AI Magazine Issue 1 2017

34 Acquisition International - January 2017 A Thirst for Knowledge Emergence Growth is one of Africa’s premier human capital and reward consultancies, with offices in a number of African countries. They have a passion for assisting organisations to grow and expand their businesses in Africa. They partner with organisations to deliver against their mandate, and to exceed performance criteria. Following their recent success in winning the 2016 Executive Coaches of the Year Award, they reveal more about their work in this engaging interview. mergence Growth sent three of their Executives, Pat Smythe, Yendor Felgate and Raun Smythe to Gallup, one of the largest coaching organisations in America, to become certified Gallup Strengths Coaches. They have also been awarded the license to train and certify coaches in Africa through Gallup. The Accelerated Strength Coaching equips coaches to coach individuals, teams and enterprises using strengths based approaches. 2016 has been a fantastic year for Emergence Growth regarding coaching, Emergence Growth’s Executive Chairman, Pat Smythe reveals. Emergence Growth has trained over 30 coaches, whilst sharing strengths based coaching at a number of respected conferences across Africa. “Leaders continue to struggle to find ways to lead, develop and motivate their employees, and the idea that we should be working with people’s talents rather than their weaknesses has great resonance”. This is borne out by Gallup research, which indicates that teams that use their strengths daily are up to 12.5% more productive than teams that don’t. In terms of the firm’s recent success, they work with companies ranging in size from General Electric to entrepreneurs, starting their own businesses for the first time across Africa. This has meant that they have had to pioneer different ways to coach and support their clients. “The effective use of technology in the form of Skype, Webinars and electronic media” has been the key to the success says Raun Smythe, Managing Director of Emergence Growth. Pat Smythe goes on to say that the firm has worked hard on engaging leaders regarding how to engage with employees, particularly with those entering the workplace for the first time – the millennials. “Leadership is going to have to come to the realisation that the old style of controlling has gone out of the window, to be replaced by coaching, communication and regular feedback. Feedback and delegation of tasks needs to be given on an ongoing basis.” This is supported in the results of the Emergence Growth employee engagement survey, involving over 600 companies across the continent and is one of the largest of its kind in Africa. “It’s not so much the people, as the style of leadership that is creating a problem. The new leadership style focuses on how you can create more engaged employees and equip leaders to coach younger people who are coming into the workplace. By 2025, 75% of the workforce will be millennials, so we really need to focus on how they are managed otherwise we will lose talent.” “Organisations, particularly at executive level, are looking for external coaches because they bring credibility and have a no vested interest in what they do from a company perspective. The coach will give the executive advice on how to maximise his or her strengths, and how to gain credibility with the younger workforce.” Looking ahead to the challenges of 2017, Yendor Felgate, CEO of Emergence Growth says “Growing the coaching and leadership side of the business into Africa will continue to be one of the major goals. It is a continent that has a thirst for knowledge today, and a desire for help to make the changes yesterday.” “In 2017, Emergence Growth expects to train up around another 150-200 coaches to even be able to scratch the surface.” Name: Dr. Pat Smythe Executive Chairman Company: Emergence Growth Email: pats@ emergencegrowth.com Web: www.emergencegrowth.com Address: 328 Main Ave, Ferndale, Johannesburg Phone: +27 11 026 3442 A Thirst for Knowledge E 1701AI04 “By 2025, 75% of the workforce will be millennials, so we really need to focus on how they are managed otherwise we will lose talent.”