Is this You? Can’t it be?
This first time I saw this picture, I was tempted to post an article about it, but I refrained, somehow in my mind, its time had not yet come. I decided to allow time and thought to pass over it, to ponder what could be the reasons, stories or excuses behind this event.
I used this picture in a seminar I spoke in last week, and the immediate response after understanding the picture was laughter. I went on to ask them if they were not laughing at themselves. What had the owner of this slippers done wrong? (more…)
This post was read by 2521 people until now.Security
Yes, I was writing something yesterday before my battery went flat and work had to start. Let’s talk briefly about the Maslow’s hierachy of needs. What we are talking about is still security, but i’ll talk about it in line with relevance to the need for security..
1. Biological and Physiological needs - air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sex, sleep, etc.
2. Safety needs - protection from elements, security, order, law, limits, stability, etc.
3. Belongingness and Love needs - work group, family, affection, relationships, etc.
4. Esteem needs - self-esteem, achievement, mastery, independence, status, dominance, prestige, managerial responsibility, etc.
5. Cognitive needs - knowledge, meaning, etc.
6. Aesthetic needs - appreciation and search for beauty, balance, form, etc.
7. Self-Actualization needs - realising personal potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences.
Basically man is born with biological and physiological needs, these basic needs are essential for survival - Air, food, water, e.t.c. These are man’s most basic needs, and the more a person grows the higher on the hierachy he/she is. If you look at this as a pyramid, biological needs will be at the base while self actualization needs will be at the zenith.
Employee motivation is based on the premise that you must first understand where someone is. When you already are confident about the need of a particular wrung of the ladder, motivation for you is getting the next one. By illustration, this means that the kind of employee you can motivate with food, is one who is struggling to have a complete meal. This is humanity at it’s basest form, in some parts of these country, these are beggers, bricklayers and casual manual labour. He will not be motivated by Cognitive needs of knowledge or finding meaning, this will not even be in his radder. The first port of call is get me to my next wrung of the ladder.
The way this works is like this. A man/woman first wants to meet is basic needs, as soon as he can get food on a regular basis, and feel warm, he begins to wonder if he is safe. He want’s to make sure that there is a protection around his area. He wants accomodation in Lagos or someone to even stay with. As soon as this need is met, he begins to have a desire to belong - to a workgroup, a family, a relationship e.t.c. He is motivated to work with people who share his ideals more than anything else, at this point his safety is assumed. When he finally belongs, has a job, e.t.c. he begins to crave for esteem and prestige. He wants to be called a manager! He wants career growth, he wants to be a master at what he does and be recognized or valued for the same. Then he begins to ask himself, “why am I here?” The craving for knowledge and meaning starts, with these done he begins to fantasize about living in a house that faces the beach, being aesthetically correct ;-). Then the desire to leave a legacy, to give something back for society, at this point he begins to realize the true worth of himself, his potentials and the spectrum of what is available. Pause there for a moment, the expression of each of these stages means different things to different people. The analysis however defines the average positions of human beings, their needs and their motvations.
Now back to security. You’ll agree with me that it’s so low in the ladder. And the more that defines your state of life, the more it stiffles the other things that ought to motivate you. The reality however is that most of us have security, we however do not have it in ourselves. We have it in others. It’s good to have security in others, to trust and believe, but you should also have a sense of security in yourself. With security firmly put in a system, anybody can grow to level 4. When you however begin to ask yourself the questions of purpose, of meaning, the why questions, you’ll begin to discover that there is a road you must walk, that requires confidence in yourself. You will never unveil your true potentials for as long as fear binds you. Fear of failure, fear of the next meal, fear of security, fear of being ostrachized, fear of demotion/status. That which we fear the most is the ladder below us. Back in the 1950’s there were 5 levels, 5,6 & 7 were overlaps, I think they still are.
Make security your goal, and believe me, it will not be a function of how much you have in your bank account. It will be a function of coming to a reality. That naked and alone in the middle of nowhere, you have what it takes to make it to the top. That your skills and talents can feed you.
I have heard of many people who will ask to resign and the employers will ask to double their salaries. That is security. I have friends who resigned their appointments without another job, and were confident that things will pull through and it did, always did. I have a mentor, who resigned having 10Naira, and his first contract job, which was to consult 2 days a week, made him earn more than 2ce the salary of the highest paid full time employee in the same company. Enjoy the companies training but train yourself. Enjoy the present security but develop the same in yourself.
I hope this helps somebody!
Are you Secure?
As the days go by, I am coming to discover more and more, that many Nigerians don’t feel secure in themselves. The way our system runs has so conditioned people’s minds that rather than have security in something within themselves, we have security in our employers. Most of the time it’s about what THEY have for US, when THEY train US, what THEY are willing to PAY us. All this might not sound bad to you until you take a closer look and see the realities of their implications.
First of all for example, the average Nigerian wants a job where he can guarantee his continued employment beyond a couple of years. You will not be comfortable for example working with a compnay if you were told that you have a 6 months contract. Most people will rather go for jobs where they are placed less and it’s permanent than more and it’s temporary. The poor fellow just doesn’t want to take chances, what if he finishes that one and gets nothing else. He’s not willing to take a bet on his talent, no way, can we blame him?
What is wrong with that? Yeah, it’s not apparent that there is something wrong with that. Even I that I’m writing it, am almost beginning to wonder if that’s not perfect, but I know it’s not. The growth of a human being has 3 stages. He/she is born dependent, grows to crave independence and with maturity he learns to be interdependent. Where we ought to be is not in a state where we are dependent on anything (employers, friends, communities, e.t.c). You should be able to build your talent to a point where you can bet on it. Like my people will say, if you are confident in your charms, you can boast about it. I used to marvel at how the western world was so comfortable with short term contracts, consultancy e.t.c. It’s interesting, but it’s driven by an outlook which is, if I see I need time to put things together in my life, I can leave this, do that and come back again later. Wow…what luxury, what power, what choice. You should build your life to interdependence, where you have by choice decided to be accountable to systems that themselves depend on you.
You might think that things are different in Nigeria, true! However the principles that govern the earth are not partial. Like Einstein said, “God does not throw dice”, gravity in the US is not more than that in Africa. The principles are true everywhere, that if you conciously grow your talent, your value appreciates and you gradually trade dependence for independence enroute interdependence.
How will you know when it’s time? You’ll know! You’ll doubt it, but you’ll feel the nudge. Like an eagle maturing enought to fly. When the winds blow, it feels it’s wings experiencing the uptrust.
…My battery low light just came on..I’ll need to complete this later…I have some personal examples….Adeolu Akinyemi
