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Human-Centric Leadership and the Next-Gen Workforce with Chelsea C. Williams · Black Business Live Podcast

• 0:00
  Tolu Akindunni: I was studying about Ghana and saw that the average mortality age is 65. So people don't... Many... Most people don't live past sixty five.
• 0:08
  . That's right. Sometimes folks think you're either born a leader or you're made a leader. I truly believe that even if you have the innate skills to lead, everyone has to work on building the skills that help you be a better leader. AI is going to continue to advance, I'm putting all bets on the fact that human-based
• 0:27
  Chelsea C. Williams: businesses are gonna be more important than ever over the next, what, five to ten years.
• 0:37
  Tolu Akindunni: Welcome to the Black Business Live Podcast. We are in Accra, Ghana with the Wisdom Table Ghana Legacy Tour. This time around is a US trade mission done in partnership with the Ghana Tourism Federation. And in that mission, we've got several businesses who have come all the way from the different parts of The US to explore business opportunities, investments, mid businesses, explore Ghana in its entirety. And one of such business owners is Miss Chelsea Williams.
• 1:10
  Chelsea is the CEO of Re imagine Talent Co. So she is a talent development firm and HR services, if I recall, workforce development force company. And she has a great passion for not just the workforce of today, but the workforce and the leadership of tomorrow. Welcome, Chelsea.
• 1:31
  Chelsea C. Williams: Oh, I'm so excited to be here. Thank you for having me.
• 1:34
  Tolu Akindunni: Oh, yeah. We are so pleased to have you. And not just because, I mean, talent is a recurring topic, but in Africa, it's such a vital and valuable one. Right? We know that Africa is going to have the largest population of young people older 25 to 35 in the next five years.
• 1:54
  I was studying about Ghana and saw that the average mortality age is 65. So people don't, many, most people don't maybe unsixty five. That's right. But really, you've got a very young population here in Ghana, right? And so, tell us a little bit more about what you're doing in your business and why Ghana?
• 2:13
  Why now?
• 2:14
  Chelsea C. Williams: Oh, my goodness. So, as stated, we are all about development from a workplace standpoint. On the talent development side of the house, we work with employers on getting the most out of their people. And for us, that means upskilling, reskilling, management and leadership development and training. We know that workplaces can impact customers and perform when they have strong teams and strong leaders, and we have seen that in action.
• 2:45
  Before I started my company, I worked on Wall Street. And so I saw so firsthand how important it is to invest in people. And so we do that. But what we realized was we could do all the focus and work on the current workplace and the current workforce, but if we're not thinking about that next generation and understanding the differences in how we support and coach and advise talent, we're missing it. Because I tell you, we'll talk about this, I'm sure, this next generation, they value different things out of work.
• 3:19
  They have different experiences and desires. And so, we're really... We often talk about bridging the generational gap and really being able to help organizations make the most of who's there now and who's coming. And so, coming to Ghana, it was a no brainer. I have parents from West Africa, Sierra Leone and Liberia as my roots.
• 3:39
  And so coming back to the continent obviously made sense. Was like, I want to go to Ghana, want to go everywhere. But it was also this concept of knowing that stat about the youth population, and knowing that's only going to grow, and thinking about where our business can go. It made sense for us to see the differences in how employers here in Ghana really approach their workforce, but most importantly, how we can be a part of partnering with organisations who want to support readiness, career and work readiness for the next generation.
• 4:11
  Tolu Akindunni: Yeah, it's interesting that you see that because I was talking to Seth, the president of the Ghana Tourism Federation, and yesterday he was talking about what technology cannot replace. So yeah, you can do a lot of things online. You can train people online, but you cannot train somebody online on how to serve food. That's right. How to plate the food.
• 4:32
  That's right. You know, there's certain things that they, you know, there's certain areas where AI cannot intervene. Thank you. Right? You still need the workforce to be the people.
• 4:44
  So when you come into a country like this, when you see so many talents and so many gaps where they are wanting the talents to come to help them to develop, You're like, wow, you know, there is so much we can offer here, right? How have you felt in this last couple of days just experiencing this? I
• 5:05
  Chelsea C. Williams: felt all the feels. As I like to say, Everything has been so peaceful in my journey here. And, you know, I think on a personal level, a spiritual level, I always try to pay attention to like my nervous system. How am I feeling? How tuned in am I?
• 5:21
  And I have just felt so at home. Felt such a peace here. Also, just the people, warmth, the drive is refreshing. I didn't expect anything less, but it was nice to be able to experience it. I think the opportunity, just to share the opportunity.
• 5:38
  There have been associates and friends who have come here for culture and for business and have just raved about the experience. You need to be there, you need to do it for yourself. And so it felt like the right time. The wisdom table coming into my life through the leader of the wisdom table has been awesome because I realized I don't have to do it alone. I could do it and come over in community of other people, and that's been absolutely refreshing.
• 6:03
  But I appreciate you mentioning the human connection to technology, because one thing that I've learned is, and I'm putting all bets on this, AI is going to continue to advance and continue to really take over how we work and how we live. But I'm putting all bets on the fact that human based businesses are going to be more important than ever over the next five to ten years. And so the concept of starting now in building those skills in the workplace, but also in this next generation, and making sure that, yeah, they're technology natives, but they're also human natives, and in touch with interpersonal skills and how we need to connect with each other, I'm putting all bets that that's the place to be. And so, we're going to be doubling down on the human side of business and the human side of leadership over the next couple of years.
• 7:00
  Tolu Akindunni: Yeah, absolutely. And there's so much to unpack there, and we'll come back to that in a second. Let's shift focus a little bit to the matchmaking. How have you found that? We had the matchmaking sessions and the pitch sessions.
• 7:13
  What has that been like?
• 7:14
  Chelsea C. Williams: Oh my goodness. So I've done matchmaking before. So you go into... I didn't know what to expect. I trusted the organizers of the wisdom table that they were going to connect and match us with the right people.
• 7:27
  But sitting in it was so refreshing. There's a couple of conversations that I had that felt so aligned, just individuals who not only had the business that connected, right? They were human resources or training and development companies, but they had the values that aligned. They had the growth that aligned. They were operating in other countries where I have ties.
• 7:51
  So little things that kind of show you this might be something has been really, really wonderful. So at a minimum, knowing that there are companies here who, and I asked this question in some of the conversations, I said, there's one thing for someone to say that there's a business need or for you to go to an organization and they're like, Yep, we have that as a need. It's another thing for them to invest and say, This is a need that we will put our resources behind. Right? And so they clarify that, No, this space of talent is a place where the right employers right now want to solve it, and they will put resources behind that.
• 8:30
  Tolu Akindunni: Wow, that's wonderful. Yeah, that's wonderful. So it's almost like a cross pollination because you're not just here to give, but you also receive it. Get clarity, you're getting insights. And at the same time, businesses are saying, well, are these are areas where we have need.
• 8:45
  So it's exciting you say that because, you know, one of the things that the speakers said today, a couple of them is they come back to the motherland and they use the words motherland, and which means that we're all from the same tree, we're cut from the same tree. So it's interesting because here in Africa, you almost feel like we're all doing this together. Did you get up doing it all? Like, we're all in this together. We're not, you know, I'm not, you're not supporting.
• 9:12
  I'm not here to just give you something or receive something. That's right. It's like, have common challenges. I can see where you have a need and you can see where I may be of value to you. And there's a cross Yeah.
• 9:24
  Pollination Yeah. It's good to note
• 9:27
  Chelsea C. Williams: that because there can be times when you're in environments where it might feel like, saving, just dropping these resources. Here you go, you need this. No, we actually also need that same understanding, that same business connection, that same support, candidly. Thank you for saying that, because a couple of the conversations that I have had, it has been a cross cultural even opportunity of my team, my partners benefiting from understanding about Ghana as a place for business and beyond. And then them too saying, We need to share some of the North America approaches to work with our people.
• 10:12
  So we are mutually in this.
• 10:14
  Tolu Akindunni: That's right. Correct. Well, Ross, that's a fantastic takeaway from today. Now, I want to come back to the talent conversation. Right.
• 10:24
  And one question I want to ask you is what is the major challenge you see or you could foresee with when it comes to talent and leadership particularly in the world that we live in right now you know the world has changed before it used to be a global place everything just but it's becoming more and more insular by the minute but we'll say you're seeing several parts of the world emerging here. Like Ghana. That's right. So what would your take be on the talented leadership challenge? Oh my gosh.
• 10:55
  Chelsea C. Williams: So much. How much time do we have? Right? So much. But I'll be quick with a couple of things that I'm sitting on.
• 11:02
  Number one, we have not historically invested or prioritized what I'll call leadership development. It has been maybe, or we're doing it now because it's a glossy thing to do. And I think that sometimes folks think you're either born a leader or you're made a leader. Truly believe that even if you have the innate skills to lead, everyone has to work on building the skills that help you be a better leader. And that you can lead without the title, you can lead at any level, any generation, any industry and sector, and so democratizing leadership itself as a concept in the workplace and allowing, in our conversations of business and companies, everyone to understand their leadership experience and their leadership.
• 11:53
  Candidly, priority in how they work is something that it's a mindset shift, though, from leaders who say, Oh my gosh, we want a culture where leadership is a quality that we build on everyone, from entry level to the assistant to the C suite. That's a thing that I think is going to have to change, and it's changing in some cases. I think the other piece is around what I'll call succession planning. How do you prepare the next generation of leader and do it in a thoughtful way so that when disruption happens in businesses, mergers, acquisitions, a situation like COVID, retirement and the silver tsunami. I mean, could go somewhere so many different places, that your organization has prepared for that next level leader in a thoughtful way.
• 12:38
  So those are some things that I'm really looking at. I think the final thing I'll offer is about the manager's role today.
• 12:44
  Tolu Akindunni: -: Oh, yeah. -:
• 12:44
  Chelsea C. Williams: We could talk about that for forever. But I was having this conversation at lunch while here in Ghana. There was a time where it was like, the way I manage, I manage the same for everyone on my team. We know that, no, the way that you manage effectively is to manage for the individual, their needs, their experiences, their challenges, the coaching concept. And so it's requiring more in this environment with the pressures of people to manage and lead.
• 13:10
  And so their support is now more important than ever.
• 13:12
  Tolu Akindunni: Yeah, and also technology has taken us to the point where people are becoming individual leaders. Very good point. They're directing, they're not just doing tasks. That's right. They're manual tasks, because they're the tech to do.
• 13:23
  Now you
• 13:24
  Chelsea C. Williams: are the leader. 100%. I would add to that, finally, we need people to understand how to manage people and teams, but also how to manage technology. What do you outsource to, you know, name that AI platform, and then what do you actually have to own as your responsibility, the human side of leading? I think there are some great areas there, but people are going to need that clarity in the future.
• 13:49
  Absolutely.
• 13:50
  Tolu Akindunni: Wow, this is exciting. And look at you in one of the fastest growing economies in Africa today, one of the highest GDP in Africa, 5.6% GDP growth with the highest population of young people, the continent with the highest population of young people, and they hear you all talking about the leadership of the future. I'm so excited for you, Chelsea, for what is ahead and what you're
• 14:14
  Chelsea C. Williams: going to do. Thank you. Well, it's an absolute pleasure to be here, and thank you for all you do, Amplifying Voices. I'm really excited to be able to lead my company, lead my team through this moment in time, and to build bridges in Ghana.
• 14:30
  Tolu Akindunni: Absolutely. All the very best with that, Chelsea. I know this is not the last time of you being on our podcast. I'm sure there'll be many more opportunities. Susan, the future.
• 14:38
  Awesome. And honestly, I can't wait to hear. I can't wait to hear about all your exploits on the African Continent.
• 14:43
  Chelsea C. Williams: That sounds good. Thank you for everything. Thanks.
• 14:44
  Tolu Akindunni: Been great. Same here. And there you go. This is Tolu on the Black Business Live Podcast dialing in from Accra, Ghana.