What Nairobi Taught Me About Leadership

I have sat in boardrooms in Silicon Valley. I have trained managers at companies most people have heard of. But some of the best leadership lessons I ever got came from a training room in Nairobi, Kenya.

When we started building our work in Kenya, I thought I was the one bringing something. I had 40 years behind me. The Army. Management roles at Cisco, SAIC, Aviat, and Ivanti. I had slides. I had a plan. I figured I would teach and they would learn.

That is not how it went. I learned more than I taught.

The first thing I noticed was how they listened. Really listened. In a lot of rooms back home, people are not listening. They are waiting for their turn to talk. In Nairobi, when I said something, people sat with it. They thought about it before they answered. That kind of listening is a leadership skill, and most of us are terrible at it.

The second thing was resourcefulness. The entrepreneurs I met did not wait for perfect conditions. They did not wait for the budget, the tool, or the permission. They built with what they had in front of them. I have watched leaders in the States stall a project for six months over a piece of software. Nobody in that Nairobi room had time for that.

The third thing was community. Nobody there talked about success like it was a solo sport. When one person moved forward, the whole room celebrated. When one person struggled, the room showed up. I have been in plenty of American workplaces where a coworker's win felt like a personal loss. That is a culture problem, and it starts at the top.

Here is what I took home. Experience is useful, but it will make you deaf if you let it. I walked in as the expert and walked out as a student. That was the whole gift. The leaders who keep growing are the ones who still believe somebody in the room knows something they do not.

So ask yourself this week. Where are you walking in as the expert when you should be walking in as the student? You might be surprised what is waiting for you on the other side of that question.

If this hit home, come learn more at herbadkins.com.