Vision: The Obalade legacy

By Lanre Oyetade

YINKA Obalade, former Managing Director of the old Global Bank Plc, was guest lecturer at the monthly seminar/training of the Tribune newspapers held at the prestigious Jogor Centre in Ibadan on Tuesday March 27, 2007.

I feel obliged to first give deserved kudos to the African Newspapers of Nigeria Plc, publishers of the Tribune titles for regularly organising these training sessions obviously towards galvanising the workforce for personal and corporate efficiency and excellence. And the results are obvious upon taking a look into any edition of the new Tribune newspapers.

To the crux of the matter
Now, back to Obalade. This man spoke passionately about nine qualities that make one a top performer in any organisation he finds himself including vision, commitment, competence, focus, passion, self-discipline, team work, hard work and initiative and I must confess I was particularly impressed by his presentation of the quality of vision as a requisite for becoming a top performer.

Obalade impressed it on me among the many other participants that one really can’t be a top performer or achiever without a dream no matter his calling. You indeed need a dream, which will continually galvanise your every thought, speech and deed towards its achievement.

About vision et al
Listen to him: “You can’t beg or buy a vision; it has to come from the inside of you. And beyond this, for your vision to be meaningful and achievable, it has to meet others’ needs; it must add value to others.
“Moreover, it must incorporate God’s plan for you to have significance and finally, you must write it down and pursue it vigorously.” Of equal interest and impact were Obalade’s positions on every other ‘quality’ for top performance.

For instance, in talking about commitment, he made us understand that this is what separates doers from dreamers.“Nothing is easier than saying words; nothing is harder than living them day after day,” he quoted one of the great inspirational writers of time, adding that the latter takes commitment.
“Many may not share your vision but you are the visioneer and must remain committed to the vision despite the challenges and distractions; you must be ready to pay the price,” he continued.

A little personal history
Here was a man who had made a first class in mathematics and had found himself working as a mathematics teacher in a far away community but had a vision to surpass this position and was he committed to it!

He spoke his dream around and was soon on the way to becoming a chartered accountant and finally the managing director of a national bank. He even decided to postpone his marriage because he had “found a new love in accounting and finance!” Now, that is commitment. His then fiancée, who understood with him and later became his wife has a sweet story to tell now for that marriage postponement.

On commitment and competence
“Commitment is the enemy of resistance for it is the determination to get up no matter how many times you get knocked down,” the former bank chief executive exhorted.

On competence, he stated that all highly competent people find themselves seeking for new ways to keep doing things better and they always ask the question ‘why’, for “the person who ‘knows’ how will always get a job but the person who knows the ‘why’ will always be the boss.

“You must keep developing your competence by learning new ways and leveraging on new technology for quality is never an accident but the result of effort,” he maintained. No less appealing were the ex-banker’s and now insurance director’s submission on ‘focus’ as he told the gathering of Tribune staff that focus equals priority plus concentration, which in turn equal successful achievement.

He suggested that, for true successful achievement, we should focus 70 per cent of our time on our strength and develop them, 25 per cent on new things and only five per cent on our areas of weakness since we cannot totally ignore them.

Passion, self discipline…
On passion, Obalade stated that there is a way human beings are so made that once their soul is fired with passion, impossibilities vanish!
Self-discipline, according to him, is what distinguishes us from animals and the first and best victory a man can have is to conquer self.
Team spirit, hard work and initiative are no less important in the journey towards becoming a top performer in all one’s endeavours.