Metro
Food for Living: Skills for Life
By Henry Ukazu
Greetings my friends,
We are currently living in the 21st century, regarded as the jet age. Progressive minds have admonished us not to compete with other people, rather we should compete with ourselves by distinguishing ourselves. The question we need to ask now is; how do we compete with ourselves? We distinguish ourselves by having the right skills. Just like information, education and our network sets us apart, in the same way, our skills sets us apart from our contemporaries.
Last week, I wrote on The Effect of Digital Age of Innovation and how it has influenced a lot young minds to believe that skills are of more relative importance than formal education in our contemporary society. This article seeks to shed more light on how we can maximize our skills.
This article is for progressive minds.
One of the qualities of a leader is the ability to bring out progressive change to the life of the people and the society in general. According to Quincy Adams. “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader”. One of the ways a leader can do this, is by being skillful. During the course of this article we shall shed more light on how we can apply skills to profit our business.
Skill can be defined as an ability and capacity acquired through deliberate, systematic, and sustained effort to smoothly and adaptively carryout complex activities or job functions involving ideas (cognitive skills), things (technical skills), and/or people (interpersonal skills).
There are different types of skills, but we shall focus on hard and soft skills:
Hard skills are skills we learn in classrooms such as Accounting, Law, Medicine, among others. They are measurable unlike soft skills which one learns while at work and through interpersonal relations like leadership, empathy, time management and communication. We shall be focusing more on soft skills.
Communication Skills:
Non Verbal: This skill doesn’t involve speaking. It’s mainly applied via body language. Your ability to read in between the lines is very helpful.
Listening: This is the master skill of all soft skills because it is the foundation of all informal skills. I call it the mother of all learnable and acquired skills. You can only learn in life if you pay attention. You need this skill in order for you to learn and apply all skills.
Clarity and concision: In communication, you need be as concise and clear as possible. Never have you allowed anyone to assume what you are trying to say.
Verbal Communication: Sometimes it is good to speak and write depending on what is needed. Either way, you need to be coherent for people to understand your message, otherwise there will be no communication.
Organizational Skills: This skill is applied in both cooperate and personal life.
Time Management: Failing to prepare is preparing to fail. This skill is in high demand by employers because they need employees to achieve more within the shortest period of time. Your ability to use this skill will set you apart from your contemporaries.
Decision Making: As a leader, you should be able to use your intuitive knowledge to make prompt decision when the needs calls for it. This is an uncommon skill which very few people have.
Delegation: A true leader knows how to delegate duties/authority as the case may be in order to complete a specific task and thereafter give accolades to such staff or team. This skill helps to reduce pressure on the leader.
Planning: In any progressive organization, they have a blue print for whatever they plan to do. They forecast the needs of the clients and the world and work towards meeting their needs.
Leadership Skills:
This is the mother of all skills. I call it the hallmark of all skills. As a leader, you have the responsibility of leading your peers and followers. This task can be hard, but it takes humility, love, and understanding to relate with people.
Feedback: You are required to provide feedback to your leader or peers when you are working on a project. This helps to foster team work. Feedback helps in keeping employees or target people in loop of the actual situation of things so that everyone will be properly guided on the most updated information.
Responsibility: This is the second most important skill any rational and progressive being can have. The world is truly governed by perception. Nobody relates or does business with an irresponsible being. If you are serious about making an impact in life or in business, you need be responsible. For some of us, our name is the only thing we have. This is because your reputation is what people think about you, but your character is reality who you are.
Flexibility: Every rational person must be flexible. As a leader, you must be able to understand the direction the world is moving towards to. You should also learn how to bend as opposed to breaking to fit into the needs of the company or organization especially if you don’t agree with their thoughts. For example, if you are having a Board meeting, most decisions are done by the Board of Directors. Be advised, you have to know when to take a stand from your colleagues and when you have to work with them. You need wisdom in order to decipher when to swing the pendulum.
Commitment: Anywhere you find yourself, always know that your word is your bond. I recently told myself; I will commit to what I can do and supposed to do as opposed to what the society wants me to do. This skill is hard to maintain because as human beings, we may experience many disappointments. The moral about commitments is that, it goes a long way to show how responsible and proactive you are.
Computer Skills:
This is one of the resourceful skill that is in high demand in the world today. Information and Communication technology has truly shaped the world. There’s hardly any company that will employ any individual who doesn’t have basic computer skills such as Word processing, excel, power point, publishing, and outlook. You need to be computer savvy in order to do a good presentation, be a computer analyst, and a good system administrator.
Social Skills:
This is another skill that is in high demand. There’s a saying; knowledge is of two kinds, its either you know the answer or you know where to find it. The same notion is applicable when working with people. According to Robin Sharma, “the business of business is human relation, but the business of life is human connection”. As a social being, your ability to relate with people is very important. This social skills transcends hard skills because it is the connection to all social skills. With the right social skills in place, you can network with the high and mighty.
Empathy: Empathy literally means showing concern and understanding to the feelings of others. As human beings, we go through situations, but how we react to those situations defines us. Sometimes stressed people are not concerned with the materials things that is given to them, they just want to feel the presence and care of anyone around saying “I hear you and I am with you on this”. This is an uncommon skill to have in real life. Most times, it is applied by selfless people who have a humanitarian heart of service.
Team Work: Empathy is a skill that is need in a work environment. As human beings, we are all wired in different ways and as such we learn in different ways. Some of us learn fast while some needs more time and attention. A great way to assist people when working in a group is by working together to get the work done.
Patience: Patience is one of the most priceless virtue. I call it the virtues of all virtues. We all need patience when we are dealing with human beings because human beings are the most difficult specie to deal with. We are naturally complicated. If you are in relationship, you need to accommodate the excess of your partner, if you are working in a professional environment, you need to tolerate in addition to dealing with some unprofessional work ethics of human beings because they will in one way or the other show what they are made of.
Trustworthiness: Trustworthiness is also similar to being responsible, although, it’s narrowed to a specific trait. It should be noted that nobody does business with anyone they don’t trust. As social beings, our customers are our most treasured asset after our name/product. Trustworthiness, does not only relate doing your fair share of the business, it also relates to how you relate with other people who can say a word about you and your product in addition to giving a review about your product.
Life Skills:
Life skills can be simply be regarded as the skills you need to live in the society. Personally, I think all skills originates from life skills because if you have life skills in your pocket, you can simply bring it out to solve any challenge facing you. I liken life skills to common sense. This is because with common sense, you don’t need hard formal knowledge to solve any problem. All you need is to think and reason. Isn’t it true that common sense isn’t common? Let’s see how common sense works with life skills.
Problem Solving: We face challenges daily at work, in our personal life, community etc. Being able to solve this problem entails caution depending on how sensitive it is. Problem solving is one of the most valuable skill employers’ love due to the friction that normally arises at work. This skill is normally used to diffuse problems in amicable and friendly manner to create a conducive work environment.
Handling Criticisms: How you handle criticism speaks volumes about you. Very few people know how to handle criticisms. Great men who think out of the box appreciates criticisms because it helps them to know what they are missing and how they can improve especially as it relates to their business. According to Uche Okorie, a maritime attorney, “When you are criticized objectively, examine it. If it is untrue ignore it. If it is unfair, rest the temptation to be irritated. If it is ignorant, just smile, If is justified, then it is not criticism, LEARN FROM IT”.
Adaptability: The ability to adapt to life is a life skill especially when you are in a new environment. As advance human beings, we have the ability to adapt to almost any condition or situation we find ourselves in. This skill is mainly used by strong minded people who normally turn out to be champions and great achievers. Adaptability is an emotional skill which only strong willed people maximize in order to produce results.
Resilience: The last but not the least of all skills is resilience. This skill is similar to adaptability, but the only difference is that it pushes harder in the sense that when you are not able to adapt, you are faced with either accepting the status quo or strive to try and try again without giving up. Without resilience, we wouldn’t able to achieve more in life. Nothing good in life comes easy. We succeed just because we are disciplined and push ourselves. Personally, churning out articles of this nature every week is not easy, but I have resolved to do it because I love and learn from it.
In conclusion, I do know there other skills life out there, I just thought is nice to share this skills with you. I hope they have been able to inspire and guide you. I wish you well in your endeavors.
Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He’s the author of the acclaimed book Design Your Destiny- Actualizing Your Birthright to Success. He works with the New York City Department of Correction as the Legal Coordinator. He can be reached via henrous@gmail.com
By Tolulope A. Adegoke, PhD
“True leadership is not the exercise of one’s own power, but the stewardship of a power that is divinely bestowed. We do not conquer by our own hand, but through a grace that guides it. I therefore pause to say thank You, God Almighty: My Source, My Owner, My Helper, and My All in all” – Tolulope A. Adegoke, PhD
In the grand theater of human endeavor—from the halls of global corporations to the quiet labs of research scientists, from the strategic command centers of nations to the intimate classrooms shaping young minds—we are conditioned to celebrate the visible. We laud the innovative strategy, the decisive action, the brilliant intellect, and the relentless work ethic. These are the pillars upon which we believe success is built.
Yet, this focus on the tangible is to admire the grand facade of a cathedral while remaining oblivious to its unseen foundation. Today, we must pause to acknowledge the bedrock upon which all human achievement truly rests: the sovereign and sufficient grace of God Almighty. It is a profound and humbling truth that cuts across every culture, sector, and stratum of society: We lead, innovate, heal, govern, and ultimately conquer, not primarily because of our own merit, but because of the divine grace that empowers our efforts and crowns them with favor.
- The Universal Law of Received Power
The principle of grace dismantles the modern myth of the “self-made” leader. In physics, no system creates its own energy; it merely transforms energy from an external source. So it is with human achievement. Our skills, our intelligence, and even our very breath are not self-generated; they are gifts bestowed.
- In Business and Innovation: A CEO may possess sharp acumen, but it is grace that orchestrates a chance meeting with a pivotal partner, sparks a moment of breakthrough innovation when logic has failed, and grants the wisdom to navigate an unforeseen market collapse. The idea that became a billion-dollar company did not emerge from a vacuum; it was a spark of insight granted to a prepared mind—a mind that itself was a gift.
- In Science and Medicine: A researcher dedicates decades to a problem, yet the final, elegant solution often appears as a flash of intuition—a “Eureka!” moment that feels less like a construction and more like a revelation. The healing of a patient, despite the most advanced protocols, often involves an inexplicable, supernatural turn toward recovery that humbles the most brilliant physicians. This is grace in the laboratory and the clinic.
- In Governance and Nation-Building: A political leader may craft a perfect policy, but its success depends on a thousand uncontrollable variables: the public’s reception, global economic tides, and the collective will of a people. When a nation avoids a crisis or emerges from disaster with renewed unity, it is not merely a political victory; it is a national testament to divine providence and restraining grace.
Our role is to diligently till the soil and sow the seeds. But the germination, the growth, and the harvest are miracles of grace. To claim otherwise is like a farmer boasting that he created the rain and the sun.
- Grace as the Antidote to Leadership’s Twin Poisons
Understanding this universal law is the most powerful strategic and psychological advantage a leader can possess. It serves as the definitive antidote to the two toxins that corrupt leadership: pride and despair.
- It Eradicates Destructive Pride: When success is internalized as a personal creation, it breeds an arrogance that isolates a leader. They begin to believe their own press, seeing subordinates as instruments and competitors as enemies. This pride inevitably leads to a fall. Conversely, the leader who sees success as a stewardship of God’s grace remains humble. They lead with a sense of awe and responsibility, knowing they are managing assets they did not create. This humility fosters collaboration, attracts loyalty, and enables course correction.
- It Prevents Paralyzing Despair: The weight of leadership can be crushing. Failure, criticism, and unforeseen crises can lead to burnout and cynicism. If a leader believes they are the sole author of success, then they must also be the sole bearer of failure. But when a leader is anchored in grace, setbacks are re-framed. They are not definitive indictments of their ability, but rather part of a larger, divine curriculum. This perspective fosters resilience, allowing a leader to get up after a fall, learn the lesson, and continue with renewed hope, trusting that the same grace that opened past doors can redeem present failures.
III. The Evidence of Grace in the Tapestry of Life
This is not abstract theology; it is observable reality. Let us trace the fingerprints of grace across the facets of our collective experience:
- The Wisdom We Claim: That moment of perfect clarity in a tense negotiation or a complex coding problem—was it not a gift that arrived precisely when needed? That was the grace of divine insight.
- The Doors That Opened: Consider the promotion that came from a departing superior you didn’t orchestrate, the investor who believed in your vision against conventional wisdom, the visa that was granted against all odds. These are not coincidences; they are the grace of divine favor.
- The Strength We Found: In our moments of profound exhaustion, grieving a loss, or facing immense pressure, did we not discover a well of fortitude we did not know we possessed? That was the grace of divine sustenance.
- The People We Encounter: The mentor who guided us, the team member whose unique talent complemented our weakness, the spouse who offered unwavering support—these individuals are not random occurrences. They are living, breathing manifestations of God’s grace in our lives.
- The Restraint We Experienced: The catastrophic mistake we were unknowingly prevented from making, the harsh word we were restrained from speaking, the disastrous partnership we were diverted from—these are evidences of a protective grace, operating silently behind the scenes.
- Cultivating a Posture of Grateful Stewardship
Therefore, the most critical leadership competency is not strategic planning or financial modeling, as vital as those are. It is the cultivation of a heart of gratitude. This is the lens that brings all of life into focus.
A leader grounded in this truth leads not as an owner, but as a steward. They understand that their organization, their nation, their talents, and their platform are on loan from a higher authority. This transforms their entire approach:
- Decision-Making: They seek wisdom beyond their own, praying for guidance and listening for the divine “nudge.”
- Resource Allocation: They manage people and capital with justice and generosity, knowing they are handling resources that belong to God.
- Legacy Building: Their goal shifts from building a personal monument to fulfilling a divine purpose, leaving a legacy that benefits humanity and glorifies the Giver.
Conclusion: The Conduit of Conquest
Let us then move forward with a renewed paradigm. Let us work with impeccable excellence, as if everything depends on us. But let us pray, trust, and give thanks, knowing that everything ultimately depends on Him.
Our skills are the conduit; His grace is the current. Our plans are the vessel; His providence is the ocean.
We are the conduits of effort, but grace is the current of conquest. To mistake the one for the other is the height of leadership folly.
The most dangerous leader is the one who believes they are the architect of their success. The wisest is the one who knows they are merely a steward, building upon a foundation laid by grace.
Our skill prepares the vessel, but only grace can fill it. Lead accordingly.
I pause to say thank You, To God Almighty—the unseen Architect of our triumphs, the silent Partner in our ventures, and the ultimate Source of every victory across every facet of life—we ascribe all wisdom, power, and glory. For it is by His grace that we are positioned, it is by His might that we persevere, and it is for His purpose that we ultimately conquer.
In Jesus Christ’s name, Amen.
Dr. Tolulope A. Adegoke, AMBP-UN is a Recipient of the Nigerian Role Models Award (2024), and a Distinguished Ambassador For World Peace (AMBP-UN). He has also gained inclusion in the prestigious compendium, “Nigeria @65: Leaders of Distinction”.
Globacom, last weekend, drove home its strong position as Nigeria’s biggest supporter of culture as it registered another superlative showing at this year’s edition of Ofala Festival.
Held at the Ime Obi, Onitsha, this year’s festival featured the Iru Ofala on Friday and the Azu Ofala on Saturday. The two are the major ceremonies that make up the grand Ofala Festival, a time-honoured tradition of the people of Onitsha.
The Iru Ofala was Obi’s first public appearance after spending weeks in spiritual retreat and communion with the ancestors, in propitiation for the good of the land.
The Imperial Majesty’s appearance in his rich traditional attire and dance around the Ime Obi was significant and symbolic of his readiness to lead his people into a new year of prosperity. The Obi later sat resplendent as chiefs, titled men, and subjects paid homage to their king. Other top public figures also paid homage to the Obi at the event. They included the Minister of Art, Culture, Tourism and Creative Economy, Hannatu Musawa; the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Benjamin Kalu; former Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Emeka Ihedioha; former Governor of Anambra State, Mr Peter Obi; Director General, National Council for Arts and Culture, Obi Asika, and several others.
The Obi lauded Globacom for its strong support for the Festival over the last 14 years. “We thank them for believing in us, and I trust that the mutual benefit that we all derive from the festival will continue to prevail,” the royal father said.
The Azu Ofala, which was the grand finale of the festival, was a time of thanksgiving, joy, and community festivity. The Obi again graced the occasion in a lighter, festive mood, as he received goodwill messages from dignitaries and visitors, including Globacom, the official sponsor of the festival.
Globacom made this year’s edition of the festival more exciting than ever by presenting prizes to various winners in the Ofala promo, which was specifically introduced for the people of Onitsha. The promo ran for four weeks before the Ofala festival and the eventual winners were presented with various prizes, including a brand new Kia Picanto, two tricycles (Keke), power generating sets, grinding machines and so much more.
The Kia car was won by Chidinma Esther Obi, a businesswoman in 33 area of Onitsha. An elated Obi, who must have been dreaming before the prize presentation came to life once she received the keys to the car from Onitsha royal chief, Chief Albert Ibekwe, the Odu Osodi, and Globacom’s representative at the event, Tochukwu Okechukwu.
For Tricycles, known widely as Keke, the duo of Ibeziakor Onyebuchi Anthony and Ejike Chiememma Gloria emerged winners. Several other winners of power Generating Sets and Grinding Machines also smiled home with their prizes.
A Kuje Magistrate’s Court on Friday granted bail to a former presidential candidate and activist, Omoyele Sowore; a member of the legal team representing the Nnamdi Kanu, the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Aloy Ejimakor; the IPOB leader’s brother, Prince Emmanuel Kanu; and ten others, in the sum of ₦500,000, with two sureties in like sum.
According to the Punch reports, all thirteen defendants were arrested and arraigned before the court for inciting public disturbance and breach of peace in connection with the #FreeNnamdiKanuNow protest held on Monday, October 20, in Abuja.
While Ejimakor, Emmanuel and the other ten defendants were arrested during the protest and later remanded at the Kuje Correctional facility, Sowore was apprehended on October 23 at the premises of the Federal High Court in Abuja while on a solidarity visit to Kanu.
