Umbusi Ziqalo Blog

One of the Cardinal Pillars of a Leader, in leveraging influence for the (vision's) course, is receiving and dispensing trust. This applies from the team, to the eco-system, to family and other close constituencies. Measured Trust? Yes. Because the nature of leadership is magnetic. In any magnetic field, there is a charge, an electrical current emanating from the magnets. Because some magnetic poles are positive and some are negative, repulsion and attraction takes place. You may therefore be a positively charged leader, but without the right materials that respond to your magnetic vector, you will never achieve.  You are your team. Your progress is your inner core of trusted people.  Hence leadership trust, both received and dispensed, must be mearsured. As Nations of the world and teams in organisations, we must mearsure the trust we afford leaders, and as leaders, we must mearsure the trust we afford the core teams we allow to the inner core. Umbusi Ziqalo is a Speak...

You are what you settle for. It is not an accident where you find yourself in life. You are where you settled to be, consciously or otherwise. Settlement is a destination chosen and settled for in the mind. Settlement in simple terms means arrival, and deciding to stay. It means making a decision. It is not true therefore, that circumstances have brought you to where you are, it is you who decided to stay where you are. Your level of growth and progress, both personally and professionally, is a construct of your settlement, a function entirely of your choice. It will take honest personal reflection on your part, to move from where you are. Stop the blame-game, stop the blame-shifting, stop the blame-economy, stop the blame-currency, and stop associating yourself with the blame eco-systems. These few blame-proxies are weighing you down and not designed for your support and growth. Get up, with a radical mindset, and move. Umbusi Ziqalo is a Speaker and Thought Leader in Transforma...

We have often heard that the key to working in your Iceberg, is to lower the waterline. It is probably true. However, a more disruptive way is to invert the Iceberg, turning it up side down.  Do not think out of the box, but throw away the box.  We are called upon to be fantastic and genius, not to be at the top. Our icebergs therefore need to be inverted. The icebergs of education before work, need to change to work becoming our university, and formal university becoming our promotion. We need to invert our icebergs as well, by getting our thinking to look way differently than how it looks now.  We need to believe the opposite of what we believe now,  that it is possible to be good, without expecting anything back. Inverting our icebergs means commitment to a new way of eating and maybe a new routine for sleep time. It means new revolutionary friends. Invert your Iceberg. Umbusi Ziqalo is a Speaker and a Thought Leader in Transformational Leadership.

Why we need to move from an “either/or” to a “both/and” view of priorities. While corporations face constantly competing demands for resources, we still talk about moonshot long-term strategy. How can we sync ambitious aspirations with maintaining our business-as-usual which funds these innovative and profitable visions of the future? In today’s uncertain world, employees need a way to make sense of competing demands that create tension. Such conflicting demands include planning for the long term and operating in the short term; acting globally while dealing with local needs; collaborating and competing with other companies. An important tension for firms at the moment is the need to be profitable but also to be socially and environmentally oriented. As everything shifts (such as managing other cultures in an accepting way instead of expecting them to fit into one-size-fits-all roles), our “either/or” ideals around leadership are oft...

You have probably heard the over-used and probably least understood term "the pain of the past", or simply the past. Winners see the pain of the past as a necessary evil.  They consort with it, they court it from time to time as they navigate towards leadership leverage. We have been taught many incorrect, yet sounding great, half truths by both school and society. The biggest lie for me is that frogs are amphibians because "they can live in both land and water". Sounds just about right, doesn't it? Well, if frogs can live in water, why do they drown during heavy rains and storms? Its the same with the pain of the past, we are told it belongs in the past, really? As winners , we should consult the very alive and fully electric library of the pain of "our" past. We are losing out on so much that our past pain could teach us, because we are not willing to see it differently. Winners are not normal, hence they do not see things Umbusi Ziqalo is a S...

Ever heard of the phrase "its your fault" ? Well, it would seem that after all, it is your fault. Your life is your fault. Commit yourself this week, this month or year, this decade, to take full responsibility for what happens in your life. Especially how you respond,  or worse still, how you react to situations. Your life is your fault. It was you who decided to choose this or that, that course, that promotion, that province and that country. Its all your fault, why? You ask, because the full might and power, will and determination lies within you, to change it, if you do not like it. So stop complaining about how your life is not moving, or how people are treating you, or how unfair the world is. Inside you, is an Awesome Warrior, a Titan of a Spartan, a Gladiator, a Queen and a King. Your life is your fault. Umbusi Ziqalo is a Speaker and Thought Leader in Transformational Leadership and Personal Mastery.

We hear from polititians, from the left and the right. Aparently there is a far left and a far right. Where is the Centre? Does it exist? Where are the African Academics? The true proponents of Ubuntu, the Philosophy that says i am because we are? The true African Academics, not the Academics who live in Africa. Where are they? Where is the effort and philosophy of reconnecting with the soil? What are we eating? Where does it come from? Where is the land and way of our Fore Fathers? Where is true Ubuntu Ideology, not the ideas of those who live in Africa? We dress up like the west, we eat, drink and sleep like the west. I suppose there's nothing wrong with it, but where is the African Way? Where is Our Regalia, Our Dress Code and Symbols? Where is our diet and Foods? Where are the African Men, the Warriors and Gentlemen alike, who never dared to touch, destroy nor hurt any daughter, wife or queen, where? Where are the men of wisdom? The men of faith, the African Men? Where ar...

The Proverbial "blood is thicker than water", has it lost its lustre? In a world of many voices, and many choices, are we still tied and bound by blood? It seems the line is blurred, and the landmark faded. We are a people dictated to, not by the drought of the bygone era, forcing us to migrate, but by a drought of a different type, a lost love among family members. Who is my family? Who is my neighbour? Who is my relative and who is my connection? Well, nowadays my family are those who impact my banking account, the ones who soothe my ego and make me feel important. Yes, there can be no relationship without reciprocity. My brother is unfortunately, the one who cares for me, the one who calls from time to time, to check on me. We belong to new tribes, we belong to new families, with invisible but strong ties, not made of blood. Umbusi Ziqalo is a Speaker and Thought Leader in Transformational Leadership.

The Leadership Journal For Reflection by Umbusi Ziqalo A group or formation of individuals with a multiplicity of purposes is a sign of a weak and un-inspiring leadership.   The greatest need today in our homes and societies is authentic and strong influential leadership. Generally there are three important personal faculties you should manage.  Your Mindset, Your Talents, and Your Values.  Many tribes out there recruit you for your skill or talent. What they should be recruiting for is actually a mixture of all these faculties.  Even the people part of the business is called Talent Management or HR Management, it is not called Mindset Management nor Values Management. The core business of the leader therefore is the balancing and equal mixing of these three faculties.  People join organisations, and they resign from people and tribes.  Perhaps we must mention that leadership is the glue that should make everything stick together, despite the ...

The Leadership Journal For Reflection by Umbusi Ziqalo “A family without a leader,  is a community without Leaders and eventually a country without leadership ” - The Leadership Journal For Reflection. (Ziqalo, 2019), P.260. Everything hangs on the balance of Leadership.   Take a good look at families, organizations and governments where there is a lack of leadership and no one directing for results, it is chaotic to say the least. Eco-Systems In the systems theory, there are two cardinal pillars that support and define the thinking behind systems, which are, inter-relatedness and interdependence.  We are because of individuals, and individuals are, because of groups. Groups and Individuals Groups are not therefore healthy and successful, in and of themselves as groups.  It is healthy, coherent, progressive and successful individuals, who make groups work.  Needless to say, that individuals also derive a sense of belonging, recognitio...