In the Cut Leadership Conversation with Sena Kwawu

Sena holds equally the skills of an operator and innovator and has put them to good use over his impressive career in high growth and mature public companies. His transformational leadership instincts started in Ghana and have benefited global teams and the customers they serve. At whatever table Sena has a seat, expect that his contributions will matter today and for many days to follow. 

In this time and place that calls on so much of us as leaders, how do you identify?

I don’t think it’s changed over the years since I was a teenager. First of all, I am Ghanaian from a small village called Gbadzeme in the upper eastern mountain ranges of Ghana. I’ve evolved that declarative stance as my citizenship global experiences have changed. I went to high school in Kenya, college in the United States and became a citizen of the United States. My spouse is an American who can dateline her family to the 1600s and my children were born in America. But I know myself as what we call a third-country national—two-thirds African—combined with the philosophies that I guide myself with shaped by those 2 countries and my long tenure in the U.S.

But let me say that the U.S. is the only place where with veracity I say, I’m Black. Everywhere else in the world can handle my amorphous persona. But after 40 years in America, no matter what I say about all those things, when you first see me, I’m Black. I don’t shy from it. I‘m not embarrassed by it. And I don’t make excuses for it.

Sheila: I will come back to this because when we talk about leadership, I suspect that you instinctively call on all parts of yourself yet you recognize how you’re seen and what can be in conflict with that and how hard you have to work against that American perception.

“I’m always behind the eight-ball until my client’s problem is fixed.”

What’s the work that you do?

My official title is President of In-Home Services at Cinch Home Services which is the 3rd or 4th largest home warranty business in the U.S. I manage the relationships and operations of the company and drive us toward delivering a premium customer experience. My work is focused on designing our future customer experience and delivery model. This means allocating resources to deliver in the here and now while also designing the vision for the future that is technology-enabled yet customer first. So not technology for technology sake but only as it enhances the customer experience. I have people to handle the day-to-day and I spend my time determining how we are going to pivot to the next level.

The American consumer now views service through the lens of companies like Amazon and UPS. They want it now and they want it correct. Our industry is not there yet so I’m trying to design the corollary experience that feels like Amazon, Uber or Lyft.

Talk about why is that so important in your industry? To adapt a system or operation that delivers instantaneously.

Because in my industry by the time you need my service it’s always too late. You’re never calling us ahead of time to say that you think your refrigerator is about to break, can you come and fix it for me?!? The time of need is always immediate, unplanned and inconvenient. And my service was purchased to resolve or minimize your pain at a time of great inconvenience.

I’m aways behind the eight-ball until your problem is fixed. My job is to minimize the dead air time between the time you identify the need and the time we service your need. And I’ve got to fix it the first time or as close to the first time as possible. I have to find ways to get information from you so we come prepared to get it right the first time.

At the moment, the industry doesn’t do a good job of diagnosing what is going on with the customer, without imposing on them. A technology-only solution will increase cost so we work on solving the problem in other ways and enabling that solution with technology. It’s a fun service that everyone can relate to. Stuff breaking in your house. Our homes are our sanctuaries and the safest place for us. I want to be a part of resolving the inconveniences.

I have great respect for the fact that you took a situation that is personal and made it even more personal in that you describe your service being needed in someone’s home. Knowing this is the place where things need to be peaceful and calm and for you to take your work to such a granular level requires that your company deliver service at a premium level—an unexpected level of service. 

That’s exactly right. That’s the way we need to think about service. Each opportunity is supporting somebody and our service must exceed expectations.

When did you come to know that you love to solve big problems?

There was a stage in my career when I was “made” to take a role. I was a finance guy planning to become the next CFO and I was asked to do something with Lean Six Sigma in the investment arm of an insurance company. 

My mandate was to go find something broken that management was unaware of and fix it. I had all the resources I needed yet I fought the opportunity like crazy. It was where I learned that there is always a problem embedded in your business that your experiences and processes don’t show. But if you follow the data correctly, you will unlock a cost, revenue or value opportunity. Now I always look for the things that are hidden in the data.

“I was told to go do the work, but do not blow up the business! Guess what I did?”

 What was your first “known to you” leadership moment and what sticks out about it?

It coincided with my first screw up. Remember I told you that I was told to go fix something and I did. It was so big that I was asked to establish the first fully integrated risk management discipline inside a $2B life insurance company. I was told to go do the work, but to not blow up the business!

Guess what I did? I was in a room of experts who were telling me one thing but the data was telling me something else. I’m the boss and although everything in my body told me to follow the date, I followed the experts. About 1 week later I was reviewing some data and I know we had screwed up.

Where the leadership piece comes in is in taking ownership. I had to remember why I was given the job. In part, it was to do it differently from how it was being done, and I didn’t do that. So, I took responsibility for it and it was really bad. I didn’t run away from it. I didn’t point fingers. I was lucky to be in an environment of leaders who gave me the option of leaving or fixing it. My ego was too big to let them win that round so I stayed.

And let me say that your confidence was big enough to let you know that you could fix it, right?

Yea. It took me 3 years to solution the outcome and make an impact. When that business spun off, I was given a business that was 2-3 times the size. What I will never forget it when my boss said, “we are giving this to you because given what a colossal screw up you had, we are pretty sure that you’ll never do that again.”

I am still in touch with some of those leaders who are in their 80s who tell me today that they are still pleasantly surprised by how I stepped into it, survived it for 3 years and helped us make the right decisions. They share that the signal I sent to the organization is what accountability looks like.

Sheila: First of all, good on you! I’m going back to how you describe yourself as a third-country national. That in and of itself doesn’t allow you to be anything other than certain.

I want to ask you about your success in both operational and creative leadership. Are there differences that you note in terms of leading a functional operating process-oriented team versus a creative, innovative, solving for the future team?  

Great question. This relates to my time at Starbucks, a creative and innovative organization that also appreciates the value of organizational rigor and discipline. That’s where I saw those 2 intersect the most. At Starbucks you needed to be operationally effective yet present to the customer as empathetic while creating a space where everyone felt welcome. There’s a lot of creativity that happened there that should not feel fake in delivery to the customer.

What I learned is that you can do both. In the operational part of your organization, you need to be very clear on outcomes and why you’re doing something. It has to be measurable such that it energizes the team to go down that path again and again. For the creative side of my business, I had to lead them to a place that they felt they helped shape. Even if the goals were data-informed, I tried to give them the space to be creative.

I have taken this learning with me everywhere since. As leaders, you have to be able to excite both sides of the problem.

Sheila: This is particularly relevant today. I think there is failure in thinking that some disciplines cannot benefit from creativity. It’s the how you do it, not the what of doing it.

“I’ll help teach you how to pronounce my name.”

Go back to how you identify. How did it show up in all of these critical leadership moments. 

In one way it’s subtle and in another way it’s in your face. Take my name. At least in Ghana, West Africa, a lot of families give you a day name – the day you were born – I’m a Kwame. You have your home name which is Sena, and my Christian middle name which is Maxwell.

Our parents' thinking was that they knew we were going to have to work in a global world and they wanted to arm us with a name that would make it easier to be accepted. You would think that because my parents, who were so smart, gave me a name that I would use. But I thought, there are a whole bunch of Maxwells out there, and only so many Senas.

So, the bit of the “in your face’ is, you’re going to see Sena, you’re not going to see Maxwell. And I’m not making any apologies. I’ll help teach you how to pronounce my name. I will tell you the story behind the name. And you’ll see Sena.

Sheila: This is the posture of who you are. You show up with such strength and I see you showing up as Sena.

What’s your leadership superpower?

As I have this 3-nation foundation, I have to break complex issues into simple statements. I know what I’m up against and if folks don’t feel they can see and understand where I’m leading them, it’s quick for them to dismiss me.

Over the years, I’ve learned to craft a very simple way of talking about the vision and how we need to execute against it without it being lost in translation. Keeping it bite-sized makes it harder to get contorted. No more than 3-5 key elements. You don’t need to have an advanced degree to know what I want and think is a priority. It makes alignment much easier. I don’t expose goals 6-10 until we’ve accomplished some of the top 5. That way our work doesn’t seem overwhelming.

What’s the song, quote, prayer or poem that you go to when you have to prepare to do something hard?

There are 3 readings that I turn to.

The first 2 are from Ralph Ellison The Invisible Man

• Power doesn’t have to show off. Power is confident, self-assuring, self-starting, self-stopping, warming and self-justifying. When you have it, you know it.

• I’m invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. When they approach me, they only see my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imaginations, indeed, everything and anything except me.

The 3rd is Kipling’s poem If.

What does these do for you?

In a crazy way, they calm me. Kipling talks about walking through crowds and people are going to be undermining and attacking you but understand that this is your journey and your path and it’s yours to control.

Ellison talks about being invisible. When I’m doing a lot of big change things, people are not watching which is empowering. I tell them, this is what I’m going to do, and they nod their heads. And then when I do it, they wonder how I did it and the truth is that they doubted me until I did it. That’s actually empowering! The expectations are relatively low so I get to set the expectations and the bar, and I can decide whether I want to set them high or low.

What do you know your life’s purpose to be?

Leave the world a better place than I found it.

What talent you have that you’re not using?

Being there for others.

If this 5 years is a chapter in your life, what’s the title?

Rebirth. A few years back, I had a medical event and there are days of my life that I’ll never remember. It wasn’t life threatening but I think of the impact on my family and the realization of how important I am to those 3 people. I spent the next 15 months being my full whole self and making them my priority. I can still be a successful business person without having to sacrifice what’s available for them. In a funny way, this has made the professional part of my life far more successful!

It’s a year from now, what are you celebrating?

Another trip somewhere sunny! People who don’t live in the PNW do not appreciate the power of that statement.

“I hope those behind us don’t forget community.”

Anything you’d like to add?

You and I talk a lot about community and I hope those behind us don’t forget community. And shame of us as the elders whose responsibility is to impart, share and be available. I hope we don’t stop being available for those behind us.

I actually worry about them because we told them they could be anything and supported them toward that. In another way we didn’t prepare them for when they walk out the door, and the realize that they are Black.

Sheila: Community happens because there is desire for it and intention about it. There is a shared responsibility for folx to reach forward and others to reach back.

I am grateful to you, Sena, and so appreciate our time In the Cut!

Leave a note for Sena below, if you’d like.