THE RECYCLE

Our comfort zones have over time proven to be our greatest hindrances to realization of our full potential. Sadly many people think that comfort zones are only those in which we place ourselves consciously. Well no! We do enter some obliviously. The worst part is when we think only the worst of these comfort zones. I now realize that a number of good things accompany our comfort zones, weaknesses and challenges.

Seat down and meditate on how strong & knowledgeable we would be if we overcame our weaknesses. Or further ponder on how much more progress we would make if we jumped out of these comfort zones. Yes! Un-measurably strong. Imagine having both your weaknesses and strengths at your mastery.

So the beauty in a weakness and a comfort zone is that it simply gives us an insight on what we can perform at and do better.

Look at it this way; Jesus knew Judas Iscariot had trust and betrayal issues but still entrusted him with the disciples’ treasury. Why? I have a feeling he wanted to prove something. The Bible says “… For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12; 10 KJV) the implication simply is that your weakest point is actually your strongest. When you think you are at your weakest is when your strength is made perfect and manifested. Overtime I have learnt that the biggest weaknesses, fears and challenges that I had turned out to be some of the greatest strengths I brag about today simply because I made an outlet for the fear in my spirit and pursued ways in which a could better my stand as far as these phenomena were concerned.

Look through your work and search out for the challenges you have long faced, the weaknesses you have long kept and the comfort zones you have for long dwelt in. Only this time do not look at them as challenges but rather strengths that await you to take the first steps into obtaining them.

A mastery of this concept will get us to the realization that our feeble areas are not weaknesses but merely residue awaiting recycle into what could be our greatest strength.

Make your fear a strength
Photo Credit: Shutter stock

Recycle them today…

RECEIVING MINISTRATION

If we are to learn, we have to get rid of the fear for being wrong.

Everyone can teach us however we do not learn from everybody. I guess that explains why we do not remember everything we were taught in school. The smartest of men is the most prudent of them. One with the ability to humbly take on a mantle handed over to them and even run faster no matter the weight and size it comes with.

 Receiving the mantle is not the issue for we all have hands stretched out to receive. The problem however is how to. Many times the ministration of feedback is done with many underlying factors; anger, personality, experience, attitude and many more. I actually know what it means to take your time writing a research proposal or even preparing a presentation just to get the most negative of feedback without the slightest salt pinch expression of gratitude.

So how do we position our spirits to be teachable and learn from anyone regardless?  Simple; HONOR.

Honor is that spell cast on oneself to humble you into knowing that a person went before you regardless of how much more intelligent and richer you have become overtime. It is the place that acknowledges how important it is to be ministered to and illuminates one’s eyes to the sight of what a blessing it is to be given feedback and take on the ministration in temperance amidst all the attitudes, moods and other disposition that it normally comes with.

 Everyone can teach you but you do not learn from everyone one. Position your spirit to be a teachable one that can learn pretty much everything from anyone. Receive the mantle with honor and humility. 

MINISTERING APPROPRIATELY

Communication, they say, is the simplifier of all complexities. Do I agree?

With two-way communication dominating management, feedback is undeniably inevitable. We however often forget the power of our tongues to slay and create.

“Human beings are spirit beings” says Noeline Kirabo. Her implication is every communication is not only ministration to the body senses but to the spirit too. I believe feedback is an opportunity especially if negative and ministered with positive intent. Having greatly profited from it, here’s how to appropriately administer a good dosage;

The first I named the “sand witch”. The name is derived from the fact that negativity is sand witched between two positives (POS NEG POS). The sender initially appreciates the recipient and further goes on to affirm the good work they have done after the negative has been brought forth. So go ahead and serve the sand witch, beef or vegetable, it’s still a sand witch.

Beef or Vegetable! Its still a sand witch!

According to Dale Carnegie, criticism has never yielded intended result for it puts the other party on the defensive. Therefore fight temptation to criticize another but rather seek to understand why they did it that way. This then gives you a right to suggest an alternative without necessarily putting the other on the defensive or eliciting resentment.

Having applied these two, I testify of reaping their fruit and believe the same will accrue to whoever dare applies. We however needn’t negate the basic principles on which feedback rotates. A Smile or jolly face while ministering feedback always comes in handy to neutralize the negativity being delivered. Descriptiveness, timely delivery as well as spot on non- ambiguous responses also do wonders.

Don't forget to smile
Photo Credit; Kyusa

On the other hand, feedback is often rendered void of its power when delivered in private. It gives an assumption of indispensableness and special consideration to the recipient. Therefore, depending on the situation, feedback that ought to be delivered publically should not be taken into private.

Avoid Giving Feedback in private

The biggest barricade to perfect ministration to spirits is failure to appreciate. Could we adopt a culture of appreciation and thanksgiving not only in thought and mind but also in speech?  Let’s learn to say “thanks” from the depth of our hearts even for the smallest of things.

Yes I agree! Communication is the simplifier of all complexities. But only when conducted appropriately. Let’s therefore simplify complexities through mastery of ministering appropriate feedback to people’s spirits.

 Start to minister...

DISEASE VS SYMPTOM

“No one deserves to feel worthless” Rebecca Black.  This expression is limitless in context, work environments inclusive. So what exactly causes one to trample over another? Render them insignificant in self- judgment and make them feel much less of what they really are- Worthy! Let’s discuss work place bullying.

Whereas rationale for bullying is extremely wealthy in content, I capitalize on the root in which all the others stem. Self-esteem! Having been a bully, many of my actions drew inspiration from a desire for appraisal and fulfillment. The place of deficient intrinsic approval caused a hunger only satisfiable by an extrinsic. Absurd though are the means through which the extrinsic was sought but perhaps “the end justified the means.”

Similarly, a multitude of workers today score low on approval within consequently leading to its pursuit without. While stories of managers sabotaging progression of their subordinates up the corporate ladder are peculiar no more, the underlying truth remains intimidation by the brilliance of the latter therefore frustrating them as reinforcement to the former’s insecurities

Work place bullying is merely a symptom 

Work place bullying is therefore merely a symptom of a latent disease accumulating within a system continuously reducing its CD4 count rendering us much more prone. Low self-esteem ought to be handled by the horns through managerial involvement in understanding employees, positive appraisal, compliments and appreciation of their work amidst several other interventions geared towards eliciting increase in their self-evaluation.

However personal initiatives such as positive self-talk, awareness of self and many others are not to be ignored for no one can do as much for us as we can.

Since it’s wiser to treat the disease rather than the symptom, may the treatment begin!

GET RID OF SHADOWS

For long we have been so caught up in the old traditional way of doing things that we have ignored the substance. We are taken up by the“how” and have long forgotten the “what”.

This the apostle Paul calls shadows. 

“ Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days; which are shadows of the things to come, but the body is of Christ” Colossians 2: 16-17 (KJV)

Look at the 8 hours working day. The traditional managers were long stuck to working between 9am and 5pm till the Americans invented the flexible working time prior to the industrialization period enabling workers work 8 hours a day of their convenience, this over time has proven to be one of the work styles that have increased productivity among the work force today. The beauty is that it maintains 8 hours of work in a day allowing the worker do it conveniently. Who wouldn’t want convenience? I guess that explains the high productivity levels among those subject to this work style.

However some proponents are still opposed to transformation, probably because we consider it applicable only to top management. Let’s ton it down a little. In regards to driving, I was raised to always ignite the engine, let loose the handbrake and then change gears. Now from my experience, the vehicle has never failed to move even when I loosen the handbrake after changing the gears. The Substance in this case is the car moving while the shadow is at what point the handbrake needs to be loosened. We therefore need to get rid of the shadows.

Get rid of shadows

So what is it about these traditional work styles that blinds us to the substance which is efficiency? Now, I am not ignorant of the technicalities that come with the adjusting work styles and work environments neither am I against any organizational culture, nonetheless I am aware of the returns accruing to openness to innovation and also greatly conscious of how crippling rigidity can be.

Therefore let us shine a light into our lives and work styles and ask ourselves what styles we have been so attached to for long and negated the substance which is effectiveness. This I believe is the first step to improvement of our work in regards to both production and interest.

WHY WAIT?

Monday 7^th March 2016; time check-past 9 pm, while trotting the streets on my way home, a grey Toyota Alphard parks right beside me. It’s no surprise for I know who it is in the driver’s seat. A brother, Enoch, one I appreciate and love for his contribution towards our moral development during my early adolescence. He was one of those whistle blowers. The ones this generation has termed “snakes”.

Six years down the road, I realize how lucky we were to be reprimanded for our misdeeds in school. I now acknowledge the blessing in being corrected for it streamlines you into the appropriately shaped vehicle effortlessly scampering the surface of the earth.

I then wonder whether my nationals ever take off time to appreciate Pius Bigirimana and David Sejjusa for without the screeching sound from their whistles, the OPM could have been wasted and the “Muhoozi project” a heavy bombshell.

Only while enjoying fruits of wonderful nurture do we appreciate the pillars involved in the process. Similarly, organizations’ flourishing is normally the alarm clock for appreciating the various parties that play instrumental roles in their progression.

flourishing is normally the alarm clock

We needn’t refute that whistle blowers are strong sources of information for administrations consequently contributing to organizations’ growth. So why await an alarm clock to celebrate them?

 Let Us appreciate he that blows the whistle!

WHO BLEW THE WHISTLE?

Photo Credit;Google Images

Looking back, my early adolescence was really epic! My friends and I were the epitome of naughty. From class, onto the compound and into the dormitory, we were surely at the top of our game.

Now it isn’t my intention to boast or even justify what we did but rather paint a picture of what we were. Am talking about the kind whose names would gain first mention upon the mere paranoia of the slightest possible occurrence of crime and to this I am certain Aganyira Munanura Arinaitwe&Wagalinda Charles can adeptly testify.

Everybody does have their fears and antipathies, well we weren’t any different. We hated so much prefects and any individual whose goal was to make us submit to what was right or even report any bad deed we had committed.

Similarly, organizations have these kinds of people and I am not referring to the bad people (For some organizations are pure) but rather the ones who always report! The ones that will always purvey the message to management, the ones who feel their contextual job requirement is to please the authorities with information that is preferably supposed to stay “need to know”. Such are called whistle blowers.

These blowers can either be internal or external. Externally, you could have noticed service providers like NWSC and UMEME  urging clients to call a particular number in case of poor services or even delivery trucks having a phone number on which one can call to signal  bad driving. On the contrary, scenarios like the OPM saga where Pius Bigirimana blew the whistle are clear examples of what it means to be an internal whistle blower. Furthermore, army General David Sejjusa's open declaration of the “Muhoozi” project is another clear illustration of internal whistle bowing.

Recollecting back to how it felt like to be snitched, my heart aches with itching scars that were left from wounds of betrayal every time the whistle was blown internally. What is ironic though is that the opposite did not feel any different;it’s no trouble tracing the stitches that were applied on my heart every time my heart burst because of an overflow of anger and anguish whenever it was done externally.

Undeniable is the fact that no matter how the whistle is blown, it never goes well with the victim. However, it is quite unrealistic to negate the benefits that emerge from this noble cause although those are sweaters that I have kept and will serve on a cold day.

Today we acknowledge that no one wants to be irritated by the loud screeching noise of the whistle no matter where it comes from.