Insights for Leading

If you put on a dark shade, everything would likely appear dark to you regardless of how bright they are. While people don’t always wear physical shades, no mind is without shade. Therefore, as humans, we always interpret life with a psychological pair of lenses (otherwise known as our mind map or mental frame or mindset) formed by the information we acquire over time from stories we are told, as well as our education and experiences. No wonder, memoirist Anais Nin long said, “ We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are ,” for as a man thinks, so is he. When lazy people ponder Solomon’s ancient muse, “ Favour is not to men of skill ,” they interpret it to suit their lazy disposition to life. They say things like “ Favour does not come by labour ” “ You don’t need to be so skilful; once it’s your time, it’s your time .” They end up with an entitled mentality, telling you to “ Better help me now otherwise when it is my time I will not look at your si

When a child is born, he automatically becomes the pride of his parents. The sheer joy of beholding the beauty of his “tear-rubber” face, the little grin on his lips, and that feeling from the tightened grip of his tiny fingers make everyone to regard him as a wonder of the world. That special regard equally comes with special treatment: his needs are provided for, his cries are attended to, and his mistakes are overlooked as “innocent.” It is this kind of special treatment given to him without his labouring to earn anything that makes him develop an “entitlement mentality.” It seems like he should never grow up and labour for himself. Alas, life happens inevitably and he loses almost all the advantages of childhood as he transits into adulthood. He trades his beauty for strength, his innocence for experiential knowledge and his meekness for some measure of ‘ego’ and dependence for independence. We all experience this phenomenon but what may be unknown to many is

There is an unpopular story told about Jesus walking on a Jerusalem street hungry. From a distance, He sighted a fig tree with leaves showing that it was mature and ripe enough to have fruits on it. He hastened towards it hoping to be refreshed only to discover that it had no fruit on it. Disappointed by its hypocrisy, Jesus cursed that tree! 2020 is not a year for busyness but for business. It is not for faking it on social media but for being privately effective, publicly productive and completely profitable. That brings us to the third key to make 2020 your best year yet:  Learn productivity – focus on getting results. Real growth is oriented towards specific results. And of course, results bring fulfilment. That is why you should set goals – and your goals should reflect specific results that you want to achieve. In 2020, don’t just get busy, get results. Do not count the days, make the days count. And as you seek to productive, don’t merely avoid mistakes; rat

“ We often overestimate what we can achieve in a day and underestimate what we can achieve in a year .” The author of this table-shaking piece of wisdom has been debated through the years but the truth of it shines through always. Check your to-do list for the day. How many points have you? And how many are you likely to accomplish? It is easy to see that our daily to-do list is often unrealistic. There are different reasons that account for this phenomenon but the most significant is that our frail human nature makes us short-sighted and short on patience. We want everything quick. That’s why we take shortcuts – because we want to cut some time and arrive as quickly as possible. Nevertheless, the race is not to the swift. While Solomon was the first to utter these words and articulate this fact of life, every man with seeing eyes and hearing ears have observed this happen again and again. It is written in our daily experiences as well as that of others. 2020 will not