Ayaka Management Consultancy

MAUA

I wrote a book people! Yes, I did! I cant wait to share it with you! Oh My!!

This is my second book after How to Increase Your Sales & Grow Your Business, a sales and customer service guide for beginners in business. This simple guide is suitable for anyone who is starting out in business or young entrepreneurs. Incase, you missed it, you can buy it for yourself or gift a deserving person. Get it from Kindle Amazon, the link below:

My second book is called Maua. Maua is a Swahili word that means Flower! I am super excited about this book. It is a novel written for anyone who loves a good read!

#MauaTheNovel is an epic story of a young ambitious man who yearns to break the chains that hold him back from achieving a life he had only dreamt of. Amid misfortunes and with nothing to his name, Karani, must step up and feed his hunger for success. But can he do it? How much inner strength will he need to overcome the challenges ahead? What choices will he face? Will he emerge a winner?

This story is written in English. The setting is in Kenya where the reader travels through a maze of hope, tragedy, traditions, modernity, resilience and love through the protagonist eye.

You want to read this book! You want to gift someone this book! Those who have read ,testify, that it is a page turner and a thriller. A good read indeed!

The book is available in hardcopy. We are sending it anywhere you are in the world. To order your copy click on this link below. I cant wait for you to tell me how you liked it!

Order Maua Here

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“What I love most about reading: It gives you the ability to reach higher ground. And keep climbing.” Oprah Winfrey

The benefits of Coaching in the Workplace

Coaching is a process that improves the performance of an individual. Coaching focuses on the individuals ability to learn what they need to do in order to achieve a certain goal. It focuses on the ‘here’ and ‘now’ of the individual and not on their past.

Coaching is a partnership that takes place between an expert who is called the coach and the client the coachee. The coach will take his client through a powerful thought provoking inquiry process that will support the individual in identifying their strengths, develop them and make an informed choice of how they will meet their personal or professional goals.

Through this coaching process, the coachee is upheld as someone who has answers to his own need. There might be some underlying issues such as fear, limiting thoughts and beliefs etc that are holding him back from performing as expected. The coach hence comes in to help the coachee learn and acknowledge what is holding him back and in the process, the coachee is able to forge a way forward for himself.

In most cases, if coaching is not done, the individual will not improve on his work performance, neither live his best life either professionally or personally.

Let us use a simple example to explain the above. Company X has trained their employees on what is expected of them in order to meet their KPIs. The company has gone further to ensure that their employees have all they need at their disposal like work tools, gadgets, and attractive employee benefits. In other words, their employees are well equipped to perform their tasks as required.

However, in the performance review of the quarter, the managers discover that, their employees have not performed as expected. This situation leads into a greater level of disappointment on the managers part who doesn’t understand why, after providing all that is necessary, the performance of his employee is not satisfactory. This situation can result to serious consequences for the employee.

If such a scenario is not carefully handled, company X may end up loosing an otherwise valuable employee from their team. To avoid this from happening, this is where coaching can take place. Coaching will support the employee unearth what is holding him back from performing and propel him to improving.

Benefits of coaching

Coaching helps the employees focus on the desired goals hence improving their performance in workplaces.
Coaching helps the employees remain in the company. It reduces turn over rate at work places hence saves the company money that would have been spent on exiting employees and in hiring new ones.
Coaching creates an open culture in the organisation where employees feel they can freely express themselves without fears of being victimised.
Coaching increases high employee satisfaction and commitment to the company.
Coaching gives employees space to grow, receive honest feedback and pursue the organisation goals.

Organisations should create a coaching culture which should be practiced at all times. Infact, coaching should be included as one of the company objectives at any given financial year. Training your team is a good thing. However, it is important to remember that, training in isolation is not enough. Training enhances skills while coaching accelerates the inner ability of the person to perform.

The best news is, everyone in the organisation can be coached, right from senior management to the entry level employees. We all need coaching to unlock our potential to maximise our performance.

Talk to us today for life changing coaching of you and your team.

Compassion

Oxford online dictionary defines compassion as sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others.

The other day I attended a live webinar where the speaker gave a lecture on having compassion at our work places. I found the talk to be rich in content and very mind opening. She highlighted how you can love your colleagues, employees and be compassionate towards them in the work environment. She mentioned among others; having a listening ear, seeing people for who they were- human beings and approaching each situation as a blank slate without any judgement.

In this piece, I will pick her thoughts marinate with mine and come up with a remix of my view on being compassionate.

The world needs more compassion in terms of love and care especially now that people are suffering in one way or another as a result of the pandemic.

How do you show compassion without getting burned out?

First you need to take care of yourself. You cannot pour from an empty cup. It is important to sit down alone, take time out, do what relaxes your mind and surround yourself with people who speak to your soul. You will realise that when you take care of yourself, you will then be able to take care of others.

You cannot be kind to someone when you are unkind to yourself, you cannot help someone out, when you don’t even know how to get out of your own mess, you cannot guide others, when your mind is constantly marred with negativity and so forth.

In essence, to be able to show compassion to others, put yourself first. Refill your cup in a way that you will be able to pour unto others from the overflow.

It is also important to note that, being compassionate towards others is good. It is the right humanely thing to do. However, you must remember in your quest to show compassion to someone, do not over take their burdens and make them yours. The danger in doing this is that your vision of being helpful will be barred due to the heaviness of their burden.

This will make you lose the objectivity that you need in order to see their situation in a way that you can be able to help. Remember, you need to keep an objective mind in your compassion journey. If you allow the weight of what the person is going through to weigh you down, it will no longer be compassion but another case of being overwhelmed with problems of others which will be in the end unproductive to either of you.

On your quest to offer compassion, do not forget that it is okay to say no to a space that you feel does not serve you. If someone’s situation feels like it will drain you, it is okay to say no that you cannot help. Saying no, in itself is also a form of compassion. It shows a great sense of maturity and ownership on your part. You have demonstrated that you will help better, that situation, by not participating in it. That is a greater awareness that you can give yourself and the other person. There is no need to put yourself in a space that you will feel resentment later on.

No, is a complete sentence and it is completely okay not to offer any more explanations beyond your expression of not willing to participate.

Lastly but not least, remember to love those around you, be kind, listen, extend help, encourage, hold someone’s hand and show compassion today in the best way possible that you can.

The Power of Positive Thinking

It is said that whatever a man thinketh, so is he.

Have you ever been faced with a difficult situation in your life? Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the happenings in your life? If you have ever been through such circumstances you might probably have faced the temptation to give in to negative thoughts. You may have allowed yourself to think negatively and wallow into a state of not seeing the good in that situation. The problem with that is; when you allow yourself to think negatively, that negativity will ultimately reflect in your life. I will not highlight what results this will bring to you, I suspect that you already know.

Positive thinking brings a new sense of renewed strength and hope into your life. It gives you the push that you need to move forward and face whatever it is that you may be going through. It opens your eyes to a world of possibilities and opportunities. It draws you to solution that you would otherwise have not thought of. It propels you to be better than your current version of yourself.

I am not blind to the fact that, it is not easy to constantly think positive. It is hard. Especially for someone who is used to living in a continuous state of negativity. Adopting a positive mind requires a strong mental capability. It does not matter how many self-help books you read or how many motivation videos you watch. At the end of the day, it comes down to you. Only you can gather the inner strength within that will help you change your attitude, your thought trails and your perception of things.

The good news is, as you continue to practice positive thinking, it will became imbedded in your being and eventually it will be part of your living. You will realise that with time, you are living a positive intentional life regardless of your circumstances. In the long run this will rub into your everyday habits, the people around you and positive results will be evident in your work.

The idea is to practice positive thinking always. You can do this through meditation, catching your thoughts the second they drift towards the unwanted, feeding your mind through positive books, videos, audios and music, interacting with like minded people who speak to your soul and lastly , purpose to be a positive thinker.

Exercise your power in positive thinking this week! Will you!

Have you registered for our Goal setting training this month?

Here is the link

This is why you need an accountability partner

The importance of Accountability

Dear Reader, I hope that you are setting smart life goals for yourself and are working towards exceeding them. Perhaps you wish to purchase a house or land, enroll in higher education or travel around the world, whatever your life goals are it is important to have someone to hold you accountable to them.

It is very easy to set smart goals but it can be difficult to follow through these goals. It requires a great sense of discipline, determination and self-motivation. The best thing is you don’t have to go through it alone. That is why it is important to get an accountability partner.

An accountability partner can be anyone that you trust who will walk with you to ensure that you achieve that goal you have set for yourself. For instance, your spouse, a trusted family member or friend can be your accountability partner. You can also get a professional to be your accountability partner depending on your goal for example an accountant, a lawyer, a religious leader, a life coach etc

What is the importance of having an accountability partner?

It lessens the burden of achieving the goal on your own. You will have someone that you can share with any obstacles that you might encounter and together you can came up with a favorable solution.
It gives you the motivation to keep moving. When you are accountable to someone, you are obligated to perform. This will be a motivation for you to keep moving forward.
You get a third eye, someone who will see what you don’t see. Sometimes we are too engrossed in our journey that we miss out on important things along the way which can be very instrumental in helping you make big steps. Your accountability partner can see what you don’t see and be able to advise you accordingly.
It gives meaning to your life goal. Knowing that you are sharing the journey of achieving your goals with someone else, it gives a lot of meaning to it. It is like it cements your goal, makes it more meaningful and gives you a sense satisfaction.

As a caution, don’t rush in appointing someone as your accountability partner, take time, weigh all the pros and cons of having them in your life goals. Be very honest with yourself, seek advice from others and opinions, do thorough research, remember this is your goal, choose wisely.

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Better Together

Today we have a guest post! Yes! I am super excited to share this post written by a guest writer. I will not speak much, let the post do the speaking. Enjoy!

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In Africa, it takes a village to raise a child. A child belongs to the community and not to the individual parents to whom child is born. Both correction and complementing are done by the society.

If you want to go fast go alone if you want to go far go together…

Over the years, Africa has embraced the West and its culture that has led to the loss of the sense of community and togetherness. This has led to the deterioration of togetherness, support and care. The African values that made Africa have been diluted and almost non-existent.

After campus, I joined a blue-chip organization and my parents were exceptionally proud of me. My clan threw a party to celebrate the milestone. This not to mention the graduation flamboyant party that the whole village was in attendance, cow slaughtered, and a band hired. From the speeches to the attendance you could tell I have cheerleaders who totally felt part of the process.

In my new job, I was attached to a mentor who’d offer support and monitor my progress for career development I actually felt a little weird, having someone to report to other than my supervisor. I had hoped that after campus, I’d be free.

Jane was a no-nonsense kind of a person. She was well organized, goal oriented and mannerisms were on another level. She kept reminding me dress how you want to be addressed. This irked me to the bone.

I must admit that I did not like her so much as deadlines were a big deal to her. At that time, I lived by the mantra ~ it’s never that serious.

I owe my career growth to Jane. Looking back, she was an angel sent from heaven. She saved me from youthful folly. She was instrumental to the woman I have become, I got to learn much more than just career, she actually saved me from a bad relationship and bad debts due to peer pressure.

From my relationship with Jane, I learnt that one has to be deliberate on relationships. We are the average of the 5 people we spend time with both online and physically. Are the relationships you have making you better or bitter?

You need three types of people; those have gone ahead, those at same level and those who are looking up to you.

Those who have gone ahead of you could be teachers, mentors, coaches or sponsors. Most of these are like Jane who have experienced something you haven’t. They have made mistakes and learning. Connecting with them shortens your journey to success.

These are not limited to career but could be in marriage, business, parenthood etcetera. Initiating these relationships, you need tact and intention. Some of these you have to work with or for them to gain the knowledge. Here you require a learning attitude where you don’t take offence when corrected. Others, you learn from reading their books or listening to their speeches.

You need peers, those you can speak the same language, share similar experiences or challenges. This group is contributing almost 99% of who you turn out to be. These are friends, frenemies or acquaintances you find yourself with regularly either during parties or hang outs. They shape your mindset, spending habits and perception towards literally everything. Choose wisely.

Those who look up to you, not necessarily economically but in age or experience. These can be like your house manager who holds fort your home affairs to allow you peace of mind while growing your career, those who look up to you for advice or emotional support. Be a cheerful giver of love, advice or even financial support. Just give.

The danger is in mixing up these relationships or not recognizing who is who in your life. No man is an Island, we were never created to be self-sufficient.

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Hey, I hope you enjoyed reading my article.

My name is Joy Mwasi Senteu. I am a mother and a wife. A cheerleader and mentor. A believer of Jesus Christ.
I live by the mantra “pass the baton.” I would like to die empty, having used every gift God gave me effectively, positively impacting those around me, spurring them to be who God intended them to be. I am taking every step carefully so as to leave a footprint that would inspire the next generation never to settle for less.

I believe the world needs colour – I love bright and rich colours. Yellow, orange , blue
Those around me; especially the youth discovering and living out their purpose unapologetically.

Follow me on my socials, let’s get to know each other!

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Thank you so much!

What would you like to read about?

Dear Reader,

We are done, well almost done, with the first half of the year! How are you doing? Are you smashing your goals? Are you happy? How is the going?

In the next couple of days, I want to write with you in mind- literary. So, I am giving you an opportunity to tell me what you would like to read about. It could be anything specific that you either want a different opinion, a different thought, a different perspective or you simply want a new read; it could be about life in general, self development, business, growing your sales, customer service, a question that you have etc.

I am inviting you to tell me either in the comments below or drop me an email on info@ayakaconsultancy.com and I will be happy to put your say on paper.

In the meantime, keep winning!

I am rooting for you!

Give yourself permission to…

Permission is the act of allowing someone to do something or allowing something to happen, this is according to Cambridge Dictionary.

The other day I was listening to a podcast about this lady who was narrating how her life changed the minute she gave herself permission to be successful. She said that it reached a point in her life that she had to stop asking people for permission to do stuff and she decided that she was going to permit herself to live the way she wanted. And lived she did -without any apologies.

I found this quite intriguing and I immediately thought about myself and the many times in my life, back in the past of how, I denied myself so much simply because I did not get the approval I needed from people around me. I remembered instances of when someone close to me would comment on how they did not like how I dressed and I would immediately coil on the inside. I remembered how I chose not to smile simply because someone did not call me that day. I remembered how I did not pursue certain interests simply because someone did not think they were right for me. I remembered how I did not follow through a plan just to appease the fears of what I thought other people would think.

There is a lot of power when you give yourself permission to be. Give yourself permission to try; permission to fail; permission to learn; permission to grow; permission to hurt; permission to heal; permission to forgive; permission to succeed; permission to be happy; permission to be criticized; permission to be all that you can be. There is so much power when you make no apologies to be who you want to be.

If you want to start a business, give yourself permission to start. Do not make any apologies, you will learn as you proceed. When you take on a new relationship, you have given yourself permission to love, be loved, hurt and heal. When you want new experiences, you must give yourself permission to do something new and different.

May this post today serve as a reminder to you, to give yourself permission to be all you can be. Don’t make apologies, don’t wait for conditions to be better, don’t dwell on what could be, just give yourself permission to be.

Today, I am giving myself permission to ……
.. be bold
…forgive myself
…forgive others
…listen to my gut
…(Continue filling in the blanks)

Fear of Success

Most people when asked what is their biggest fear, most will say fear of failure. Few will acknowledge that they suffer from fear of success and yet the fear of succeeding is as real as the fear of failure. You might be young, mid-age, old or whatever your age may be, fear of success is a pestiferous, toxic, dark evil that can hinder you from achieving your dreams, living a fulfilling life and seeking the happiness that you desire!

You suffer from fear of success when you hold yourself back from actually going after your goals or dreams. You fear what people, who are themselves limited in their lives, will say about your success. You fear facing more responsibilities in your life, we all know that success comes with added responsibilities. You fear changing with the success that comes your way. Obviously, when you are successful, things in your life must change, you will be forced to loose people, meet new people, move houses, relocate from your city, change your lifestyle etc. You fear being recognised for your success, it goes without saying that your success will attract interest from your family, friends, media, community etc. You actually fear being called successful, you simply want to maintain your status quo and remain invisible.

The problem with this kind of fear is that you are fooling yourself. You see, by the time you have the fear of success, it means that you are actually destined for greatness. You have the abilities needed to grow whether in business, employment or personal life. In other words, you have all the needed resources at hand that you need to be successful; perhaps, it is your inert abilities, new job opportunities at your work place, a new speaking engagement, an exciting business idea, travel opportunity, new financial opportunity etc. Basically, what you need to grow to the next level in your life, is already there, presented to you, but you do not wish to explore these new heights due to some of the various fears that we have discussed above.

As a result, you choose to play small, undervalue yourself and pass over the opportunities to someone else. You consciously decide to cage yourself in a corner and destroy any chance of you being great. This is not helpful not only to you but to your dependents and the generation after you. You are teaching them that it is okay to feed their isolation, loneliness and acceptance of their unworthiness to success. You forget that your decision to not go after success, greatly impacts and influences your dependents; Your children and their children’s children.

What can you do about it?

You need to come to a space in your life and accept that you have fear of succeeding. You need to explore in details what is causing you to have such low self unworthiness perception of yourself. Perhaps, the origin comes from a childhood trauma or experience that made you believe you are unworthy of greatness. If you can not break that cycle, it may be wise to seek professional help from a counselor, a coach or a psychologist.

You must cut out negative influences from your life. For instance, you may be working in an environment that your colleagues are always complaining of the company and its leadership. This negative indulgence with such characters, influences your decisions when it comes to taking new roles in the company. You may feel that you don’t want to take the new roles due to the pressure you will get from the leaders. You need to cut off such negative relationships and friendships or anyone who is not positive from your life. Understand that their journey is different from yours. Curve your own path.

There is power in self-affirmation. Affirmation is not done by a certain set of people. It is for you. Wake up each day and affirm yourself that you are worthy of greatness, that success is your potion, that you will overcome whatever challenges that may come your way, that you are a winner. Then go through the day with actions that are in line with your affirmation.

Eating healthy and exercising may seem like a cliché, well, it is. But do it anyway. Your physical and mental health needs to be right. You need to be refreshed and upbeat. There is a positive and winning aura that comes from someone who eats healthy and takes care of their body. You will experience that unmatched feeling that you can take on anything that comes your way, you are after all physically and mentally fit!

Focus on your journey to success. Be enthusiastic about it. Visualise what success means to you and then work in small steps, boldly and intentionally towards achieving it. Cut out any negativity from your life. Relax be patient with yourself. Seek professional help if you have to. By all means, affirm that you are destined for greatness and go after it!

Are you a friend to someone?

Let us talk about the friendships that you keep by first asking us profound questions. Do you pride yourself as someone who has many friends or do you pride yourself as someone who has meaningful friends? Can you genuinely say that you have friends who can help you when you are in real deep trouble? Are your friends seasonal, do they only come to you for help and when they don’t need you, you don’t get to see them? Can you seriously say that you have friends? We are told that we are a reflection of the five people that we hang out with.

The question that begs an answer is, who are you a reflection of?

Who is a friend? There are many definitions of a friend. Such as a person who you share affection with who is not a family member; someone that you share common interests with; someone that you can count on when in need; someone who sticks with you no matter what; Someone that you can hang out with in times of fun, sadness etc We can not exhaust the definitions of a friend. This word means differently to different people, so we will not dwell on that.

This article is not about who a good friend or a bad friend is. It is not about how to identify a good friend. It is not about the characteristics of a good friend. This article is about you. Yes, you who is reading right this second. Can you honestly say that you are a friend to someone?

I have been friends with so many people who have come across my path. Some of these encounters have been really beautiful and seasonal. For some we were brought together for a certain cause and during that time, we formed a closeness that was brought about as a result of that cause, as soon as that cause ended and so did our friendship. I have had friends who I realised I would remember them when am in need, I appreciate that they are the ones who would actually come through to me and they did. This is also something that I have experienced myself, people who come to me solely for help. We have no other common interest except that need that needs to be fulfilled at that time, when I am able to, I came through for them and for some I don’t. Such an experience, has taught me that it is not about what I gain from them or what they gain from me, it is about what I can sacrificially give as a friend when am called to.

Dear reader, when you think about it, are you a friend to anyone who might need you to come through for them in one way or another? There is absolutely no shame in not being able to serve everyone on your path. You are after all human with limited resources and abilities. It is also not practical for you to be a friend to everyone.

However, when called to, and you are in a position to help or be a friend do not turn someone way. When you are in a position to go out of your way, by all means do. You never know that you might be someone’s only hope, even when your resources are limited, you might need to give sacrificially.

Do it Happily.

“Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It’s not something you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything.” — Muhammad Ali