Category: Article

Posted in Article, Business, Career, Everyday Living, Leadership, Relationships

Article: Team Diversity

Posted on by @bravepublicity

Diversity is such an important force in the world. How boring a place, the world would be if we all were the same, had same interests and saw things from the same perspective.

Creativity would be lost, uniqueness and all of those great things that makes life so beautiful and colorful would seize to exist, because diversity makes all of these wonderful things possible.

Humans are the most diverse, dynamic and intelligent set of beings on the Earth you know, and this is one of the forces that makes us so powerful and special.

Every day, we meet new people and we sometimes are quite amazed by how different they are from us. Their unique abilities, experiences, interests, skills, heart and the beauty of who they are and their personalities just simply shines through.
So, diversity is quite important and the world is so much better for it.

When it comes to the workplace and team formation, diversity plays a huge role on the strength of a team and so, I’ll be sharing on its importance, impact, and why we should have an open mind by embracing the concept of “Team Diversity” in all spheres and walks of life.

Here are six things worthy of note regarding team diversity and why you should embrace this great culture and belief system.

A Pool of Knowledge and Ideas

Applied knowledge is power and when you have a diverse gathering of people, great ideas and solutions are bound to emerge from such places. Ideas that stem from diverse work experiences, backgrounds, sources, and network of these dynamic individuals.

Diversity of Skills and Uniqueness

When it comes to vision, execution and posterity, structures and people are always the solution. With a diverse team comes diverse skills sets and perspectives for delivery.
When you have sameness in a room or gathering, it’s always difficult to think outside your own “Outside The Box” ideas, but with diversity, you would come to experience new mind shifts and experiences that can help you accomplish so much for vision actualization and sustainability of your businesses and goals.

The Strength of Divide and Conquer

The Lion remains king of the Juggle, capable of operating alone, but he also understands when the strength of the Pride is needed. Pride of Lions operate by the strength of divide and conquer, and sometimes may come together to focus on a prey, depending on how challenging it may be or what their target is.

Diversity of teams helps you to be able to collaborate to divide and conquer territories that may be unfamiliar to you, but may be accessible and familiar to others onboard.
This is the reason, some businesses are capable of expanding and spreading to other regions of the world.

If your focus remains on sameness and exclusivity of certain people from your circle or group, those you may have placed in a category mentally, then you just may be placing a cap on your ability to know and achieve greater things.

End to Racism and Discrimination by Acceptance of People’s Uniqueness

Racism and discrimination is such a terrible mindset. It destroys and robs people of the chance to come to know the beauty and brilliance that resides in many others that are very different from themselves.

Beyond the global scale of the “Black vs. White” or the “Everybody Else vs. Racists” protest movements know around the world, grassroots and local levels across all Nations also have their own fair share of this big problem, and they come in forms like tribalism and social exclusivity and stereotypical assumptions.

Racism and Discrimination is such a terrible mindset that has been passed on from an older generation with grudges and wrong beliefs, forcing the younger generation to develop hatred for something or people, picking on and continuing battles that sometimes have existed before their birth.

Some with structures that have encouraged the continuity of brutal and systemic racism and discrimination, which have place some minorities in a perpetual state of struggle and poverty.

The moment, we begin to embrace the uniqueness of others and incorporate such diversity in our organizations, businesses and wider communities of influence; with structures that encourages diversity and aids in the success of those who are often excluded: groups, people and tribes, only then will we begin to see positive shifts regarding the end of racism and discrimination.

The great news is we can begin from where we are, with our own organizations and businesses, reorienting those within our sphere of influence about the importance of embracing humanity and diversity. While opening doors of opportunity for others to advance in places where there has been unjust exclusiveness, barriers and hindrances.

End to Inequality Including Gender Inequality

In many businesses and organizations, for years, most industries have been mostly male dominated, and this transcends leadership opportunities as well as strategic roles that are core to the growth and development of many communities as well as nations.
However, this norm is beginning to experience a shift with global and glocal efforts towards closing the gender and inequality gaps.

When we have a healthy mind shift and perspective that embraces and encourages team diversity, we begin to think about all aspects of this. Bringing onboard all those that should be on some tables of influence, leadership, service or power.

This is achieved by taking into consideration, first the humanity of all people, secondly the need to foster great team strength for posterity by developing tolerance and respect for the uniqueness and preferences of others, especially when those things do not put anyone else in harm’s way.

Lastly, their value, namely: experience, merit and skills, a very important factor that should qualify anyone to be a part of anything great and worthy of attention, irrespective of who they are.

As it is in the world today, there is a lot of unjust actions to many who by merit should have access to or be on board certain teams or have access to some opportunities, but have been hindered.
This will always be wrong. So to see change, there is a need to start with ourselves, and the teams within our sphere of influence.

This simple action is capable of widening our team’s scope of experience that comes from collaborating with different people. Only then will we come to appreciate the beauty of diversity, and this can cause a ripple effect that can ignite the positive change we need to see regarding bridging the inequality gap.

The Humanity Factor and Love

When you see people, it is my hope that you first see humanity, before a person’s race, origin, background or the color of their skin.
I hope you see someone living and breathing the same air just like you, with the same red blood flowing through your veins.
Someone with a heart and heart-beat just like yours, showing up every day, in efforts to make their own lives, families and communities better.
Someone with great dreams, desires and aspirations, just like you, someone with a brilliant mind and a good heart.

I hope you see humanity first.

I hope you give them a chance when opportunities of life for great things and collaborations come your way, especially when those opportunities accessible to you or are within your power for decision making.
I hope you see the beautiful human before you and you can respond in love to them, just as you would love yourself and in the same vein, respond to others you love.

This is the ultimate factor that can foster the possibility and humanity of team diversity, LOVE.
This is for every human.
This is for you.
And me.

Thank you for reading.

Article by Opeolu Adeyemi.
Corporate Communications and Public Relations Consultant
Founder, Brave Publicity Ink!

Posted in Article, Everyday Living, Love, Relationships, Self development

Article: Self-Love

Posted on by @bravepublicity

To love thy self is one of the healthiest and most important things you can do as a person.

When a person is able to love who they are, then and only then can they truly understand their value, how they should receive love and how they can in turn, love others.

However, this concept of “Self-Love” is often founded on the basis of what many people perceive as love. Their understanding of love, their love language and quite often, repeat experiences that many unconsciously embrace as normal; even when some of these perceived “normal” things are harmful and do not reflect or are not a true definition of love.

So, the meaning of Self-Love is quite relative and unique to each person in existence.

Let’s take a look at what it means to have Self-Love and why this is such an important concept that many people should embrace, for a healthy and well-rounded life experience.

Oxford defines Self-Love as “regard for one’s own well-being and happiness.”

Self-love is strongly associated with having a high regard for your well-being and happiness, taking care of your needs and not sacrificing your well-being just to please others. It also means not settling for less than you deserve.

So, what are the things that make this so, and what other things should a person consider when trying to establish Self-Love?

The following highlights are things I think any person who has a healthy relationship with loving who they are should have, in order to attain that place of Self-Love.

This isn’t a rigid formula, but would only serve as a guide to understanding what it means to love one’s self in a healthy way; establishing clarity, balance and our reaffirming our inestimable value as humans.

Liking yourself

Do you like yourself?
Take a moment to think about that.
This crucial because if you’re someone who does not like yourself, it would be difficult to love yourself, treat yourself right and also permit the right kind of behavior from others; including receiving love in healthy relationships.

Liking yourself is a super important factor that helps you treat yourself right. It enables you to enjoy your own company, even in the absence of others.
When you like yourself, you begin to appreciate who you really are and eventually love yourself.

You can’t take good care of something you do not like or value, including yourself, because love shows care in practical ways…

And that takes me to the next point.

Self-Care (Your Needs Vs Your Wants)

When you love yourself, you take good care of yourself and that means attending to your needs and your wants. Both are valid and need to be addressed at various times.

Needs are often essential and fundamental, like food, health, shelter, peace, safety, a good means of livelihood etc. These things make your everyday living possible and comfortable. Every living being needs these things to survive and have a good life.

While wants are often desires that are good and enhance the ‘quality’ of our everyday life. Some require efforts to attain them, while others require extra finances. Things like becoming fit, strong and healthier requires some extra efforts, especially if you don’t like to exercise; but because you desire/ want to be healthy, your self-care effort is focused on exercising to achieve that want, and there are many more examples that you can relate to.

Wants like extra items, a new gadget or technological service, or a luxury product, or tour/ travel experience etc. are all good things and they often enhance our wellbeing. They may not be accessible to everyone, but if you have the means to do some of these things for yourself, why not?

There is really no reason to feel guilty about experiencing a higher quality of life, beyond the fundamental, because all of these things enhance our lives and are ways of taking good care of ourselves.

The bottom line is, Self-Care is a fundamental aspect of Self-Love that we must all embrace.

Commitment (Saying No Vs Saying Yes)

Another crucial aspect of Self-Love is commitment and this is quite important. Commitment to anything or anyone takes up some of our time and a portion of our lives, the very essence of who we are and what we choose to pour our lives into.

It determines if we will have balanced and wholesome lives. So before you commit to anything or anyone, it is important to make a good assessment of the task, project, cause or person before you.

Your mental stability, strength and productivity will depend on your decision. That’s if you choose right and this means, saying “NO” or “YES” to a thing, person or cause.

The common problem most folks have is the ability to say “NO”, in a calm, kind, firm and respectful way.

Saying “YES” has hurt more people, relationships, finances and businesses; and so the world now has a good number of people who are out of balance, feeling stuck or dissatisfied with the quality of lives they now lead.

When you love yourself, you wouldn’t jump on just any opportunity that comes your way and that sometimes means saying “NO” to achieve balance, health, peace and safety. This also includes your mental health, emotions and the state of your heart.

Some ways to say “NO” in a calm, kind, firm and respectful way includes some of the following suggestions:

“Oh, thank you for this opportunity, but I’ll have to decline.”
“I would love to take this up, but I really do not have the time.”
“Thank you for this, but I’m not interested.”
“I have a really busy schedule and won’t be able to accommodate this right now.”
“I think I’ll pass, but thank you though for thinking of me.”

Remember, you really shouldn’t have any reason to feel guilty for saying “NO” to some things, especially if you would rethink such a decision and have regrets for saying “YES” in the first place.

Self-Love knows when to say “NO” and when to say “YES”. So make decisions regarding commitments carefully.

Boundaries

A life without boundaries is always a life that permits anything. The good, the bad and the ugly.

Self-Love knows that boundaries are important and without them, our lives will not only be out of balance, but we will also experience many things, including things that are harmful to us and our well-being.

The truth is, people as human beings will always push and poke at our boundaries and whatever we permit, would become the norm and acceptable behavior from them to us.

Self-Love understands that we must set the tone and standard of how we want to be treated, approached or perceived and this is only accomplished by good and healthy boundaries; this also includes boundaries for yourself, not just for other people.

Things like: Our time for the close of business, resting well on weekends, not taking work home, or boundaries like not having extra fillings or eating out, or boundaries like not splurging on a product or service, that eventually blows out our budget etc.

These kind of boundaries help us stay balanced in a wholesome way.

So, we can choose to look at our boundaries as a foes or friends.
Friends that help us stay in check and live in a safe space where we can to a large extent, control the outcome of our lives or our everyday experiences by what we permit.

This is a decision that is often totally up to you and I hope you are able to develop some great boundaries that enhances the quality of your life.

Your Love Language and Setting The Standard.

Everyone has a love language.
To some it may be ‘quality conversations’, for others, it may be ‘quality time’.
For some their love language is in ‘presents and gifts’ received, while others feel loved when they receive ‘positive affirmations and appreciation’. For some ‘support’ and for others ‘touch’ or, ‘thoughtfulness’ or even ‘practical care’.
The list of love languages of people is quite vast and unique to each individual, but one thing is certain, when we experience them, we feel loved.

Self-Love knows to recognize what love languages speaks to us, and to apply it to ourselves. It also knows that it is important to also communicate this to those that count in our lives, letting them know what our love languages are.

If for instance your love language is ‘Nice presents’, you really don’t need to be hesitant to gift to yourself some things. When you appreciate yourself and show love to yourself, it becomes only natural that other do the same to and for you. Remember, just like boundaries, you also set the tone too.

The truth is, when you do this, those who matter in your life are able to recognize your love language (you could also tell them to keep out the mystery if they are important to you) and respond in a way that brings you much happiness, satisfaction and an experience that makes you feel loved.

Compromise and Sacrifice

Self-Love understand the difference between compromise and sacrifice and when a decision that involves either of them isn’t worth it.

Compromise is settling for something, often something that falls short of a set standard or desire. Before you come to a compromise regarding anything, you need to clearly assess if you could live with such a decision for the rest of your life, or for the period that that very decision would actively and passively influence your life and that of others, especially if you are a leader.

Compromise isn’t always bad, especially when it involves conflict resolution between people, organizations or nations.

But the determining factor is the question:
“Can I live with this decision and be truly satisfied?”

Self-Love knows that if such a decision would hurt and cause more harm than good, then settling and compromise would never do.

On the other hand, Sacrifice is a decision that is made in a state of inconvenience, but often for the rewards to come. They are mostly long term or accrued over a period of time.

A goal like ‘Financial Freedom’ often requires sacrifice and diligently saving, investing and spending wisely.

Self-Love knows when discipline must be engaged to enjoy some rewards for a great future, one that brings with it a great quality of life.

But the determining factor is the question:
“Can I tolerate this for the long haul for a great future?”

The truth is, some things are not worth our compromise or sacrifice, and only a few things are worthy of compromise and sacrifice.

Self-Love knows when to draw the line and when to go with the wind regarding any decision; because sometimes, we need to relax (in a balanced way) and take care of ourselves.

It is important to truly live, because you only live once, and some savings need to be “invested’ in you as a person, instead of sitting idle at your bank. I hope you understand this.

Like everything else, carefully assess and be honest about your answer to any of the two aforementioned questions. This may help you make a decision that is right at different points in your life.
At least hopefully, if you aren’t too emotional and are rational about what makes your life so much better, especially in the long run.

Your Identity

Lastly, knowing who you are helps you appreciate the essence of you.
When you know that you are important, alive for a great purpose, worthy of love and every good thing and loved by the one, The Creator of the universe, the one who made you, then you won’t have struggles about loving yourself.

Many people struggle with displaying Self-Love because they think they aren’t worthy of it or they are only obligated to love others and pour into other people without doing the same for themselves.

I’ll share with you two perspectives as a Christian. I hope you learn something, especially if Christianity isn’t your faith. Please bear with me and read on if you don’t mind.

The first thing is, the Bible talks about “Loving the Lord with all your heart, soul and mind and then loving your neighbor as you love yourself”. (Luke 10:27)

This in itself means it’s a natural inclination to love yourself. It is an innate response that should come naturally. So you should treat yourself well and not poorly, because you really matter and you also deserve nothing short of the same from others.

I hope the previous points have helped regarding insight on what it means to have Self-Love, so you can learn to love and appreciate who you are.

The second thing is, the Bible talks about “Being greatly loved, that God gave Himself, His Son Jesus just for you, who is made in His own image. He died and rose again, so that you might live a life of abundance here on earth and also have eternal life afterwards.” (John 3:16, Genesis 1:26-27).

If someone went great lengths to do this just for you, it means you’re just too important and precious.

You are worth dying for and when you know this, you realize your value is inestimable and you deserve great and good things.

You are deserving of love and affection from yourself and from others, because The Creator made you in His image and you are very precious. So why wouldn’t you love you?

The challenge is many folks have listened to and believed more of the opinions of others, about who they think they are and what they think they deserve. While some can’t really express Self-Love because all they’ve ever know is pain and abuse.

If this is you, I want you to know that you matter.
You are loved by God and you have a great purpose.
Don’t ever doubt that, because who you are, your identity isn’t determined by other people, the culture, or what’s popular. It’s determined by the One who made you and gave you free-will to choose to become great.

Never forget that you’ve been created for a great purpose and you are deserving of love, affection, and you can begin by showing some love to yourself.

Conclusion

Self-Love remains fundamental to our well-being as human beings and I really hope the seven (7) points explained have been very insightful and helpful.

I also hope from now on, you choose to be intentional about displaying Self-Love.
Love who you are, show up for yourself in healthy ways, live fully and enjoy an enhanced quality of life.

Thank you for reading.

Article by Opeolu Adeyemi.
Corporate Communications and Public Relations Consultant
Founder, Brave Publicity Ink!

Posted in Article, Business, Career, Leadership, Self development

Article: Effective Communication

Posted on by @bravepublicity

Friendships, relationships, businesses and communities are built on communication. Without the ability to communicate, the world will be in disarray, filled with much misunderstanding, breeding loneliness and possibly the exasperation of being misunderstood or judged wrongly.

Effective communication is what makes systems, structures and our relations with others work out smoothly. It is an essential factor for long lasting relationships.
It is such a powerful skill that aids conflict resolution, strengthens bonds between nations, people, and changes the perspective of long standing disputes and disagreements between people or communities.

Life circumstances become better as a result of effective communication. However, the application of this very essential soft skill is based on established understanding and relevance, a skill not many have mastered.

When the value of a skill is established, only then does it appeal to those in need of it. This is so about effective communication.

Does it really hold that much value?
Can it be obtained and mastered by all?
Does it really have the power to resolve conflicts and end long standing wars?

What does “Effective Communication” really mean?

To put to rest some of these questions, let’s explore the definition and attributes that make up the phrase, “Effective Communication.”

Let’s begin with the word ‘Communication’.
‘Communication’ means to exchange information through speaking, writing or some other form of medium. It is also the act of conveying meanings from one entity or group to another, through the use of mutually understood signs, symbols, and semiotic rules.

‘Effective’ means to reach an optimal level, a peak of excellent delivery or performance.

In order words, ‘Effective Communication’ means, exchange of information between parties at an optimal level, where the entities or groups involved have mutual understanding of what is being conveyed and can respond accordingly.

So, effective communication is only established when all parties involved are able to create mutual, accurate and clear understanding of what is conveyed.

Some defining attributes make this possible and without them, it is often impossible to have effective communication and they include these four broad features: Conversation, Sound, Cues and Action.

Let’s examine each of them for more insight.

Conversation

To establish excellent or effective communication. The conversation or message being conveyed needs to be understood by both or all parties involved.
A conversation that is one sided with decisions being set in motion by one party, is an enforcement, not a mutual agreement. Both or all involved must have mutual understanding of the dialogue.

When this is absent, effective communication cannot be achieved and this involves active and attentive listening. This means, listening to respond accurately to the message being conveyed, not just listening to speak in turn.

This is a challenge for many people and organizational leaders, and so the result is, effective communication is never established, breeding dissatisfaction with all involved in the conversation.

In a dialogue, the focal point, challenge or objective must be identified and acknowledged by all involved and then satisfactory solutions and actions can be established.
This is only possible when attentive and active listening is put in play, when conversations and meetings are held.

Sound

Sound gives meaning to a message and strengthens conversations. It is essential in establishing excellent or effective communication, when used appropriately. Sound in terms of the ‘Voice’ and ‘Tone’ of a message, whether spoken, written or conveyed via art or creativity.

The established tone or voice can ultimately determine the meaning of the message being conveyed. It could be deciphered as either compassionate, hostile, mild, suggestive, derogatory, exhilarating, cheerful, gloomy, heated, commanding, weak, strong, assertive, guarded and the list goes on.

Many people, institutions, nations or communities have been able to establish excellent or poor communication, hence developing amazing or terrible relationships as a result of the choice of voice and tone.

This is very critical factor, as interpretation of conversations are often made based on the perceived tone or voice by the conveyor of any message.

Also many great writers have gained mastery of this very important skill in the act of communication, artistically infusing the appropriate voice and tone with their words, creating excellent publications across a genre of books that have stood the test of time and have attracted great readership and rewards.

The ability to identify the appropriate tone or voice for use in various dialogue circumstances or deduce what is being received from others, ultimately helps one understand accurately any conversation. It also helps one identify improvement opportunities for effective communication in active discussions or feedback.

Cues

Cues are so essential in communication and they include verbal and non-verbal cues. These can be easily decrypted from time lapses and body language.

Time lapses, a pause in a conversation, verbal or written (a presence of silence for a period or a written symbol for a dialogue expressed in written words) is often indicative of something, usually an impression or meaning the conveyor wants one to decipher.

Such time lapses could mean disinterest, disregard, a plea for understanding and reconsideration, fear, anger, permission to hear out the other person or party, a gentle nudge towards reflection or appraisal, etc. regarding an already established dialogue or an on going conversation.

Time lapses are typically applied to strengthening an impression regarding information that has already been laid bare by a conveyor.  That pause or silence often carries a weight and has meaning in an ongoing conversation.

In the same vein, the body language of a conveyor or the parties involved also expresses and strengthens the meaning of a message, often combined with or without voiced expressions.

The body language may express, pain, weariness, passion, anger, joy, excitement and a variety of emotions that eventually makes a conveyed message more accurately deciphered.

The entire context and content of such conversations enables one to identify differences and the real meaning that should be deduced from such a dialogue.

Actions

For effective communication, one of the most credible ways of deducing if a dialogue has reached a point of mutual understanding by both parties is by the actions that follow.

If the actions that follow are satisfactory and correspond with the resolutions and agreement by all parties or the conveyor of a message in a dialogue, then one can say that effective communication has been established. If not, what may ensue is a lot of friction and resistance.

Many times, individuals pay attention to only what is being said, without paying close attention to the actions that follow as well. In corporate environments as well as social circles, this plays out all the time. When one pays close attention to actions that follow any conversation, then one can understand accurately what is being communicated.

However, it is important to note that these four (4) highlighted features work in harmony and the application or interpretation of just one or some from an active discourse may lead to wrong conclusions regarding a message or due to poor communication.

But when all of these features are applied in sync, it helps in accuracy, clarity, mutual agreement and ultimately, effective communication.

I hope you found this article to be insightful and helpful.
Thank you for reading.

Article by Opeolu Adeyemi.
Corporate Communications and Public Relations Consultant
Founder, Brave Publicity Ink!

Posted in Article, Business, Career, Leadership

Article: Productive Meetings

Posted on by @bravepublicity

Is a cringe your reaction to a scheduled meeting?
If ‘Yes’, then you’ve certainly grown accustomed to attending boring, stressful and unproductive meetings and you undoubtedly don’t look forward to attending another.

If ‘No’, then some of the points we will highlight below will resonate with you as a result of your experience and attendance of great and productive meetings.

With the current world changes and the adoption of digital work places, it is now more important than ever to have effective and productive meetings.

Meetings don’t have to be unproductive and a big waste of time, resources, conversations and Energy. Meetings can indeed be an enjoyable experience. One that yield results over promises.

This goes beyond just physical meetings or board room meeting, but includes virtual and remote assemblies.

WHAT MAKES MEETINGS PRODUCTIVE?

Here are a few pointers towards productive meetings.

Have an Agenda and End Goal: The most effective meetings are those with a definite plan from the initiator. This is important because a meeting without an agenda would certainly be a waste of time. This helps shape conversations and gives room for suggestions from team members to share ideas on how to reach the end goal, project or task ahead.

Ensure The Resources Required for the Meeting Are Available: Think ahead of the meeting and what would be required to make it a success. Do you need presentation slides, projectors, microphones or an electric source to power your gadgets? Do you need a meeting place? A physical meeting room or a virtual workplace or a call app installed or an Internet source?

Do you need the services of a Food vendor or Pastry Chef for your meeting? Think of all these things ahead of time and make intentional effort to identify those required to execute successfully, especially your first meeting.

Send Out Notifications On Time and Be On Time: Early notifications help people decide if they can make a meeting or not and if they will be prompt. Emergency meetings are never the best. For crucial and longer meeting, a 48hrs notice is the least time to send out invites to all parties involved.

Never go to a meeting late.Be prompt and on time, at least 15 minutes before your scheduled appointment. It shows you both value the time of the other person. Also, if you’ve initiated a meeting, be ready to receive or meet the invitees. Never let them meet you in a state of disorder. It comes off as unprofessional.

Create Room For Everyone or Key Individuals To Speak: As much as meetings can sometimes get heating with strong opinions. It is important to give room for everyone to speak, share their opinion or give valuable feedback. It shows that you respect the opinion of others, even if you may not agree with their line of thought for that specific topic of focus at the meeting.

It is also important to know when to pick up cues to speak. This involves some discretion and emotional intelligence, and it should be done with thoughtfulness, precision, assertiveness and possibly proffered resolutions. It is rude to hijack a conversation in any meeting.
Be polite by being considerate about the time and opinion of others in attendance.

Have a Defined Time Span for The Meeting: Don’t schedule a meeting for one (1) hour and then extend it by half an hour. It shows disregard for the people you’ve called for a meeting. Stick to the plan and if you must extend the time, be sure to seek the consent of those at the meeting.
Consent for extra time should however not become a habit.

It only portrays that one is unprincipled and undisciplined. People respect those who respect their time. A definite time span also helps all parties involved to walk through their diverse schedules for the day without unnecessary disruptions of their personal plans.

Outline Action Steps to be Taken from The Meeting: A short recap of the meeting with assigned tasks and action items is so important.
One needs to identify who is responsible for what (the drivers and enablers), the timeline for delivery, and possibly the resources required to make the execution of all assigned tasks easy and effective. An email note or the minutes of the meeting should be circled back at least in 48 hours, to keep everyone informed and on track.

Follow Up with Tasks: It is important to send reminders or follow up with key leads on tasks assigned. A leadership flow approach can work effectively, by following up with team leads or key drivers to get the work done.

Reconvene a Follow-up Meeting to Finalize or Discuss The End Results: Sometimes, one meeting is sufficient to get some tasks done. But in most cases, you may need a few more to tidy up details regarding an end goal or a project. In such meetings, try to identify key things achieved, improvement opportunities and what needs to be finalized.
 
At this stage, it is important to try not to make additional meetings a period to pull down existing plans already in motion.
This can be mentally and emotionally draining for project managers and key drivers. Some resources may also be wasted in the process. Instead, think of ways to curtail changes already in motion. Only adapt new plans that will enhance the execution process and the success of a task or end goal.

Finally, as much as we know that meetings are often for serious business, try to make them more fun and less tense. Introducing ice-breakers and sometimes small bites or food or tea breaks for longer assemblies or conferences can make meeting more relaxing and productive.
This in the long run, minimizes valid distractions like feeling hungry or the need to use the restroom or make a call.


I hope you found this article to be insightful and helpful.
Thank you for reading.

Article by Opeolu Adeyemi.
Corporate Communications and Public Relations Consultant
Founder, Brave Publicity Ink!

Posted in Article, Business, Finance, Money, Self development

Article: The Financial Pig

Posted on by @bravepublicity

You are most likely to get offended when someone says to you: “You are such a pig!”. This is possibly because of the unattractive nature and habits generally associated with pigs.

The Nature of Pigs.

Pigs care less about their environment, and will happily wallow in mud and dirt. They are excited about eating all the time, anything and almost everything that comes their way, including food from dumps!
The irony about this creature is, it also happens to also be a symbol for money savings and wealth, and is easily recognized world-wide.
It is worthy to note that, the value placed on pigs is not determined by their behavioral nature, but by what can be harnessed from them.

The Value of Pigs.

From a pig, one is able to obtain hide and skin, for manufacturing costly and valuable leather products (shoes, bags, purses etc.), their hair can also be used for making brushes, their meat for making beacon, their fat for the production of cosmetic products, and even gelatin for food and non-food products like toothpaste, pizza etc.

As attractive as some of these highlighted values may seem, many people rarely indulge willingly in commercial pig farming, because of the herculean tasks it entails in rearing them. What most likely repels people the most is the smelly nature of pigs and difficulty in coping with such bad odor all day long.

So the job of rearing pigs can be a difficult one. The same applies to financial discipline or the mastery of savings.

It is worthy to note that, the bigger a pig is, the bigger the chances of harnessing much value from it. The same principle also applies to our personal finances and money management skills. The bigger our financial capacity, the bigger the investment opportunities before us.

The Piggy Bank.

Ever wondered why the pig has for a long time been an identity for petty savings items, made into boxes shaped mostly as an attractive pink or white pig item for saving some money?
The piggy bank has for a long time been a symbol for financial savings, especially one used in the home, by young children and young adults.

It represents strongly finance, especially the savings habit that one hopes to inculcate from a tender age to adulthood. So when the image or the thought of a pig comes to mind, please think again and think about how your finances are doing.

Two Kinds of Financial Managers.

There are two kinds of people when it comes to financial management, those who operate their finances based on their immediate wants and those that operate their finances in view of the future.

Those who operate their finances based on their immediate wants, splurging on whatever comes their way, without a care in the world about tomorrow. They love to live in the moment, enjoying all of their earnings and what it has to offer in that moment. They only like to think about the future, when they reach cross roads and never think to plan ahead.

Then, there are those who operate their finances in view of the future, reserving and compounding their financial spendings, for the value that will be obtained from it in the long run. They ensure that their finances are robust and ready for the harvest of great investments.

So you should ask yourself these often: Are you spending all of the resources that come your way? Or are you ensuring that your financial pig or piggy bank is well fed and robust to produce much in the days ahead, to secure a bright future, full of prospects and limitless opportunities?

Your Relationship with Money.

Maybe you don’t exactly have a great relationship with money or your finances and feel justified to splurge on things you think you need, since your earnings are really small.

Well, let’s let you in on a secret.
No matter how much you earn, if you are unable to master the art of “Savings and Investments” from very little earnings, even when you have so much more, you’ll find yourself operating your finances based on only your immediate wants.

Some Solutions.

There are a few ways to effectively manage and grow a robust financial pig and they include some of the following:

Have a Budget:

A budget helps you know how much needs to be allocated for your spendings, gifts, savings and investments. With a budget, you are able to stick to a precise amount and percentage for all of your allocations.

Track your Spendings:

With a daily or weekly budget and tracking system, it’s easy to know where your money goes and adjust accordingly, when you discover that you are going beyond your daily or weekly allocations.

Without keeping track of where your money goes, it becomes easy for your finances to grow wings or just disappear without tangible proof of what you’ve done with your money.

Simple tools like your mobile phone and applications like Microsoft-Excel can prove to be very useful for tracking. There are also numerous fee applications that are ready to use and can be accessed from some online stores, to aid financial tracking.

Have an Intentional Savings Plan:

A percentage of your earnings for savings is non-negotiable, irrespective of how small you may be earning. This is like paying yourself a percentage for all of your hard work.
This percentage should be increased over times, just as your earnings also increase. To achieve this, it may mean having a bank arrangement that enables automatic deductions of a percentage of your earnings or bars you from being able to withdraw beyond a specific amount for a period of time.

You could also put aside your savings manually, into a separate account with no easy access such as services that include: ATMs, Credit Cards or Online Banking access.
The bottom line is, ensure you intentionally grow a robust financial pig. So you can have something to fall back on for the rainy days or have something tangible for great investments opportunities that may come your way.

Make Careful Investments:

It’s not enough to grow a robust financial pig, you must find ways to multiply what you have. Just as the value of a pig lies not in being just fat and big, but in being able to harness other things from it.
The same principle applies to your saved up finances, you must find ways to make profitable trade. So do your research and make careful and wise investment.

Beware of quick money making schemes, and investment models that you do not understand. Many today have lost their hard earned money from such numerous Ponzi schemes. So do your research and ask the relevant questions before taking a plunge.

It is worthy to note that, some of the best investment opportunities are in things that appreciate over time and things that are required for or are non-negotiable for everyday living. Such as ‘land’ for real estate investments, ‘food’ etc.

In conclusion.

It’s really no coincidence that the home made piggy bank for putting aside petty cash in homes often comes designed as a pig. We hope it serves as a reminder about the value that can be obtained from the mastery of the difficult habit of financial discipline.
We also hope whenever you sight a piggy bank or an actual pig, it also serves as a subtle reminder to grow a robust financial pig and operate your finances in view of the future. Simply by mastering the art of “Savings and Investments”.

Thank you for reading.

Article by Opeolu Adeyemi.
Corporate Communications and Public Relations Consultant
Founder, Brave Publicity Ink!