The person who is my ‘Lunch date’ for this week is someone I have known for a while and one thing he stands out for is his passion to effect positive changes in all he does. He is one of Nigeria’s leading speakers on Life and Career Success. He is the CEO of Inspiro Consulting, a Career & Human Resource Consulting firm based in Lagos. He was recognised as Nigeria’s leading career brand on social media in the Alder Social Media Report 2014 and also recently, as the Twitter Handle of the Year for Africa in the Social Media Awards Africa. Jimi Tewe is my guest for this week.
A seasoned author and corporate trainer with a rapidly growing profile. He has had extensive experience dealing with individuals, institutions and corporations over the years. He is the convener of Careershift, a platform through which he inspires working professionals and students on achieving career success. Careershift has held in different cities in Nigeria, London and the United States of America.
Lately, as part of his contribution towards nation building and stepping up the productivity quotient amongst Nigeria’s rapidly growing workforce, Jimi initiated the ‘7 Star Worker Conference’- a platform through which successful professionals in the workplace can challenge others to strive for achieving exceptional results in their lives and career. The 7 Star franchise has impacted working professionals and business owners in excess of 100,000 individuals within its short existence.
As a Human Resource Professional, Jimi has varied experience spanning HR Consulting and Generalist HR responsibilities with competencies developed in HR strategy interpretation & implementation, organisation design, manpower planning, job competency profiling, job analysis & evaluation, manning analysis & leadership training.
Jimi grew up in a home filled with love with his mum, dad and three siblings. “I attended nursery, primary, secondary and university all in the University of Ibadan. I was very introverted when I was much younger and it actually was driven by a high degree of inferiority complex. From an education perspective, I was what you would call below average. Although these seemed very negative, it made me grow very introspective and this made me very observant of things going on around me. I believe that has helped me a lot today.” he tells me as the interview begins.
Jimi began Inspiro Consulting in 2011 right after he left the banking industry. It was started in a bid to provide career solutions and HR solutions to individuals and organisations. “I am grateful for 5 years of growth and many opportunities to make a positive impact” he says.
As a corporate trainer, Jimi says his firm’s forte is in the area of soft skills and workplace effectiveness which has enabled them to train staff in organisations in the private and public sector.
Speaking on his personal and professional challenges, he has this to say “Well, personally, I realize that the vision I have is quite huge and I cannot achieve it on my own. I therefore am on the constant lookout for great people (7 Star Workers) who can help me in building my dreams. Professionally, I do have challenges sometimes in managing my time to achieve a lot more especially in the area of self development.” he reveals.
Two key areas of Jimi’s life that he is ever passionate about are his two brain projects, ‘Career Shift’ and ‘7star worker conference’. Hear him tell more. “The Career Shift Platform is one of my flagship events that drives what I stand for. I personally believe that every human being has a lot of potential in them but one factor that will determine the extent of success they experience in their careers is whether they are in the best suited career paths for them and whether they are sufficiently motivated and informed to make progress in that path. This platform helps to address that. We have held CareerShift events in Lagos, Abuja, Johannesburg, London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Chicago, Maryland & NewYork over the years.”
“The 7 Star Worker Conference was born out of a desire to see the Nigerian economy grow significantly by having stronger organisations driven by exceptional individuals. The saying that a company is only as strong as its workers is very apt and what we intend to do using this platform is to inspire and inform working professionals and business owners to aspire for increase in their personal productivity in a way that will benefit the organisations they work for.” he says and continues “This conference holds on the 1st of May every year (Worker’s Day) and has held since 2013. The third edition holds this year at the MUSON Centre, Onikan Lagos and will directly impact over 5000 SME owners and working professionals at the event and using other platforms including video & audio livestream and social media.” and guess what? the event is freeee!! I really do hope you make time to be there and hey, it’s a public holiday so go catch yourself some “infotainment”.
Jimi started off his career as an analyst and continued to move up gradually despite challenges faced and he began to see his dreams gradually coming to fulfilment one after the other. It tells me therefore that there is order in life if we are willing to patiently take one step at a time however, to anyone who thinks life is a bed of roses and becoming successful is as easy as merely waving a magic wand, Jimi has this advice for you “Making it in a jiffy is not a good strategy for success. Success is the outcome of process. Trying to break a law will only lead to you breaking yourself against the law. With these in mind, my advice is to ask those who have great dreams and aspirations not to look for the easy way forward but to look for the way that is based on principles. It is a greater tragedy to get to the ‘top’ and crash than to fail while trying to do the right thing. I have however come to realize that those who have the right motive and drive will find the right path and will eventually succeed.” he admonishes.
Did you know that Jimi is a job evaluator? ok, now you know but I am sure you are as inquisitive as I was when I asked him what it entails. Here is what he reveals “Job evaluation is a process of determining the relative worth of every job role in an organisation compared to other roles. The output of this process is used in determining grade, compensation and other aspects of organisation design. I have been privileged to use the Hay methodology of job evaluation to help several organisations in providing clarity around roles and also ensuring internal equity where new roles are created or old roles are modified.” says Tewe.
We just transited into a new government and as someone positive about Nigeria, hear Tewe’s views “I sincerely believe that this period is a major positive change for Nigeria and that the coming years will see us make quite some progress forward as a nation. My advice for those who will assume leadership is always to keep the interest of the nation ahead of their personal gain. On the short run, they will not gain much but eventually, the legacy they will leave will benefit them, their children and the nation as a whole.” so true, I agree!
Don’t we all have days and moments we are not quick to forget? I asked Jimi for his and with a grin on his face, he responds “One of the most recent one was when I was given the ‘Twitter Handle of the Year Award’ in the Social Media Awards for Africa. I really did not think I could win as those I was up against were people I respect a lot and are people who have much more followership than I did. I was really surprised but I was very glad too.” talk about grace and favour then Jimi’s narrated experience comes to mind.
An interesting dialogue you would say but the interview ended on a positive note when Jimi concludes saying “You have only one life to live. Do not live out a regret of the past; do not live out someone else’s desire for you, do not live out a compromised life not based on values… rather, live out the best life that you could possibly have. With God in you, all things are possible for you.”…I believe!
KEMI AJUMOBI