If Being Passion Driven Is Not In the Offing For You, then….

Upon reading some recent reports, I couldn’t help but empathize with some unfolding events. The county governments are about to start cracking down on excessive and underperforming employees. Further on, you find the image of a man clad in Samburu traditional regalia, receiving an award for his passion and achievements in wildlife conservation. The award is coming from none other than Prince William, the future King of England. Quite some contrast, isn’t it?

Notably, presence of a large scale of underperforming employees can’t be ruled out in our part of the world. Why so? It is seemingly a well entrenched culture. This is probably and to a great extent influenced by the perception that the government is duty bound to execute a social responsibility function of creating employment for the citizenly. Never mind the quality of jobs or the rewards attached to the same. It is all a matter of being engaged somewhere and regularly owning what is known as a monthly pay slip. In any case kazi ni kazi tu (work is just work). One can be forgiven for wondering aloud, about the origin of this mentality.

Nonetheless, the direct jobs aside, the government is responsible for fostering an enabling environment. The same needs to be capable of helping individuals and the private sector to continually create jobs and wealth for the benefit of all. Does that always happen? The answer is yes and no. This is firstly so because our education system largely prepares everybody for formal employment.

Secondly, I am reminded of an occurrence during the early years of then President Moi’s long reign. He ordered all the government departments and institutions of whatever kind to increase their employee levels by 10%. The same became a government policy aimed at taming the ever skyrocketing unemployment levels. However, that was only a short term measure, which did not have any long term bearing, safe for the few who secured the jobs. Never mind that roles could have been non-existent in most instances.

Subsequently, the early 1990s witnessed the advent of structural adjustments in national economic management that were influenced by the World Bank and other international development agencies. In response, the same government resulted to rationalizing the workforce through the dreaded retrenchment process. This retrenchment is now a tool widely employed by both the government and the private sector.

But, it seems that the former local government structures now taken over by county governments have now woken up to new realizations. It has been realized that previous structures have been the epitome of bloated work forces, some of whom have been christened as ghost workers.

Indeed, recent audit of the Nairobi County workforce revealed as many as 2260 ghost workers existing in the payroll and draining close to KES 100 million monthly. Ironically, the payments are attributed to retired or deceased employees who still appear in the monthly payroll. Another lot of these ghosts is said to have been found to be living abroad.

A similar audit revealed about 1000 ghost workers existing in the Mombasa County government who earn about KES 50 million monthly. Sadly, many of these ghost workers were found to have been long dead despite the regular earnings.

These scenarios present a depressing situation for the public sector, whose management is tightening by the day. With increased urgency of service delivery coupled with death of social responsibility as an employment driver, the citizenly need to continue embracing renewed work ethics. Kazi si kazi tu (work is not just work) any more, as has been commonly held. Inevitably, people need to soul search adequately before settling in whatever jobs.

They need to be worthwhile jobs from which the holders derive insatiable passion therefore sustainability into the future. Tom Lalampaa the Shuka clad award winning Samburu conservationist admirably demonstrates the impact of being passion driven. One would want to believe that Tom’s award of STG pounds 30,000 (KES 4,140,000) encourages pursuance of passion. That avoids the risk of acquiring any job that could eventually lead to being declared irrelevant and therefore jobless as is now likely to happen in a performance driven jobs that are being envisaged by the county governments.

Better still, it is important to realize that the present world driven by the dynamics of the 21st century is influenced by self driven performers, else referred to as independent contractors. You are not far off if you refer to them as entrepreneurs or intrapreneurs. The latter have what it takes to succeed out there, but shy of taking risks, therefore, still clinging to formal jobs. So, what’s driving you into the future?

(Welcome for more specific and STRUCTURED learning on this area, in our 2 – 3 day Strategic and Management/Leadership Development  Workshops (For more guidance see training calendar )

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