and minds of your teams through human-ness, story-telling and intentional communication. You can create connection and action, even if the message is difficult. Connect your personal values and the company values to find the why of your message,” -Rachel Allen.

The session on speaking up encouraged participants to find their most compelling selves, the one who “dares to know”, who can show up with a message in service of the audience.

As part of the programme, Rachel interviewed Rona Steinberg from Ginger Public Speaking who suggests that authentic self-expression is the ultimate key, and, as speaking up can be daunting, often the “traditional” rules and tips on public speaking can make us even nervous in the first place.

Rona explained the following qualities in a successful public speaker:

1. Awareness: What’s happening internally when you are about to speak publicly, and the impact that it has on the outside? For example: nervous pacing and strange body movements that can happen unconsciously as we stand in front of an audience.
2. Authenticity: Be yourself, be real, be truthful. It’s like an investigation. Find your authentic purpose. Ask yourself: How and when was I being my most authentic self? What am I here to do? What do I believe?
3. Empathy: Take the time to consider the need of your audience. Why are they listening to you? Design your talk accordingly. We promote being a servant speaker: everything is said in service of what we think the audience wants and needs.
4. Fearlessness: This is not about not being scared. It’s about being outside your comfort zone. Step into the zone of possibility, be willing to do something a bit different, share a bit about yourself, and show your human-ness as a leader. Fear will come up, it’s a primal and natural human reaction. If you share emotions, speak from your scars not from your wounds. Share your lived experience, in a processed way.
5. Freshness: You can deliver a great talk, but it can be a bit dull. We want you to be memorable. So, be original, use props, stories, humour. Story-telling is the quickest, easiest way to peoples’ hearts.
6. Balance: Structure your talk; you need to know where you are taking people, you need to know the journey. Everything you say in the talk is in service of your message.

All these qualities work together in delivering your message. But we will also encounter situations, when we have to deliver a message we might not necessarily identify with 100%. If that is what you have to do, think about your audience, share how it makes you feel, empathise with them, and inspire them.

Michelle Obama’s talk at the 2016 democratic convention was recommended to watch: “She is incredible natural, heartfelt, intelligent,” says Rona.

Concluding not only the speaking up session, but also the WETP programme, Rachel recommends: “Leadership is about relationship. It’s about inspiring action. As leaders, we all need to bring more of ourselves into the workplace. Remember: you create your world in every moment. Lead yourself and others from the inside out, and always, always, always speak up! Ask for what you need, design your relationships, and go do what you do best.”

The Ghana Climate Innovation Centre (GCIC) is a pioneering business incubator whose objective is to support entrepreneurs and ventures involved in developing profitable and locally appropriate solutions to climate change mitigation and adaptation in Ghana. The Centre’s key focus is on building businesses operating within the areas of energy efficiency, domestic waste management, solar energy, water supply management and purification and climate-smart agriculture. GCIC is part of the World Bank Group’s infoDev Climate Technology Program. Supported by the governments of Denmark and the Netherlands, the Centre is managed by a consortium led by the Ashesi University College and including Ernst & Young, SNV Ghana, and the United Nations University Institute for Natural Resources in Africa.

The GCIC Women Entrepreneurs’ Transformation Programme (WETP) is one of the mentoring and coaching programmes created by the GCIC on the belief that inner leadership creates outer impact, and aims to unleash the untapped potential of female entrepreneurs. The 2018 programme is created in partnership with global leadership transformation facilitator and coach Rachel Allan.

 

One way of overcoming current challenges is through collaboration- in unexpected ways- with other businesses. GCIC started operation in 2016 as a green incubator working with businesses in five focus areas – Energy Efficiency, Domestic Waste Management, Water Purification and Management, Climate Smart Agriculture and Solar Energy. Since its inception, GCIC has incubated 32 businesses and with an increasing number of entrepreneurs, the Ghana Climate Innovation Centre, is creating a collaborative network of entrepreneurs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of such collaborations is between two GCIC entrepreneurs, Moringa Connect Company Limited and Black Star Energy. Moringa Connect, a business led by Kwami Williams and located in the Brong Ahafo region, is helping to mitigate the effects of climate change in Ghana through climate smart farming of the moringa crop. The company uses its vertically integrated supply chain to turn nutritious moringa leaves and seeds into moringa-powered superfood beverages, snacks and clean beauty products. A key component of Moringa Connect’s farm is a good supply of water via irrigation and this served as perfect opportunity for collaboration between the two businesses – the use of solar powered pumps for water irrigation. Black Star Energy is led by Nicole Poindexter and provides clean energy via solar powdered micro grids to communities and business that aren’t connected to the national grid.

By the provision of solar powered pumps, Moringa Connect hopes to scale up their business to increase their production and the income of the small holder farming communities they work with.

Another such synergy brewing in the pipeline is between Das Biogas Construction Ltd and Farmable Limited. Das Biogas, which provides and installs portable biogas plants to treat organic waste, will be installing a bio-digester for Farmable Ltd at their ranch to be located in Dodowa. The installation of the bio-digester will mean Farmable has a zero-waste ranch where organic waste from the ranch will be used to generate energy for selected uses.

Collaboration is no longer just a strategy, it is one of the keys to long-term business success and competitiveness.

The Ghana Climate Innovation Centre (GCIC) is a pioneering business incubator whose objective is to support entrepreneurs and ventures involved in developing profitable and locally appropriate solutions to climate change mitigation and adaptation in Ghana. The Centre’s key focus is on building businesses operating within the areas of energy efficiency, domestic waste management, solar energy, water supply management and purification and climate-smart agriculture. GCIC is part of the World Bank Group’s infoDev Climate Technology Program. Supported by the governments of Denmark and the Netherlands, the Centre is managed by a consortium led by the Ashesi University College and including Ernst & Young, SNV Ghana, and the United Nations University Institute for Natural Resources in Africa.