Managing Director of the National Social Security Fund Patrick Ayota has urged chief executives and business leaders to embrace workplace coaching and mentorship, arguing that organisations cannot achieve long-term growth without investing in employee development.
Speaking during celebrations marking 12 years of Imagine Me Africa at the Sheraton Hotel in Kampala during the International Coaching Week, Ayota said coaching helps organisations unlock staff potential, strengthen leadership and improve institutional performance.
“If you are here an MD, take the coaching thing seriously,” Ayota said. “The dynamics we see today will be very different from what you see tomorrow because you are growing an organisation.”
Ayota said coaching should not be approached as a uniform management strategy because employees face different professional challenges and require different forms of support.
He compared workplace leadership to football management, saying goalkeepers and strikers cannot be trained in the same way because their responsibilities differ.
“The technical people know how to do their jobs, but they need thinking space,” he said, arguing that organisations perform better when workers are empowered to think independently and contribute ideas.
Ayota linked NSSF’s workplace coaching culture to the Fund’s rapid growth over the past decade.
According to him, NSSF launched a 10-year strategy in 2015 aimed at improving staff satisfaction from 63 percent to 95 percent, reducing benefit payment timelines from 36 working days to one day, increasing customer satisfaction to 95 percent and expanding the Fund from Shs5.5 trillion to Shs22 trillion in assets.
He said the Fund achieved the asset target ahead of schedule despite disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, parliamentary investigations and midterm access payments.
“We hit Shs22 trillion in June 2024, 18 months before our target,” Ayota said.
He added that NSSF has now adopted a new long-term strategy targeting growth of the Fund to Shs80 trillion and expansion of membership from three million to 15 million Ugandans by 2035.
Ayota said one of the Fund’s key internal interventions was the introduction of the “Pathfinders” programme after management discovered that fewer women advanced into middle management despite women outnumbering men at entry level positions.
“We found out that statistically, at entry level, more women joined the Fund than men. But as we came to middle management, the statistics flipped,” he said.
The programme was designed to support female employees facing career disruptions linked to family responsibilities and maternity while also creating mentorship and peer-support structures within the organisation.
According to Ayota, nearly three-quarters of women who participated in the programme have since earned promotions.
He said the Fund also deliberately exposes employees to strategic meetings and leadership responsibilities to prepare them for senior management positions.
Ayota argued that institutions should encourage workers to pursue ambitious goals instead of limiting themselves because of financial or institutional constraints.
“Being scared is okay, just don’t stop,” he said.
The event also featured workplace coaching advocates who called for broader adoption of coaching cultures across public and private institutions.
Joanne Mugenzi, Lead Coach at Imagine Me Africa, said organisations that invest in coaching create environments where employees are able to innovate, solve problems and contribute meaningfully to institutional goals.
“We want everyone who needs coaching to find it in the workplace,” Mugenzi said.
She revealed that Imagine Me Africa had launched Uganda’s first workplace coach accreditation programme certified by the International Coaching Federation.
According to Mugenzi, the programme equips leaders with coaching skills tailored to workplace environments and organisational strategy.
“We have what we call the leader as coach. We come and do coaching inside organisations,” she said.
She added that the organisation has already implemented coaching programmes at NSSF, Stanbic Bank and ASA Microfinance and is expected to roll out similar training at AMSA Bank next week.
Mugenzi said organisations that empower employees through mentorship and coaching are more likely to achieve innovation, productivity and sustainable growth.