Coaching Note prepared 4th July (USA Independence Day)

Albert Hani

Coaching – Feedback note

Confidential

Albert a sign of a good leader is one who knows his own weaknesses as well as strengths
and builds a team to protect himself and the organisation; you outlined both to me with
great accuracy. On the plus side of the balance sheet you are a good man, with vision, and
the ability to communicate that persuasively. On the minus side of the balance sheet you
either procrastinate or cannot say no. You know that those two weaknesses are fatal as well
in the long run because they create an atmosphere of uncertainty and perception of
unfairness in the organisation.

Recommendations

You have taken the first step, JK is gone, you will do a solid job at the GB meeting and close
down that issue for good BUT you also need to surround yourself with key competent
managers and let them say NO and make decisions on the operational level so that you can
concentrate on saying YES and the bigger picture. If you agree with this analysis then I will
recommend the following:

DO (Director of Operations). This is a crucial post. I find that in Valmira, you picked an
excellent person with the necessary skills and building up experience rapidly.

My recommendation: after the GB you stop interfering in her team…let her hire, fire, set
salary scales as she sees fit because she will leave if you don’t and she is better able than
you to say no, even if she is not a smooth a communicator.

DP (Director of Programme). This post is also as you know crucial. It is crucial both to fill
that vacuum and to put in place somebody who is with you not against you. I like the idea
of a GiZ sponsored foreigner BUT I fear that the recruitment for a such a person would take
at least 6 months – based on personal experience – so likely nobody in place until Jan 2023
which is just unacceptable especially given the other options. The role of coordinating RYCO
country offices should be removed from this brief.

My recommendation: you recruit somebody from the region who has excellent hands on
management credentials and that you in parallel get GiZ to recruit a shadow German youth
programme expert who comes in later to help clean things up if needed. I would suggest
actually targeting candidates for this role.

DC (Director of Communications). It is strange that you were not able to find a suitable
person for that role; maybe the pay was not good enough or people heard there were
problems in the organisation? In any case another role that needs to be very dynamic and
must be filled soon.

My recommendation: consider increasing pay scale and actively head hunting for this post.

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Coaching Note prepared 4th July (USA Independence Day)

DSG (Deputy Secretary General). This is a tricky situation because, even though this person
is undermining you, supported the former DP, and is undermining operations, they cannot
be removed without a GB decision. So unfortunately, you need to prepare the ground to
be able to remove this person, if needed and to place in a role now that does not interfere
with the core organisation day to day functions.

My recommendation: You MUST when you present to GB, say that you have only one issue
to highlight in response to the DSG’s 11 page email and that is that an episode of sexual
harassment was reported to him by a female colleague and not only did he not pass that
information on to the DO or you, but actively tried to persuade the person that they were
mistaken about the DP’s intentions. Because of your concern about his judgement you are
asking him to be reprofiled out of Operations and instead lead Project Development, which
is crucial area as there is now only 1 operational regional programme and you need at least
2 more. If you don’t do this you will have no leverage later when he does something worse…
as he will.

Next steps

The Functional review which should ideally be completed before GB and will recommend
DSG moves to project development, DO reports directly to you, Director of Communications
(DC) gets pay upgrade (if needed), new DP does not manage regional offices, this is handled
through a new post reporting to you.

Get the GB presentation out of the way. Close out any question of JK’s return and have
DSG’s role focused on Project Development with reference to his non-disclosure of
harassment report.

In all cases you must put people in place who will be loyal to you, and you in turn will trust
them to do their jobs and not interfere.

My Role

Albert I have done many, many more hours than the 25 I was contracted to do on this
current contract and I have sent a time sheet and invoice to the DO who tells me that the
Finance Officer is refusing to process the payment for. I would be grateful if that was sorted
out…preferably by the DO without you interfering.

If you would like me to do more I would suggest this is a chance for a new beginning and
that you are effectively going to advertise for several key roles including PD, CD, and a new
HR person. I think we should actively seek out highly qualified candidates and you and I
would both be involved in interviews with Valmira and maybe one external (female for
gender balance) but NO DSG.
I am prepared to spend some time making that right for you if you want to extend contract
for another 25 hours but otherwise I would advise you to proceed on this path with care.

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Coaching Note prepared 4th July (USA Independence Day)

Either way you are at the most crucial of junctions and you need to go to a place where you
focus on communication, big picture and getting people to say yes knowing that you have a
trusted senior team who will say NO and keep things running in an orderly fashion.

To a better second half of 2022 and a great 2023.