Money Matters : Create a masterpiece in economic downturn
The founding Rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), (he hates to be called the former Rector!), Professor Stephen Adei, I am sure, arouses conflicting passions.
He has, over the years, exhibited strong leadership traits that enabled him at one point to grow an institution that was almost forgotten to become a leading leadership training centre in Africa, that is GIMPA.
In the process, he left GIMPA as an institution endowed with both the right human and technical capacity to lead tertiary education in Ghana.
It was, however, my encounter with him last week (from July 24 to 27) during the Seventh Conference of Chief Directors, Chief Executives and Chairpersons of the Governing Boards/Councils of Public Institutions held at the Golden Tulip Hotel in Kumasi that drew me closer to his qualities.
I listened attentively as he masterfully led the deliberations, even as we were told, that he had accepted the invitation on a short notice. Until his untimely death, Paul Victor Obeng, a Senior Presidential Advisor, was expected to lead the programme.
Naturally, as a professor, you wouldn’t expect him to be tongue-tied. Therefore, his oratory did not impress me as much as his carefully selected words that appeared strategically targeted for maximum effect.
How important those words were in this period of economic downturn.
His closing remarks could be summed up in one word: Masterpiece!
Not a masterpiece because of the way he delivered his remarks but rather a masterpiece because the three pointers he presented were all aimed at getting public office holders to seize the opportunity to become masters at their game, despite the current challenges.
Professor Adei, a holder of a degree in divinity, gave a short “sermon” on how good character helped to build the strong dynamics of good leadership and how productivity could all but guarantee the work of a leader.
In fact, his closing words were as refreshing as his submissions earlier, where he had, literally, admonished the President of the Republic not to be daunted by recent social unrest and economic downturn because “good leaders emerge in times of crisis”.
Well, my elaborate introduction to this topic, which has taken almost half of the space allotted for this article, is meant to draw your attention to the idea that your life could become a masterpiece to many if you eschew all the negative vibes and concentrate on the positives.
As l said earlier, l had never, before last weekend, read any elaborate “story” about Professor Adei, but just five minutes of listening to him, l realised that indeed, he is a man with a positive outlook on life.
No wonder at his age, he still has the energy to be on his feet and lead discussions without any sign of fatigue.
One thing that came to mind during the presentation by Professor Adei was a famous quote by a life-changing speaker, best-selling author, and behavioural science academic, Dr Steve Maraboli.
He says simply that: “Today is yours to shape, create a masterpiece”.
Dr Maraboli’s empowering and insightful words have been shared and published throughout the world in more than 25 languages, and, therefore, as l read more and more of his books, l become the more convinced about the effects of positive energy on one’s life.
Further confirmation came with Professor Adei’s comments at the conference.
The sum total of all of this is that you must find a way to make sense of all the noise!
In his book, Exploiting Chaos, Jeremy Gutcshe provides an insight into why difficulty creates opportunities. Gutcshe views crisis as a time for bargain-hunters to find opportunities and that no one can escape “disruptive evolution”.
“There are no industries or professions immune to the effects of disruptive change that enables new business models and topples corporate tycoons”, he says.
Indeed, Charles Darwin appropriately admonishes that “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, not the most intelligent, but rather the one most adaptable to change”.
Therefore, chaos, which is “the uncertainty sparked by uncharted territory, economic recession and bubbles of opportunity”, is not after all a bad thing.
There are economic and social concerns that cannot be wished away, but also there are opportunities that can be exploited too.
Several years ago, Albert Einstein proposed three rules of work as follows:
“Out of clutter, find simplicity”.
“From discord, find harmony”.
“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity”.
These rules are truer than ever before; we have encountered increasing media clutter, organisational discord, and financial difficulty.
In short, we are in an era of chaos. But remember that difficulties can spark extraordinary ideas and that is when you become a masterpiece.
So the general economic downturn should become a personal upturn!
