‘No Bounds’: Breaking Limitations, Getting Out of Your Own Way and Soaring in Career, and in Life – Part 2, By Segun Mojeed

We rounded off part 1 last week with growing people – number three of the actionable ‘first eleven’ of ‘No Bounds’. Please note that these ‘first eleven’, except for number one, are not arranged in any particular order. You are, however, at liberty to rank them to suit your own peculiarity. On the gentleman I referred to in closing last week’s piece, his name is Jubril. Jubril Saba, (omo Eko gan gan, a true Lagosian). Forgive me for I do break into tongues often. We chatted after he read the article, he remembered that particular talent review session and sent me a message that brought good tears to my eyes. I also now just remembered a joke back then after the late Bayo Ligali announced him as the substantive Lead for HR. We joked that it was like in the days of King Saul when he, as the tallest man in the land, was chosen as king. Jubril was the tallest guy around. Don’t mind us, you earned it young man and I’m proud of you over and over.

Do you know one interesting thing about ‘growing people’? There is often a pay day! Remember our old teachers? No matter how tough (or ‘wicked’) they were when we were in primary or secondary school, and they were good at dishing out punishment and floggings in dozens for half-penny, when we meet them again after we have grown, and in the presence of our own protégés, how we honour and celebrate them both in cash and in kind. A few months after exiting that organisation, they needed a consultant to provide them with some HR services and we were one of the service providers invited, shortlisted and assessed. Your guess is as good as mine on who got the job. The bidding process was thorough, competitive and world class in execution. It turned out to be a multi-million naira job. That young man has more than paid for the ‘growing people’ tutorials I was privileged to have offered him. It is growing people when you deploy your coaching and mentoring skills to ‘push’ and ‘pull’ less experienced and less exposed individuals to maturity and ownership.

Team-bonding:::Team-working and Collaboration

This is number four. In football, a beautiful team sport, this number reminds me of the late Mudashiru Babatunde Lawal. He held on to that number four jersey masterfully and with dignity like it was forever. Don’t let me start. Back to teamwork and collaboration, I can’t remember a single good thing I have ever done alone. I have always worked in teams to accomplish set targets. The ‘No Bounds’ spirit is no James Bond spirit. You can’t do it all alone. It was MKO Abiola, GCFR, who once said that no one claps (a good clap) with one hand. TEAM is an acronym for Together. Everyone. Achieves. More. There is a synergistic geometry of 2+2=5 or more! when you unleash the power of team-bonding:::team-working.

‘The ‘No Bounds’ spirit is no James Bond spirit. You can’t do it all alone. It was MKO Abiola, GCFR, who once said that no one claps (a good clap) with one hand’

Even as a toddler who went to school in the riverine area of the Niger Delta region, it took a team to convey me to and from school. One would be paddling the canoe while another was watching over me lest I jumped into the water and the consequence would have been grievous. This continued until I learned how to swim; an Ijaw boy made sure that happened very early in my life. That is why I’m often baffled when I see people being interviewed and they claim they were self-made. From when to when? If you ask me, the self-made vaunting is the new definition of insanity. It is deliberate amnesia. Anyway, it is a true saying, none of us is as smart as all of us and two good heads are better than one. It takes teamwork to make the dream work. Together we can!

‘…None of us is as smart as all of us and two good heads are better than one. It takes teamwork to make the dream work’

‘Thinking-Ability’

Next is ‘Thinking-Ability’. Thinking has ‘No Bounds’. Good thinking is good business. Good thinking is at the root of creative works, innovation and profitability. My mother used to admonish us, keep thinking out a solution and loads of options until you have headache. Edward de Bono, in his 1985 classic, Six Thinking Hats, encourages us to put on our thinking hats, put our brains in full gear to run better meetings and make better decisions. De Bono was far ahead of his time. Today, neurologists, brain coaches and neuro-linguists are having a field day in global conferences making fortunes using the ideas propounded in the Six Hats Thinking tool of group discussion and individual thinking. The ‘No Bounds’ generation takes ‘thinking-ability’ seriously.

The six hats and their functionality can be summarised thus: I put on my blue thinking hat when in need of control and organization of my thinking. The white hat is for objective facts and figures. Red hat is for emotions and feelings, passion! The yellow hat represents hope, positivity and speculative. The green hat comes on when it is time for  creativity, the ideation process and lateral thinking. Last but not the least, the black hat screams caution and the duty of care. Do not go anywhere without your writing materials, decorate your reading corner, your bathroom, and your car with them. Thinking happens at the speed of light and as you think, jot down your ideas as they occur. You can’t cram everything, the bukata (cares) of this life will steal them away.

‘Thinking has ‘No Bounds’. Good thinking is good business. Good thinking is at the root of creative works, innovation and profitability.’

‘Listen-Ability’ and Effective Communication

Number six is ‘Listen-Ability’ and communicating for results. Listening is the finest art of communication and it is a serious business, tough to learn and must be learned. Verbal and non-verbal is only a part of communication, listening is the other part. Every good conversation, they say, starts with good listening. Listening is mutual respect, courtesy, and a sign of emotional maturity. Little wonder then, our Maker gave us two ears and one mouth so that we may listen more than we talk. What do we listen to? We listen to both what is being said and that which is not being said, we listen to attitude and body language. Listening is not just hearing or anticipating what the speaker would say, it is hearing something with thoughtful or rapt attention, give consideration, and give heed.

‘Listening is the finest art of communication and it is a serious business, tough to learn and must be learned. …Every good conversation starts with good listening. Listening is mutual respect, courtesy, and a sign of emotional maturity.’

How do we listen? There are about five different ways to demonstrate listen-ability. Let me quickly share just two with you here. We listen actively – this is structured intentional listening. To practice this, among other things, you need to remove all distractions, pay attention, be open-minded, para-phrase what you have heard and then respond thoughtfully. It is a great way for building relationships. We also listen empathetically – this is regarded as the highest level of listening. It is effective. It occurs when you “feel” the other person’s perspective and can put yourself in that person’s situation. It is an act of emotional intelligence. It means you suspend judgment and analysis, you are sensitive to signs of resistance and defensiveness, and you don’t offer advice as you listen. Watch out for your own feelings and make sure these emotions don’t drown out what the speaker is saying.

The ‘Seven C’s of Communication’ is always an interesting module in our Business Communication classes. They are the seven commandments of communication. You may also Google it. You just must communicate excellently and effectively to fit the ‘No Bounds’ character traits. Equally important is who you are. Can your communication be trusted? Ralph Waldo Emerson said “what you are shouts so loudly in my ears I can’t hear what you say”. Character is of immense importance for someone on the ‘No Bounds’ journey. Who you are when no one is looking is the title of a 1987 book by Bill Hybels that was published and widely circulated in Nigeria by NIFES Publications. You may look for it. Effective communication the ‘No Bounds’ way is character over charisma. Integrity matters, doing what we say we’ll do. When you say good morning, no one needs to check if it’s really morning.

Still on communication, my heart bleeds when this generation attempts replacing or substituting Queen’s English with ‘shorthand’. Abomination! I’m reliably told that a lot of our young ones now get carried away and write WAEC examinations English in this abominable shorthand. Are you still wondering why the woeful rate of failure? Get out of your own way, write good English, complete sentences and read over what you have written before posting or sending. A friend once shared with me that he reads his writing backward to be sure nothing is missing. That is good English and that is courteous. Also, read good books, the advantages can’t be quantified.

‘Permit me to sound a note of warning that with all our digital prowess, gadgets and devices, face-to-face (F2F), one-on-one communication is still the best among people’

In closin,g I just want to say that I know we are in a digital world, a world that artificial intelligence (AI) is being touted to take over, and everyone wants to belong. However, permit me to sound a note of warning that with all our digital prowess, gadgets and devices, face-to-face (F2F), one-on-one communication is still the best among people. I wouldn’t want to give that up for all the gadgets in this world. We still need that physical interaction, though it may not be the physically touching type. We have found out that even within families, the devices are holding sway. People rarely communicate again. They rather get preoccupied with their devices, with lots of sweet nonsense dropping in their hundreds per hour. A ‘No Bounds’ people cultivate a peculiar deliberateness in managing their digital lifestyle or else distractions and derailment would set in.

To be continued…

 Acknowledgement/Sources of Resources for this article/Notes:

1. Clip arts and snippets from Google, and the Internet to drive home the points.
2. A compendium of over 25 years of manuscripts of my thesis and lecture series in Talent Management and People Matters (unpublished yet).
3. BezaleelConsulting Group Library bezaleelconsultingrw.com
4. Smart Tips by Soundview Executive Book Summaries soundview.com