How To Build A Winning Workforce

Here is a Daily Dew insight on what it takes to build a formidable and Winning Workforce in a workplace.

Now when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his three hundred and eighteen trained servants who were born in his own house, and went in pursuit as far as Dan. He divided his forces against them by night, and he and his servants attacked them and pursued them as far as Hobah, which is north of Damascus. So he brought back all the goods, and also brought back his brother Lot and his goods, as well as the women and the people. – Genesis 14:14-16

In the light of the passage above, we see how Abraham, with a paltry 318 servants in his household, went to war against and prevailed over four kings and their armies.

Now, what was the secret behind the defeat of four bigger bands by Abraham’s small army? The Bible says they were trained. In other words, Abraham invested in developing the capacity of his workforce; he trained them in the art of war, which was a prized skill at that time. So, he had a bunch of champions around him who could face any opposition with confidence.

Apart from that, he must have also drilled them in other essential life skills; the more reason he could commit to one of them the all-important responsibility of looking for a wife for his son in a remote land, where he couldn’t censor the choice of woman the servant would choose for his son (Genesis 24).

Thus, the key to building and maintaining a winning workforce is to invest in their personal and professional development by exposing them to training, coaching and mentoring sessions where their latent skills can be developed and their current skills honed for greater effectiveness.

That was the principle Abraham adopted, and the secret behind the routing of four great bands of warriors by his 318 men.

You will succeed in Jesus Name!

Making A Difference

 

Making a difference is not until you are able to touch people in their thousands or millions. By going out of your way to attend to a solitary person, you may just make an impression that will have a multiplier effect on a million people or last a thousand years.

- Babatunde Oladele

When You Have Many Things To Do

When you have a dozen different things to do, pick the most important one and stick with it until it’s complete. Then pick the second most important and do the same thing, until you’ve completed the list.

- Word for Today

The Sure Route to Personal Development and Enhancement (Part 2)

Today we will meditate on the second part of the topic The Sure Route to Personal Enhancement and Development…

So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to… give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified

– Acts 20:32

In contrast to self-help books, the Bible is not just able to build you up in whatever area you need to develop – mentally, physically, emotionally, socially, financially, academically, relationships, etc – it is also able to get you qualified for life after death as well as offer you an inheritance among the saints of God. No other book around can afford you such a massive reward.

The more you study your Bible, the more acquainted you become with the thoughts, perspectives, practices and will of God. And, let’s not deceive ourselves, there is no one alive who has a higher standard or better taste than God. He is the Ultimate. Therefore, knowing and applying His principles will help you become godlier with each application. And godliness “has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come” (1 Timothy 4:8, NIV).

The Bible is your guide to godliness, among other things. Ensure you read it every day and apply its wisdom in your daily activities.

You will succeed in Jesus Name!

The Sure Route to Personal Development and Enhancement (Part 1)

Today, we will meditate on a Bible-based strategy on how to achieve personal development and enhancement…

So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up…

– Acts 20:32

The late Jim Rohn once wrote: ‘if you want to be wealthy and happy…learn to work harder on yourself than on your job…What you become is far more important than what you get. The important question to ask on the job is not, “What am I getting?” Instead, you should ask, “What am I becoming? “ Getting and becoming are like Siamese twins: what you have today you have attracted by becoming the person you are today….Income rarely exceeds personal development. Sometimes income takes a lucky jump, but unless you learn to handle the responsibilities that come with it, it will usually shrink back to the amount you can handle….It is hard to keep that which has not been obtained through personal development.’

This underlines the importance of developing oneself in the process of becoming a high flyer. The truth about birth is that it is two-fold: the one that happens through a biological process in the labour ward, and the one that each individual does to his/herself through a process of re-creation, not necessarily physically, but in the covert realm of the mind, in the way of reasoning or looking at things, in a change in attitude and behavioural patterns.

The second birth process is usually done consciously and with as equal, if not physical, pain as the first one. In the first mode, the woman in labour bears the pain physically; in the second, the person undergoing a process of rebirth experiences the inner pain of tearing off old habits and modes of doing things.

But the fact remains to be all that you can be in life, you have to take the painful decision of pursuing self-development. It is to the extent that you master the self and steer it in noble directions that your greatness is manifested. It is all in the knowledge, analysis and management of the self.

From the passage above, the Bible is a blueprint you need to achieve self-development. Following its various instructions, albeit how inconvenient they may seem, is a big step in disciplining yourself to make a better choice contrary to the dictates of your flesh, societal or peer pressures. Virtually all the self-help books around are expositions of Biblical tenets. Why not make it your own companion henceforth, so that it can build you up and make your life a worthy testimony for people to read?

You will succeed in Jesus Name!

Finding Peace and Fulfilment

 

And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.” – Luke 10:41-42

Fulfilment is achieved only by fitting into the slot where you belong. That is another way of saying filling the hole you are cut out for, or that is customised for you to occupy in the socio-economic scheme of things of your environment. A better way of putting it is saying that you meet the pressing needs of people and corporate concerns around you.

Although your doing that may not be financially rewarding at the beginning, the gains and other gratifications that come from doing what you are cut out for would certainly come with time, that is in addition to the fulfilment you derive from doing what really matters and making a difference.

Then, the more you sharpen (develop) yourself to enable you fit into your niche more perfectly, the better and the more valuable you become such that you not only develop in your niche, but you are further empowered to offer greater value to more people at a higher level nationally or globally. This comes when you are patient, diligent, industrious, and you look at the big picture.

Most people usually consider the immediate picture and thus jump ships so frequently, moving from place to place without taking time to settle into one thing to explore the depth of it and see if that is where they are really called. By being thus shifty, they subject themselves to a lifetime of frustration and an unsettled spell.

You find peace and fulfilment by filling your own hole in your vocation, career, business, marriage, ministry and so on.

You will succeed in Jesus' Name!

How to Excel in the Workplace

How to Excel in the Workplace

The anecdote below captures the essence of going the extra mile as a necessary ingredient to excel in the workplace and marketplace:

Ezra and Thomas joined a company together a few months after their graduation from university. After a few years of work, their Manager promoted Ezra to the position of Senior Sales Manager, but Thomas remained in his entry-level Junior Sales Officer position.

Thomas developed a sense of jealousy and disgruntlement but continued working anyway.

One day Thomas felt that he could not work with Ezra anymore. He wrote his resignation letter, but before he submitted it to the Manager, he complained that Management did not value hard-working staff, but promoted only the favoured!

The Manager knew that Ezra worked very hard for the years he had spent in the company; even harder than Thomas and therefore he deserved the promotion. So in order to help Thomas to realize this, the Manager gave Thomas a task.

“Go and find out if anyone is selling watermelons in town?”

Thomas returned and said, “yes, there is someone!”

The Manager asked, “how much per kg?” Thomas drove back to town to ask and then returned to inform the Manager; “they are N100.00 per kg!”

The Manager told Thomas, “I will give Ezra the same task that I gave you. Please pay close attention to his response!”

So the Manager said to Ezra, in the presence of Thomas; “Go and find out if anyone is selling watermelons in town?”

Ezra went to find out and on his return he said:

“Manager, there is only one person selling watermelons in the whole town.

The cost is N500.00 for each watermelon and N300,00 for a half melon. He sells them at N100.00 per kg when sliced. He has in his stock 93 melons, each one weighing about 7kg.

He has a farm and can supply us with melons for the next 4 months at a rate of 102 melons per day at N350.00 per melon; this includes delivery.

The melons appear fresh and red with good quality, and they taste better than the ones we sold last year.

He has his own slicing machine and is willing to slice for us free of charge. We need to strike a deal with him before 10am tomorrow and we will be sure of beating last year’s profits in melons by over N2,300,000.00.

This will contribute positively to our overall performance as it will add a minimum of 8.78% to our current overall sales target.

I have put this information down in writing and is available in a spreadsheet. Please let me know if you need it as I can send it to you in fifteen minutes.”

Thomas was very impressed and realized the difference between himself and Ezra. He decided not to resign but to learn from Ezra.

Let this story help us keep in mind the importance of going the extra mile in all our endeavours. You won’t be rewarded for doing what you’re meant to do, you only get a salary for that! You’re only rewarded for going the extra mile; performing beyond expectations.

To be successful in life, you must be observant, proactive and willing to do more, think more, have a more holistic perspective and go beyond the call of duty.

May you be blessed with a better perspective to do your work this year and beyond.

The life ahead needs this mentality of going the extra mile. In ministry, career, as husbands, mothers, children, etc.

Let’s learn to carry extra oil like the five wise virgins. So that even in sudden situations and circumstances, we can meet up. Don’t be like the five foolish virgins who are just about normal situations and circumstances. Life is more than normalities.

– Author Unknown

Meditation: Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. – Matthew 5:16

You will succeed in Jesus' Name!