milestone.jpg

Two days ago, I crossed another milestone on my career path. Those who have heard me or read me know that I keep on going about consulting this…consulting that…Anyway, I was able to move up my game from HR/Business consulting to Leadership/Organisational Development consulting. How did that happen?

Well…I don’t know if I’ve mentioned in any of my posts that sometime earlier this year, I met one of my mentors in the area of finance and organisational development. I went for a seminar, saw him standing afar off and approached him. I guessed this was my moment of connection and I seized it with fear and excitement. Interestingly, he had been school mates with my father in the University and they had even been members of the same fellowship while there in the university….bla bla bla

Anyway, he had done so well through the years in the area of production and manufacturing and had become an Icon of business in Nigeria. He sits on the boards of several multinational organisations. So, back to my story. I met him by force that day and of course collected his contact. I afterwards had one reason or another to correspond with him and as luck will have it, he also had reason to contact me especially in relation to my father.

Thus, a relationship was started and it has grown quite well. (if you see anyone you had dreamt of meeting, please walk up to them and establish contact…the world only moves for those who move…that might be the step to the . In fact, the relationship has moved to all to different levels - personal (I’ve been to his house thrice; one of which was to have lunch), business (we’ve invested together in the same business ideas), mentor/mentee (I have free access to call and ask him about what his advice is with regards to any area of my life). All these happened in the last 3 months. I feel very favoured because I’ve gotten referrals of CEOs from him and so my network has been expanding immensely.

Why have I been saying all these. Well……it is to inform you that I was privileged once again to sit in as a colleague with my mentor on a consulting session that had to do with Leadership/Organisational Development for a particular company. How did this happen? Well…I noted it on one of our earlier meetings when he mentioned that he’d be doing consulting in that line now and asked 1 or 2 subsequent meetings later, if I could volunteer to help with his work. I indicated my willingness to learn and my belief that learning from the best makes you the best faster than learning to be the best yourself.

He agreed after a thought and added that I might even be able to bring some of my profession to bear in the case at hand. Guys, please learn to volunteer. You never can tell what you’ll learn by making yourself available and useful in the area you have a passion in or in the career direction you want to follow.

First and foremost, I felt so good been introduced as his colleague to the clients at the start of the meeting and even though I was there to listen and observe, I ended up contributing positively as a consultant. Well, of course, it wasn’t that the subject matter was strange to me or completely diverse from my profession, but I had not done such consulting at that level. The meeting lasted about 6 hours ( there was a short tea break after 3 hours) and though I made the mistake of not having breakfast before the meeting, I couldn’t really tell how much time had flown by until I found out that it was 4pm. This was a meeting that started at 10am.

At the end of the consulting session, our clients were mind blown and couldn’t wait for another session. Suddenly in their words, it seemed as if what they thought was dead had come to life. They could see only possibilities. In fact one of them asked if that was really the company they worked for. It was very enlightening.

So, I’ve just crossed another milestone and gone and cut my teeth in organisational/leadership development consulting. HURRAY!!!