It's the last episode of 2022, and Akua is going over having a New Year, New Team. There is always the opportunity to reintroduce yourself to your team. People aren't robots, they evolve and change, and in order to keep your leadership relevant and influential, it's always a great idea to periodically reintroduce yourself. Akua calls it the "power of introductions."Akua works primarily alone when doing facilitation and coaching. But recently, she has been joining many new teams for short engagements, where they must come together quickly and not only work together but teach, coach, and facilitate dozens of important leaders. And do it immediately. So her recent experience has been a great reminder of important lessons for engaging a team.

As you end your year and make goals for the next, listen in to find out how to create a stronger, better, and more connected team.

"I'm bootstrapping, which means that the talent I can afford right now is not as experienced as I would like." Sound familiar? In this #AskAkua episode of the Open Door Conversations podcast, Akua Nyame-Mensah gives insight on how to start a team on a limited budget and how to give your team more confidence to make decisions independently.

Bootstrapping looks different to every business, but this episode will give you a framework with which you can learn how to bring together or re-engage a team. Don't have a team? You will still get great information on discovering your business goals and how to meet them.

Getting clear on your budget is priority #1, as is realizing that what you pay and the value you receive are two different things. If you can't afford the talent you're looking for, ask yourself what problem you want to solve by hiring these people. Hire the people who are going to get you closer to hitting the goals you've set.

Starting your own business, running a startup for someone else, or leading a team is a heavy weight to bear, and it’s easy to feel like you’re alone. But you don’t have to be. In this #AskAkua episode of the Open Door Conversations Podcast, leadership coach Akua Nyame-Mensah discusses the benefits of executive and leadership coaching, even if you’re already getting results as a leader.

She’ll help you identify if coaching is right for you. If you already know it is, you’ll learn how to convince your stakeholders that coaching is an important investment that ultimately affects their bottom line.

Remember that as a former startup leader, Akua shares her own one-sided perspective on these #AskAkua episodes, which is different from her client-driven coaching methods. These conversations are a means to provide you with the opportunity for reflection and a path to personal growth. As always, feel free to reach out to Akua in the DMs with any questions!

In this episode, leadership coach Akua Nyame-Mensah shares the top 5 tools and apps that allow her to work more efficiently, connect with and convert clients, all while being more productive. These are tools that help her get exponential results in both business and her personal life and allow her to do more in less time.

Having recently done an audit of her revenue streams and where she spends her time inside her business, Akua recounts her experience doing the same with the tech tools she uses. The result: she managed to trim $500 worth of subscriptions for tools that weren't moving the needle in her business.

Find out which apps, programs, and tools made the cut and how they might help you level up your business. Too often, money and time are wasted on tools that don't get used or that actually distract us. When deciding where to invest in tools, ask yourself if it makes sense for the amount of time and energy you currently have.

Being a leader/manager/founder in a foreign country poses a unique set of challenges, especially one where you stick out as being foreign. Founder and American expat living in Mauritius, Chris Suzdak joins Leadership Coach Akua Nyame-Mensah to talk about what it’s like to work and start a business in a foreign country. He also discusses his leadership journey and his experiences with executive coaching.

Chris has worked across the African continent for several years and is now based in Mauritius. He is a founder of a new startup, CoffeeChat, a coaching platform trusted by top companies across Africa. From interns to CEOs, CoffeeChat helps democratize access to personalized coaching sessions with peers and professionals to accelerate their growth.

In this episode, you’ll learn about Chris’s leadership journey, from learning to manage large teams to becoming a founder and now looking ahead to building his own team. Chris talks about working with multiple coaches while scaling up teams in Malawi and Zambia and how those experiences inspired him to start CoffeeChat.

Many entrepreneurs are multi-passionate individuals who always have lots of new ideas. It can be hard to focus on just one thing, like your startup, business, or project at hand. Sounds familiar?

In today's #AskAkua episode, Executive Leadership Coach Akua Nyame-Mensah answers a question she received via Twitter: How do I stop myself from seeing problems and coming up with new ideas while focusing on my startup?

This is an applicable question for any sector of business, whether you're a CEO, manager, or team leader. Learn how to recognize whether focusing on a problem serves you or if it's a symptom of overwhelm. You'll also learn the importance of managing your expectations and welcoming new ideas without letting them monopolize your attention.

This episode is relevant for any leader, especially if you are taking over a department/company, are inheriting a CEO role from a founder, or taking over another person’s online business. If you are a leader, this episode will provide you with tangible, actionable steps you can take as you assume your new role.

Listen as Akua talks about her own experiences in taking over leadership roles and her experiences coaching others through the same. Find out some of the pitfalls and how to avoid them, remembering that there is no one “right way” to lead. Here is a framework from which you can work to become more self-aware, engage meaningfully, and set realistic expectations.

Networking can inspire dread in a business leader, but taking time to build relationships is a necessary investment, helping fill knowledge gaps, identify opportunities, and ultimately, go farther and faster in business.

In this episode, Akua Nyame-Mensah talks to executive coach/author Karen Jaw-Madson about how networking should be included in our daily habits, how to create authentic relationships, and how to play a role in helping to connect others as well. Don't let networking fall by the wayside because you lack confidence or don't know how to follow up after an initial meeting. Networking is like a flywheel; small efforts over time create momentum and compound as our web of relationships grows.

Should a boss, CEO, or company leader be friends with employees? On this #AskAkua episode, Certified Executive Leadership Coach Akua Nyame-Mensah delves into her experience and perspective regarding friendships and relationships at work.

Depending on the culture in which you work, industry and sector, and even the stage of the organization's growth, relationships, and their meanings can vary. And because no leader is the same, friendships can look different from person to person. But no matter what, when it comes to being a leader, it's imperative to maintain respect, treat employees and teams equally, and have appropriate boundaries.

Find out Akua's three-step framework for deciding how to approach workplace relationships, starting with a core leadership tool - cultivating self-awareness. She'll also discuss issues you, as a leader, should focus on to ensure productive employees who are comfortable approaching you for support.

We're into the fourth quarter of 2022. Do you know where your finances are? If you're a coach or consultant, or just someone self-employed, It's important to check in annually - even quarterly - so you can assess what is working for you and, just as importantly, what isn't. That way, you can pivot your energy as necessary.

In this episode, Akua Nyame-Mensah breaks down her finances in her own quarterly review to help shed some light on how she makes money as a self-employed certified leadership coach and to share her perspective while giving you ideas of offers to add to your portfolio.

Listen in to learn how you can diversify your revenue streams and discover how to take your coaching beyond 1:1, which Akua loves, but recognizes it's not the only - or even the best - way to generate a living as a coach. You'll receive ideas on what to reflect on to make sure you're working towards your goals as a business coach and leader.