10 Common Communication Mistakes

 Avoiding Communication Blunders and Misunderstandings
 
It can be embarrassing to make mistakes with communication. For example, if you send an email without checking it, and later realize that it contained an error, you can end up looking sloppy and unprofessional.
But other communication mistakes can have more serious consequences. They can tarnish your reputation, upset clients, or even lead to lost revenue.
In this article, we'll look at 10 common communication mistakes, and we'll discuss what you can do to avoid them.

Mistake 1: Not Editing Your Work

Mistakes with spelling, tone, and grammar make you look careless. That's why it's essential to check all of your communications before you send them.
Don't rely on spell-checkers: they won't pick up words that are used incorrectly. Instead, proofread your work, and use a dictionary to look up any words that you're unsure about.
You may find it helpful to make a list of words and phrases that you find it hard to get right (such as "your/you're," "its/it's," or "affect/effect"). Store this close to hand.
It can be difficult to see errors in your own work, so consider asking a colleague to look over key documents before you distribute them. Alternatively, read your work aloud – this makes it easier to catch typos and tone errors. Then, give yourself time to reflect on your document, and to make any final changes.

Mistake 2: Delivering Bad News by Email

Would you announce layoffs to your team by email or IM? If you did, you could upset everyone!
Written communication channels don't allow you to soften difficult messages with nonverbal cues (such as body language ), and they don't allow you to deal immediately with intense emotions.
If you need to deliver bad news, do this in person, and think carefully about how you can do it sensitively, so that you can convey your message but minimize long-term upset at the same time.
When you deliver a difficult message personally, you can pick up on signs that people may have misunderstood key parts of your message, or may have taken the information particularly badly. You can then take steps to clarify your message, or help people deal with the difficult news.

Mistake 3: Avoiding Difficult Conversations

At some point, you will need to give negative feedback. It's tempting to try to avoid these conversations, but this can cause further problems – in particular, you may let small problems grow into big ones.
Preparation is the key to handling difficult conversations. Learn to give clear, actionable feedback, and use tools such as the Situation – Behavior – Impact technique to encourage your people to reflect on their behavior.
You may also want to role-play your conversation first, so that you feel confident in both your words and your body language.

Emotional Intelligence in Leadership

 
When you think of a "perfect leader," what comes to mind?
You might picture someone who never lets his temper get out of control, no matter what problems he's facing. Or you might think of someone who has the complete trust of her staff, listens to her team, is easy to talk to, and always makes careful, informed decisions.
These are qualities of someone with a high degree of emotional intelligence .
In this article, we'll look at why emotional intelligence is so important for leaders – and how you, as a leader, can improve yours.

What Is Emotional Intelligence?

Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to understand and manage your own emotions, and those of the people around you. People with a high degree of emotional intelligence know what they're feeling, what their emotions mean, and how these emotions can affect other people.
For leaders, having emotional intelligence is essential for success. After all, who is more likely to succeed – a leader who shouts at his team when he's under stress, or a leader who stay in control, and calmly assesses the situation?
According to Daniel Goleman, an American psychologist who helped to popularize EI, there are five main elements of emotional intelligence:

1. Self-awareness.
2. Self-regulation.
3. Motivation.
4. Empathy.
5. Social skills.

The more that you, as a leader, manage each of these areas, the higher your emotional intelligence. So, let's look at each element in more detail and examine how you can grow as a leader.

Trump in victory: 'It is time for us to come together' By Jeremy Diamond,

Donald Trump promised to work to "bind the wounds of division" and bring Americans together as the next president of the United States as he claimed victory in the wee hours of Wednesday morning.

"I say it is time for us to come together as one united people," Trump said. "I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be president for all Americans and this is so important to me."

Trump began that process by congratulating his opponent Hillary Clinton on her "very, very hard-fought campaign" and said Americans "owe her a major debt of gratitude" for her decades of public service. He said Clinton called him to concede the race and to congratulate Trump on his victory.

And Trump also sought to reassure people around the world about what his presidency will mean for the world.

"While we will always put America's interests first, we will deal fairly with everyone -- with everyone. We will seek common ground, not hostility," Trump said.

The newly minted president-elect put aside his penchant for bashing the media and belittling his political rivals, instead repeatedly emphasizing that his next focus will be on unifying the country, which has been battered and deeply divided by the intensely vitriolic 2016 presidential campaign.

"To those who have chosen not to support me in the past -- of which there were a few people -- I'm reaching out to you for your guidance and your help so that we can work together and unify our great country," he said.

Trump emerged on stage at 2:50 a.m., followed by his family and dozens of his closest campaign advisers and surrogates. Instead of descending an escalator, the Republican walked down a set of stairs onto the stage below to the soundtrack of "Air Force One."

Trump thanked his staff and advisers, but singled out Reince Priebus for special praise, asking the Republican National Committee chairman to join him at the podium.

Of course, Trump also tipped his hat to the movement that propelled his improbable campaign -- and his outsider victory, which he said has "been what they call a historic event."

"I've said from the beginning, ours was not a campaign but rather an incredible and great movement made up of millions of hardworking men and women who love their country and want a better, brighter future for themselves and for their family," he said. "While the campaign is over, our work on this movement has really just started."

Introducing Trump, his vice presidential nominee Mike Pence also tipped his hat to the "historic night" and said "the American people have elected their new champion."

And he wrapped up his brief remarks with a simple phrase: "It is my high honor and distinct privilege to introduce you to the president elect of the United States, Donald Trump."

 

Culled from CNN

Trump will become 45th President of United States of America

Fallen Hero- Late Lt. col Muhammed Abu Ali

It could be recalled that Ali’s exceptional gallantry earned him accelerated promotion from Major to Lt. Col in September 2015.

9 Habits Of Highly Emotionally Intelligent People

 
When emotional intelligence first appeared to the masses, it served as the missing link in a peculiar finding: people with average IQs outperform those with the highest IQs 70% of the time. This anomaly threw a massive wrench into what many people had always assumed was the sole source of success—IQ. Decades of research now point to emotional intelligence as the critical factor that sets star performers apart from the rest of the pack.

How much of an impact does emotional intelligence (EQ) have on your professional success? The short answer is: a lot! It’s a powerful way to focus your energy in one direction with a tremendous result. Of all the people we’ve studied at work, we’ve found that 90% of top performers are high in emotional intelligence. You can be a top performer without emotional intelligence, but the chances are slim.

Emotional intelligence is the “something” in each of us that is a bit intangible. It affects how we manage behavior, navigate social complexities, and make personal decisions that achieve positive results. Emotional intelligence is made up of four core skills that pair up under two primary competencies: personal competence and social competence.

Personal competence comprises your self-awareness and self-management skills, which focus more on you individually than on your interactions with other people. Personal competence is your ability to stay aware of your emotions and manage your behavior and tendencies.

• Self-Awareness is your ability to accurately perceive your emotions and stay aware of them as they happen.
• Self-Management is your ability to use awareness of your emotions to stay flexible and positively direct your behavior.

Social competence is made up of your social awareness and relationship management skills; social competence is your ability to understand other people’s moods, behavior, and motives in order to respond effectively and improve the quality of your relationships.

• Social Awareness is your ability to accurately pick up on emotions in other people and understand what is really going on.
• Relationship Management is your ability to use awareness of your emotions and the others’ emotions to manage interactions successfully.

Despite the significance of emotional intelligence, its intangible nature makes it very difficult to know which behaviors you should emulate. So I’ve analyzed the data from the million-plus people TalentSmart has tested in order to identify the habits that set high-EQ people apart.

Frugal Habits of 8 Extremely Wealthy People

Read the full text of Aisha Buhari's interview with BBC Hausa

Below is the full text from Aisha Buhari's controversial interview with BBC Hausa Service. 

BBC Hausa: It has been One and a half years since President Muhammadu Buhari came into power, a lot of people are expressing their unhappiness over the way few acquaintance of the President have hijacked power while neglecting people that work for his success. Like we have promised, here is how the interview with Aisha Buhari and Naziru Maka’ilu from Abuja goes. 

BBC Hausa: People have goodwill towards President Muhammadu Buhari, especially looking at the things he did before, but since coming into power things have not been working the way they should, what do you thing is the cause?

Aisha Buhari:  I am not a government official, but in my opinion as a woman, a mother, what I think is it is well known that the first 4 years are not going to be easy. Firstly, it was people that brought the government into power. More than half of those people are not appointed into the government. Some people that are not politicians, not professionals were brought into the government. They don’t even know what we said we want and what we don’t during the campaign.  They even come out and say to people we are not politicians, but they are occupying the offices meant for politicians. Some have parted with their wives, some lost their children lost, some women too have parted with their husbands because of politics, a lot happened during the time. The way things are going I too I am not happy. We are just starting, we have not finished. Some people that worked for the government have been appointed. But those heading government agencies you can find one fighting his state governor, they contested together during election one in APC while in PDP.
 

The story of Lekan Babalola, Nigeria’s 1st Grammy Award winner

 
When most Nigerians think of the Grammy Awards, we think of Femi Kuti‘s four nominations and King Sunny Ade‘s two. Sometimes we go as far as claiming the four won by Sade Adu and Seal respectively as ours.

But we do have a bonafide winner, a Nigerian who has won the Grammy Award not once, but twice. His name is Lekan Babalola, a jazz musician and percussionist.
His first Grammy came in 2006 for his work on the album In the heart of the moon by legendary Malian guitarist, Ali Farka Toure. And Babalola got his second Grammy Award in 2009 for being on Cassandra Wilson‘s album Loverly.
Growing up in Lagos, Nigeria as a choirmaster’s son, he started his foray into music by playing cowbells and drums in the church. By the age of six, he formed a ragtag band with his peers. ‘All we were playing were tins and plastic – and I would be imitating my father. That was my first band and I paid my fellow musicians- my friends- with sweets that I bought with the money my mother gave me,’ he said in a documentary.
Even though music came to him easily and he quickly developed a knack for leading a band, he had a different dream- he wanted to be a pilot so at the age of 20, he got a scholarship to study automobile engineering at Chelsea College of Automobile and Aeronautical Engineering, London. But like his idol Fela Kuti had done some twenty years before, he soon found that his calling was not aviation but music.

How To Discover Your Individual Communication Style

 
We all have our own communication style, and most of us have strength in more than one area.
Knowing how your strengths—and challenges—stack up gives you insight and an awareness to guide you in having more successful conversations.
When those who work together understand their own and each others' strengths, they bring out the best in each other and take more risks, respecting individual differences and developing a stronger team where innovation and productivity flourish.
There is a deep connection between learning styles and communication styles; use this inventory to gain insight into the processing strengths that drive your own personal communication style:

1. Interpersonal

Your preferred learning style is interpersonal if you agree with the following:

• It is important for me to get my thoughts and feelings out in the open.
• Others seek me out for counsel or advice.
• I am intrigued by emotional dynamics in interpersonal relationships.

A coworker communicating with you might ask you, "What do you know about our customer in terms of what really matters to them?"
If you are interpersonally driven, then you are tuned into human relationships. You intuitively understand the feelings, motivations, and goals of others. Your understanding of the customer is rooted in the emotional connections you develop.

Listen, Speak & be Heard

 
Communication is both an art and a science. It often involves acts of speaking and listening, reading and writing, but it also goes beyond these and incorporates the transmission of non-verbal language, sign language, codes transmitted electronically (e.g., Morse code), and physically (touch; hormones; muscles, tendons, nerves), and messages communicated through music, and by other means.
Although you communicate simply by being in the world, developing good verbal and body language skills involves learning and consciously using your skills to improve.
The act of communicating verbally serves to convey how we feel and how we think to others. It is also the basis of how we relate with others, using language as its medium. Increasing knowledge and awareness of some of the components involved in effective communication can serve to improve how we use those components personally.
To explain all the features required of good communicators, you need to delve into the nature of verbal communication in its various modes. Basic questions are: How can you put yourself on a path that would make you into a better communicator? How can you develop skills to overcome some fears or limitations?

Effective communication may be said to involve the transfer of values, beliefs and thoughts from one person to another.

• To transfer a spoken message, it is obvious that speakers and listeners are involved, with timing used for speedy transmission. Speakers use verbal and body language to convey messages, looking towards listeners. Listeners respond by glancing towards speakers, with words and movements and attention to timing and turn-taking.
• What can you do to become a more effective speaker? Look around and observe some good exchanges between people and check out their body language. It's good to start with body language, because it is powerful, and often the beginning of good exchanges.
• It may be useful to know more about what your attitudes are regarding communicating and your communication skills. To find out more about this Click here

UPDATED: 21 Missing Chibok Girls Released - Presidency

Twenty-one of the more than 200 Nigerian girls kidnapped from a school in Chibok by Boko Haram fighters in 2014 have been released. This is according to Shehu Garba.

The release followed negotiations between Nigeria's government and Boko Haram brokered by Red Cross and Swiss government.

It is confirmed that 21 of the missing Chibok Girls have been released and are in the custody of the Department of State Services, DSS.
"It is confirmed that 21 of the missing Chibok girls have been released and are in the custody of the department of state services," presidential spokesman Garba Shehu said in a statement.

"The release of the girls ... is an outcome of negotiations between the administration and the Boko Haram brokered by the International Red Cross and the Swiss government," Shehu said.

PRESS RELEASE :EFCC arrests of Uche Ogah, "NO Speck Of Truth"

Our attention has been drawn to the fake news making ground that Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission this morning picked up the President of Masters Energy Oil and Gas Limited, Mr. Uche Ogah, on the premises of a Lagos State Magistrates’ Court in Tinubu, Lagos Island.
There's no iota of truth whatsoever in this poor imaginary concussion that was intentionally put together by those who want to run away from the shame of their lies.

The truth of the matter is that the forgery charges filed against him by the Police were withdrawn today for lack of evidence.
Since Ogah  was declared winner of the last governorship election in Abia State by Justice Okon Abang of a Federal High Court in Abuja on June 27 was, there's no amount of funds meant to be used in paying Civil Servants in Abia that has been speared in tarnishing his image. And, as usual, they always fail.
Being smart criminals who have worked wonders on social media and Abia Broadcasting Radio while the streets are in ruins, instead allowing the news that the police on Monday morning withdrew all the charges against Ogah for lack of evidence. They came out with the news of his arrest by EFCC. Even if politics, wickedness, lies and desperation should have a limit.
Rather, when the case was called, the Police prosecutor, Henry Obiazi, told the presiding magistrate, Mrs. Kikelomo Ayeye, that he had the instruction of the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, to withdraw the charges against Ogah and his co-defendants for lack of evidence.
“I am instructed by the IGP to withdraw this case, as the issue is pending with the SFU,” Obiazi said.
The charges were consequently struck out by the court.
Abians Must Rejoice! This is God's Project.
Sign
Peter Agba Kalu
Media Aide to
Uche Ogah

For the the interview in his Office today  CLICK HERE

The Platform 2016: Peter Obi Speaks On Developing Nigeria

What Is Leadership?

Leaders are people who do the right thing; managers are people who do things right. – Professor Warren G. Bennis

Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it. – Dwight D. Eisenhower

The word "leadership" can bring to mind a variety of images. For example:

• A political leader, pursuing a passionate, personal cause.
• An explorer, cutting a path through the jungle for the rest of his group to follow.
• An executive, developing her company's strategy to beat the competition.

Leaders help themselves and others to do the right things. They set direction, build an inspiring vision, and create something new. Leadership is about mapping out where you need to go to "win" as a team or an organization; and it is dynamic, exciting, and inspiring. 

Yet, while leaders set the direction, they must also use management skills to guide their people to the right destination, in a smooth and efficient way.

In this article, we'll focus on the process of leadership. In particular, we'll discuss the "transformational leadership" model, first proposed by James MacGregor Burns and then developed by Bernard Bass. This model highlights visionary thinking and bringing about change, instead of management processes that are designed to maintain and steadily improve current performance.

Leadership: A Definition

According to the idea of transformational leadership, an effective leader is a person who does the following:

1. Creates an inspiring vision of the future.
2. Motivates and inspires people to engage with that vision.
3. Manages delivery of the vision.
4. Coaches and builds a team, so that it is more effective at achieving the vision.

Leadership brings together the skills needed to do these things. We'll look at each element in more detail.

1. Creating an Inspiring Vision of the Future

In business, a vision is a realistic, convincing and attractive depiction of where you want to be in the future. Vision provides direction, sets priorities, and provides a marker, so that you can tell that you've achieved what you wanted to achieve.
To create a vision, leaders focus on an organization's strengths by using tools such as Porter's Five Forces , PEST Analysis , USP Analysis , Core Competence Analysis and SWOT Analysis to analyze their current situation. They think about how their industry is likely to evolve, and how their competitors are likely to behave. They look at how they can innovate successfully , and shape their businesses and their strategies to succeed in future marketplaces. And they test their visions with appropriate market research, and by assessing key risks using techniques such as Scenario Analysis .
Therefore, leadership is proactive – problem solving, looking ahead, and not being satisfied with things as they are.
Once they have developed their visions, leaders must make them compelling and convincing. A compelling vision is one that people can see, feel, understand, and embrace. Effective leaders provide a rich picture of what the future will look like when their visions have been realized. They tell inspiring stories, and explain their visions in ways that everyone can relate to.
Here, leadership combines the analytical side of vision creation with the passion of shared values, creating something really meaningful to the people being led.

2. Motivating and Inspiring People

A compelling vision provides the foundation for leadership. But it's leaders' ability to motivate and inspire people that helps them deliver that vision.
For example, when you start a new project, you will probably have lots of enthusiasm for it, so it's often easy to win support for the project at the beginning. However, it can be difficult to find ways to keep your vision inspiring after the initial enthusiasm fades, especially if the team or organization needs to make significant changes in the way that they do things. Leaders recognize this, and they work hard throughout the project to connect their vision with people's individual needs, goals, and aspirations.
One of the key ways they do this is through Expectancy Theory. Effective leaders link together two different expectations:

1. The expectation that hard work leads to good results.
2. The expectation that good results lead to attractive rewards or incentives.

This motivates people to work hard to achieve success, because they expect to enjoy rewards – both intrinsic and extrinsic – as a result.
Other approaches include restating the vision in terms of the benefits it will bring to the team's customers, and taking frequent opportunities to communicate the vision in an attractive and engaging way.
What's particularly helpful here is where leaders have expert power. People admire and believe in these leaders because they are expert in what they do. They have credibility, and they've earned the right to ask people to listen to them and follow them. This makes it much easier for these leaders to motivate and inspire the people they lead.
Leaders can also motivate and influence people through their natural charisma and appeal, and through other sources of power, such as the power to pay bonuses or assign tasks to people. However, good leaders don't rely too much on these types of power to motivate and inspire others.

3. Managing Delivery of the Vision

This is the area of leadership that relates to management.
Leaders must ensure that the work needed to deliver the vision is properly managed – either by themselves, or by a dedicated manager or team of managers to whom the leader delegates this responsibility – and they need to ensure that their vision is delivered successfully.
Leaders also need to make sure they manage change effectively. This helps to ensure that the changes needed to deliver the vision are implemented smoothly and thoroughly, with the support and backing of the people affected.

4. Coaching and Building a Team to Achieve the Vision

Individual and team development are important activities carried out by transformational leaders. To develop a team, leaders must first understand team dynamics. Several well-established and popular models describe this, such as Belbin's Team Roles approach, and Bruce Tuckman's Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing theory.
A leader will then ensure that team members have the necessary skills and abilities to do their job and achieve the vision. They do this by giving and receiving feedback regularly, and by training and coaching people to improve individual and team performance.
Leadership also includes looking for leadership potential in others. By developing leadership skills within your team, you create an environment where you can continue success in the long term. And that's a true measure of great leadership.

HiTV 101- Toyin Subair

 
My great mentor asked me one day, a few years ago, why after the appointment of a Receiver/Manager by GTB over the assets of HiTV I gave up fighting and just rolled into a semi coma.
He said this because, he knew how hard we fought to save it. I responded with the story of King David crying to GOD over his sick child but then quickly wiped his face off, ate and started drinking, when the child was pronounced dead. You really just must know when to move on so that you can see and take the future opportunities that will come your way. Thereafter, Solomon, the wisest and richest ruler of Israel was born to David because he looked and lived forward.
 People who care, ask me what happened to HiTV and others in their supreme wisdom profess their own reasons. I have kept my peace and quietly moved on in life, until I wrote an article recently about 1 million Digital Jobs from the Creative sector. I realise, however, that if I am throwing a challenge to other entrepreneurs to be bold and creative, I, who used to be a poster boy for a generation and who failed after 5 years of a great business endeavour, owed it to them to share my HiTV experience.

1. Choose your shareholders carefully and know the implication of every clause in your Shareholders agreement, if you are going to sign one.

 HiTV collapsed essentially because of a clause in our original Shareholders Agreement, which allowed a group of founding shareholders to block the company raising money or selling off a subsidiary. This right was exercised to block our capital raise because it was believed to be a possible ploy by another group to take control of the company. We the management were caught in the middle and it took us another 8 months to pursue the alternative that was acceptable to the shareholders but by that time the equity market had gone bust, leaving us grovelling all over for debt.
Every power you give up has future ramifications so don’t sign away your life for what may be a quick fix or a “morsel of bread” as it might come back to bite you. The same right you give to Mr A and is used wisely, will in the hands of Mr B be used to destroy your dreams.
I failed to know and manage my investors properly, which made it hard for me to mediate when they didn’t see eye-to-eye.

1. Perception is EVERYTHING in Nigeria.

 Your neighbour, banker, staff, bloggers, enemies are watching you and it is not what you are that matters but what others see and are saying about you.
Once you are funded by other people’s money, either investors or bankers, it matters what they think. So your lifestyle must be measured. Even if you have access to other sources of income, you must be prudent in spending and seen to be prudent else it will be assumed that you are “extravagant” and/or diverting other people’s money for your own personal use.
Soley because it is common place in Nigeria for executives to mismanage corporate funds , people are quick to judge and assume every situation is the same . I never touched company money or take a single bribe or kick back. HiTV had full corporate governance rules in place and a budget that was jealously guarded by a Board that sat 6 times in a year. Even when I went out or travelled with a supplier, I always insisted on paying, but only my shareholders and management team knew that. This forthrightness of mine made me throw caution to the wind since I knew I was clean BUT unfortunately I didn’t realise the negative impact it could have on my reputation. The first thing your adversaries or haters target in order to bring you down, is your reputation. Protect it.

1. Whatever you do, train people and invest in them

 One thing we did right was to invest in the lives of our people. I inspired all my staff, which grew to about 380 plus, in 6 locations in Nigeria and a London office, including over a thousand dealers, by making sure I led by example, sent them on trainings, exposed them to the international market and bought them books to read about Media, and very importantly made them know we were all in the same boat. If I was comfortable they also had to be, and if they were going through pains, we had to do it together.
I have always marvelled at the Receiver/Manager and people who thought HiTV could be locked up with chains? HiTV is today a force in different companies making or waiting to make a difference.
However, make sure the people you train and inspire do the same to their sub-ordinates. Usually Nigerians are scared to pass knowledge for fear of being replaced and so you have to teach them to let others fly. Reading the 1 Minute Manager meets Mr Monkey taught me not to micro-manage and get people to earn their pay so that I can be free to do the bigger things. The balance to delegation is to make sure there is a system to ensure that those who are working are justly rewarded.
In the absence of a technical foreign partner, we learnt our trade on the job and intensive trainings and we were just implementing our robust researched systems and processes when the company was closed down. How I would have loved to see its results.

1. Equity Vs Debt

We gambled on building a company with debt with the hope of converting it to equity once we proved the model. As I said earlier, we were impeded from doing this at the right time. At 25-27% interest on debt, most businesses cannot survive and you will be a slave to the banks for life. That is why they take collateral from you. They lend against your collateral not your business case. Regardless of our strong cashflows, the funding requirements continued to increase. Similar businesses in Europe like Sky, Virgin, Polsat etc had worse debt profiles whilst building up their Brands and subscription models but their markets have sophisticated equity and debt.
Unfortunately, we have no sophisticated equity market and I mean Angel investors and/or Venture Capitalist in Nigeria and without that, who can survive? It pains me to admit that someone told the then Minister of Information that Nigerians can’t fund our type of business and I was really hoping to prove him wrong but Alas!
 We paid 40 million dollars for the first year of the second term of the EPL from mostly equity. But still had to come up with a guarantee of about 70 million dollars for the latter 2 years and in Nigeria, guarantee requires cash in bank. The alternative bank we were forced to use despite all their assurances and being offered half of the amount by another Bank failed to issue same on that fateful Tuesday and only offered it to us on Thursday. Meanwhile the EPL sold it to our competition on Wednesday morning.
Watch your debt profile. HiTV was paying an average of 1.1billion Naira approximately in interests and guarantee charges annually, for over 5 years! For a new company, we did a damn good job but really got blown out once our house was divided. I never live by debt and so was really ignorant about how interest works up till HiTV and of course since then you wont catch me near it. But what do you do when you have to? They say internationally that “equity is more expensive than debt”, but that is NOT true in Nigeria. Debt is way too expensive and destructive.
At the end of it all I was sued in my personal capacity for the debts of the company by the bank, but we have since sorted out our differences, agreed, signed and filed terms of settlement in all legal actions. The Managing Director simply told me, when we finally met, that since we all owned the company I had to pay out of the liability and not just dump it on them. It made total sense to me and I offered them what I had, they accepted and that was it. Fair is fair. You can’t avoid a lot of skin in the game because investors will be looking for this.

1. You need Government and regulation on your side

 I ignored government to my peril. The competition spent a lot of time courting all arms of government and I was a simpleton. We just expected the whole world to cheer us on. The laws in Nigeria are as empty as they are full. A lot of writings but you have to make sure your business model is adequately protected.
What laws do you need, or what interpretations of the laws do you require, go and get it passed or adjudicated. Don’t assume its there and don’t be afraid of offending anyone. A few weeks before we lost the EPL rights we were approached by the competition to share it with them, in writing. We agreed and were completing the approvals on both sides when we lost the rights. Since they bought it, we asked them for it on the same terms as we had agreed to give it to them just 2 weeks prior, they refused. We ran to government to enforce the fairness clauses of the NBC Act but it fell on deaf ears.
We really should have actively pursued the enactment of anti- monopoly laws and competition rules early enough as exist everywhere else in the world. The truth is we never believed in monopoly and offered all our acquired TV rights to anyone who was ready to share the price with us. Our purchase of football rights was defensive, as that was the only way we could get it. Unfortunately, our government was happy to, as they continue to be, leave everything in the hands of foreign dominant players.
 And whatever we were ready to pay for those TV rights was still far less than what Nigeria was losing from the repatriation of profits by the foreign companies operating in the country!
They say Power is not served al a carte, you have to take it forcefully. And if you are going to take it, make sure you succeed! I didn’t, but I am glad I tried. It is the most meaningful, joyful and the greatest thing I have ever embarked on. I can still see the sparkle in the eyes of every true partner of that journey I meet.
 In conclusion of HiTV 101, I will say this, our thinking that we were doing the right things and following the patterns of all international Pay TV companies was not enough, we had to successfully domesticate those patterns and that proved difficult. Thankfully, our good intentions and hard work have helped most to get great jobs and new opportunities and challenged foreign companies to do more locally.
Whatever you do, live forward.

This piece was originally published on his LinkedIn page.

4 Habits Of Punctual People

 

Plan any event and chances are one in five of the people you invite will be late.
A study done at San Francisco State University found that about 20% of the U.S. population is chronically late—but it’s not because they don't value others' time. It’s more complicated than that, says lead researcher Diana DeLonzor.
"Repetitive lateness is more often related to personality characteristics such as anxiety or a penchant for thrill-seeking," she says. "Some people are drawn to the adrenaline rush of that last-minute sprint to the finish line, while others receive an ego boost from over-scheduling and filling each moment with activity."
In her book Never Be Late Again: 7 Cures for the Punctually Challenged, DeLonzor says our relationship with time often starts in childhood and becomes an ingrained habit.
"Looking back, you were probably late or early all of your life—it’s part physiological and part psychological," she says. "Most chronically late people truly dislike being late, but it's a surprisingly difficult habit to overcome. Telling a late person to be on time is a little like telling a dieter to simply stop eating so much."
DeLonzor says the majority of people have a combination of late and punctual habits—usually on time, but with a frantic rush at the last minute—but we can all learn from those who are chronically punctual. DeLonzor shares four traits that always on time share:

1. They’re realistic thinkers.

Punctual people know how long things take. Chronically late people, however, engage in what DeLonzor calls "magical thinking."
"If once, 10 years ago, they made it to work in 20 minutes, they believe that’s how long it should take," she says. "They forget about the 99% of the times that took 30 minutes."
To develop realistic habits, DeLonzor suggests relearning to tell time. Write down how long you think it takes to shower, get ready in the morning and drive to work. Then for a week, track how long those things really take. Chronically late people are often off of their time estimates by 25% to 30%, says DeLonzor.

2. They give themselves buffer time.

Punctual people are usually early, says DeLonzor. "Being late makes them stressed out and they don’t like feeling rushed," she says. "Late people get stressed out from being late, too, but they don’t strive to be early; they tend to time things to the minute."
For a 9 a.m. meeting, for example, a punctual person would try to arrive by 8:45 a.m. or 8:50 a.m., allowing enough time for an unexpected delay, such as traffic or a full parking garage. A punctual person reviews directions online, checks traffic reports before leaving, and some will even drive to an new location the day before to understand the route. To be punctual, plan to arrive early.

3. They’re organized.

DeLonzor says that 45% of everything we do on a daily basis is automatic: "Our lives are filled with habits—from the way you brush teeth to how you get dressed and leave for work," she says, adding that they’re necessary. "If we didn’t do things automatically, it would take us forever to get through our day."
The habits of people who are always on time are highly structured. They analyze their daily activities, set routines, and stick to them on regular basis. Chronically late people, however, don’t have structure and often fall on the attention deficit disorder spectrum, says DeLonzor.
"Instead of thinking about why their routines don’t work and trying something different next time, chronically late people simply hope that tomorrow will be better," she says.
To become punctual, DeLonzor suggests putting more routines and structure into your life. For example, do everything you can to prepare for the morning the night before.

4. They’re comfortable with downtime.

Being punctual often means getting to meeting or an appointment early. Punctual people use the extra five or 10 minutes as a chance to catch up on emails, read over notes, or simply enjoy the solitude.
Chronically late people, however, hate downtime. They enjoy the thrill of that last-minute sprint to the finish line and crave stimulation. To be more comfortable with downtime, bring along something to fill those spare moments.
"Knowing that you have something to occupy your time will help," says DeLonzor.