olufunkeadio

Unattended disruptive behavioral traits can make or mar our relationships. I once attended a learning session where I took a seat beside a gentle man. We hit up a conversation very quickly partly because he was the outgoing type and partly because I’m very comfortable sustaining a conversation once its been initiated. First day over and we resumed day two since it was a three day program. Once I took my sitting position beside my new friend it was an excited me that sought to pick up our conversation from where we left off the previous day but something had changed. I noticed how my friend disregarded a question I directed at him choosing instead to talk to another person across the table! It had been a while that I was disrespected in that manner. Me ignored?! Me, fine girl small pimples! Lol. The guy gave me a cold attitude throughout the remainder of the training. It was only on reflection that I managed to diagnose what actually went wrong. Thing was on the first day I had left the...

  Just last month at a training where I was facilitating, a participant asked me a question that seemed to have been a burden for quite some time. The questioner was young and I could sense the frustration in his voice. “…Nothing I do is ever enough for my boss. I have tried and it seems she’s just too difficult to work with. How do you manage working for someone like that?” In spite of his evident stress, I didn’t proceed to proffer an answer to his question, I decided instead to ask him a couple of simple yet pointed questions: 1.   Do you believe that your boss’ behavior is targeted at you or is this a general disposition across other team members? 2.   Do you imagine that your boss’ behavior is directed not just to you but also to herself? He couldn’t answer any of my questions categorically perhaps he hadn’t been quite observant? I believe that finding answers to these simple questions will be vital to understanding what it is that is ‘wrong’ with...

It was the tone of her voice that made me realize my team member was determined to unburden her mind about the ongoing ‘release’ of Mr. Solomon from his job as a driver in the establishment. Management had to make the decision to let Mr. Solomon go after series of warnings on issues concerning his attitude to his job and to leadership. He was one of those drivers who would refuse to pick up a call from his manager even during work hours. On one occasion and in blatant disregard for repeated warnings he took a three hour lunch break! “I really didn’t see anything wrong with Mr. Solomon’s performance on his job”. My young friend started. I sat up reciprocating her seriousness with an intense facial gesture. She had my rapt attention, it gave her the impetus to continue. “His driving was ok and he was very knowledgeable of Lagos routes.” She insisted. “I admit he can be very selfish, self-centered and has a really big ego but he was still ok….” I was already familiar with my team member’s...

“Shut the tap!” That was me shouting in the direction of a little girl whom I spotted at a sink as soon as I entered the premises of my daughter’s school. It wasn’t a junior school so most likely the little girl had come in company of a parent or so. That however isn’t the crux of this piece. The main thing was my shock at how my behavioral disposition for checking inefficiencies could kick in without warning; literally as though bossing me around! Oh my! Only when I issued the order did the security officer sitting close to her notice that the little girl was actually wasting water. My reflection on the incident really got me thinking about the power our natural tendencies hold over us – whether for good or for bad. I believe even the best of us can attest that with all the self knowledge & awareness plus our determination to choose behaviors, certain patterns still manage to seep through some stubborn cracks. For me, quickly observing inefficiencies in systems has remained an ong...

My voyage into consulting is actually an interesting one. One that lend credence to the title of this piece. As far as consulting is concerned, I started out joining forces with & helping friends & associates in the field execute their own projects. Some years ago, I recall assisting a friend on a certain HR consulting project she was working on. Though it seemed like a little part of the project, I did my bit & gave it my best shot. My friend did the interfacing with the client. Whilst on my regular training jobs, I stumbled on an opportunity to take on a HR/Culture Transformation project. The prospect was exciting & fearsome at the same time. Up until that time, I hadn’t single-handedly taken on a consulting job. (So this is the point where you wish you started out with one of the big 5’s right? Lol!) I knew for certain I would require some help. So I followed up with the lead, quickly got through to my friend, super pumped that she’d be glad to jump on the project – ...

Disclosure or non-disclosure? I believe this conversation around remuneration will remain with us for a long time. First off, different factors come to play where this subject is concerned namely; the kind of business ownership, number of years of operation, best fit practices etc. While in a #learning session & while we deliberated on the issue, a participant indicated needing guidance on how best to avoid the pitfall and/or consequences of #reward disparity in favor of a new set of tech inclined workers who would be hired to man new manufacturing equipment their company recently acquired. According to him, most of current operators are older with little or nil propensity to acquire new knowledge vis-a-vis the handling of new #technology. He’s already envisaging some form of showdown & hopes to take proactive steps for the sake of business continuity. To my mind, it’s hard to keep reward for new joiners (indeed for most staff) secret for long. In this regard, I believe the fol...

I got into leadership roles quite early in my work life. In one of such roles and whilst working with a team of creatives, it was a great struggle understanding why coordinating their activities was such an herculean challenge. For one, they were clearly not given to working under climates many of us ‘sane’ people term ‘Structured’. Plus they would choose to walk in late or even sleep (meaning work) in the office overnight! These patterns of behavior completely messed up my sense of what an office setting should look like. It was so frustrating and of cause we butted heads a lot on account of our misunderstandings. After a while, I decided to change my approach; to really understand why all of these creatives behaved alike. My discoveries was what allowed me to reframe my understanding of what productivity really means… So when again in another leading role [now as #HR] at another organization [this time in Media], And yet again I had to engage with a set of creatives, I already knew t...

There is so much change going on today. Major is disruptions with technology compelling a barrage of alterations and iterations with business strategies as well as modifications of business models etc. As a result, the Human Resources function is currently undergoing one of its most rapid evolutions yet.  Today, it is common therefore to attend a Human Resources Conference and come off with a list of a million recommendations of frameworks cum actions to be taken in order to shift and improve outcomes on the job! Making sense of and being able to navigate evolving issues is not often easy. However, by paying attention, it’s easy to see the multifaceted nature of the drivers for change. Having a firm grasp of these in itself would be vital for progress. Again it’s easy to see how most of the elements required to succeed is hinged largely on the adoption of new mindsets as against some superficial and ephemeral displays which do not and cannot guarantee lasting results. Case in point...

Factors Compelling the need for Reskilling and Upskilling in today’s organization Plus Associated Competences 1.      The Emergence of the Underdogs Clearly it doesn’t matter where these originate from, locally or otherwise. Easy access by customers to products and service offers is often the major factor for consideration here. With increasing ease of entry and technologically induced scalability, the disruption to business and the erosion of market share that new entrants deliver to incumbents should be taken seriously. What does this mean for bigger organizations?  Simply that there is an increasing need to bring forward a certain kind of innovation, speed to market, and internal collaboration that fosters the generation and timely execution of ideas. Pushing this even further, these new requirements underscores the importance and/or creation of a  different kind of system or structure that facilitates quick decision making, one that’s ruthless...