• Friday, March 29, 2024
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Taking the lead in the second half of 2020

Taking the lead

A common question I have asked all my coaching clients since the year began is: what do you desire in 2020? From all the responses, I can see the desire to live a fulfilled life in most of the respondents. Some people want to get fulfilment from their job and career, some want a happy home and relationship with their partners while others wish the company they work for and the country they live in is better than it was in 2020. No doubt, the year 2020 started with a virus bug, and it has been a difficult year for everyone and in every environment.

Your desire to make the best out of the year 2020 is valid and can still be achieved if you don’t give up. realistically, it is better to achieve some percentage of your goals than using the coronavirus as an excuse to give up in the second half of the year. The second half of every game is crucial irrespective of what has happened in the first half. There records of teams that have turned their losing fortunes around in the second half. The Nigeria football team came from 3-1 to defeat the Brazilian team in Atlanta 1996 and went ahead to win the Olympic gold medals. The Damman Miracle was another example when the Nigeria U-20 team came from a 4-0 deficit to defeat the USSR team in the quarter-final in Saudi 89.

I have always asked my clients and proteges to start the year with why. Why are you in 2020? What will you do to make you deserve what you have desired for the year? In most cases, life will give us what we deserved and not necessarily our desire. Desire is, however, the basis for the discipline to take action that will make you deserve your desire.

Looking for fulfilment is as old as the journey of life itself. People change career, partner, relationship, location and many more in finding fulfilment in life. Fulfilment is an inner desire supported by the sense of achievement or contentment for something. Fulfilment is key for you to consider this year one of the best years in all aspects of life. At old age, a memory devoid of fulfilment is an indicator of a life not lived to the fullest.

Personal fulfilment is key to community, organisational and national fulfilment. A country with high per capita income (PCI) can be said to be more fulfilled in general terms than those whose PCI is among the least in the world. Individual fulfilment is so important that the World Happiness Report is now a source of policy ideas for some countries where the fulfilment of people is seen as a national productive asset. Nigeria ranked 91st out of 156 countries behind Libya, Algeria and Morocco in the 2015-2017 Ranking of Happiness.

Now that we have a virus living with us, we must be determined to be happy, never to give up and work twice as we would have done ordinarily to make the year 2020 count. The focus is on individuals as nations do not necessarily give up. it is individuals that tend to give up surrendering to the situation or circumstances. Our circumstances are not as powerful as our resolve not to give up in life.

The individual must be happy before the family, society and the country can be ranked as happy. Individuals who want to be happy in 2010 and beyond must take the lead. To take the lead as noted in my book is do things that fulfil you aside from things that only give you income. I have used the lead as an acronym for live, energise, activate and develop the fulfilment centre in people. The fulfilment centre is simply in activities that fulfil an individual and gives him a sense of satisfaction. The foundation of the activities that will make life meaningful to you is your talent. Talent is not a big mountain no one can climb. It is simply any activity you love to do repeatedly with a sense of satisfaction at the end of it. The situation we found ourselves where a virus has limited our movement is an opportunity for us to reflect and know life is short. There is no other time to do and live a fulfilled life than now.

An employee that found his fondness for two out of six of his deliverable activities at work has found gold. All he needs is to do more of such activities voluntarily for the workplace or at any opportunity. If perhaps, the activities that fulfil you are outside your required job functions, the activities are latent talents to you and must you use them to avoid dissatisfaction. The best way to avoid turning your talents into toxic assets is to use them voluntarily. It is therefore in your best interest to volunteer your talents in the workplace whether you are being measured by them nor not. If you do this more in the second half of 2020, you will move to operate in your strength zone at work, enjoy your daily routines and merge your responsibility with your desire to be free and fulfilled.

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The research work of the Gallup group advanced the need for individual fulfilment and its relevance to organisations and nations. Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton identified four traces of talents in the book, Now Discover Your Strength. These indicators are spontaneous reaction, yearning, rapid learning and satisfaction. I explained how to use these four indicators to maximise your efforts this year in the book, Take the lead with a subtitle, how to live, energise, activate and develop your strength zone. I’m sure the coronavirus cannot stop you despite its many limitations.

If the collective fulfilment of individuals makes great organisations and countries, there must be roles for business entities and sovereign nations in increasing people’s happiness and increasing the real wealth of societies.

Business organisations have people as their major assets for achieving the stakeholders’ objectives. Organisations are therefore encouraged to develop a culture where people are engaged in activities that play into their strength zones. If employees do what is within their strength zones, unnecessary costs of attrition, recruitment, illness and customer service failure will be avoided. It is obvious you cannot play every employee in their strength zone, otherwise, the majority will not be in sales or some of the difficult areas in an organisation. In as much as this is true, a forward-looking organisation will create a culture and an environment where the use of latent talents will be encouraged and rewarded as long as there is no conflict of interest with the stakeholders’ objectives.

It is short-sighted for companies to desire people happiness and limit the inner resources of its people to do other things. Allowing your employees to volunteer and express their innate skills is another form of job enrichment that brings more recognition to your brand and customer service excellence. It is better to create a fulfilling environment than having employees channelling their extra time and resources into activities that indulge them without rewarding the organisation.

Nigeria as a community and nation have a huge role to play in increasing the happiness of her citizens in 2020 beyond giving coronavirus palliatives and fighting for elective positions through politicking with the lives of the helpless citizens. Our reward system needs to identify people who do things for the society without intended personal gains. Such people should be recognised more than the political office holders who have the electorates’ mandates to use the country’s resources on their behalf. We should encourage collectivism by doing things that will increase the happiness of others who have no capacity to reward us.

One of the ways the government can take the lead and support the citizens desire to be fulfilled this year is for the political class to ensure the elections are without the usual bloodbaths starting from the Edo and Ondo forthcoming elections. A peaceful transition without the memory of the loss of loved ones due to election violence will encourage the citizens to be committed to their personal contributions to the country.  The happiness of the people should paramount to any leader.

I will conclude the way I started. Your fulfilment as an individual member of the society is in your hands. There are reasons you made it to the year 2020 and you must be guided by the reasons despite the current situation. Start with why!  Starting with why is to make the second half of this year a defining moment for you. The country is waiting for your best. Your best is your contribution that is not devoid of personal fulfilment and the support for others to find their path. To take the lead is, therefore, to invest in yourself with the aim of developing your talents to become strengths. You can live a happy and abundant life if you intentionally operate in your strength zone pushing further in the half time of 2020.