Chude Jideonwo: The extraordinary factors that make the impossible possible

People: A key characteristic of those who achieve breakthroughs in business and politics is that they have a laser-like focus on people. These days, we hear a lot about how people are a nation’s greatest resource. It is not an exaggeration, even if many of us don’t follow those words with action.

One of the biggest problems companies have is hiring the right people and holding on to them. Especially in a relentless knowledge economy. In Nigeria particularly because of our poor education, the concerns center on even basic employability of potential staff. Then, when you find staff that is employable, the challenge then becomes motivating and retaining them.

This is where most employers in the public and private sector fail in flying colours. One of the dominant stories in national discourse right now is how a majority of states owe the salaries and pensions of their workers for periods ranging up to several months. In the private sector, and especially in the media industry where I work, owing of salaries is a treasured business model.

But if this is the atmosphere in which we work – where Nigerians feel they are least important to employers, how can we expect people to be inspired to give their best? How do you expect good people to continue to work for you and continue to do so when you cannot ensure they are paid at the end of every month, or that they paid enough money to take them home and then open the gate when they gate home?
But it’s not just money about money. It’s about people.

Beyond remuneration, to get and keep the people you want and need, you must continue to show them that they matter first and foremost: more than your new printing equipment, more than your new mobile app and more than the prized location of your next office.

In doing that, you have to make them the center of your universe. You want to build them so they go and grow faster and higher and bigger than you even expected.

We have seen this happen in leading companies – in the massive investment our client GTBank places in its entry level staff, in Multichoice, in Microsoft, in Apple, in Zaphairre, in LEAP Africa.

When people are at the centre of your organisation’s strategy – when they know you will invest in their growth, you will be there when it matters, and you will help them achieve their goals while they help you achieve yours, your organisation will thrive.

Too many Nigerian businesses refuse to take this serious, spending 10 minutes interviewing staff to fill crucial positions, getting in young people and not training them. And then they say, ‘but if I train them, they will go’. So, what if you don’t train them and they stay?

Organizations, governments, civil society groups that want to excel know that it’s important to have the people capacity first sorted out; to have people who believe in your vision to help you build its foundations.