I was so excited to receive an invite for the Leaderex conference. I had no idea that my encouragement and clarity of life’s journey would come from the various nuggets of wisdom the speakers I listened to shared. The profoundness of what was shared was not anything new, but they reminded me of simple life changing truths I had forgotten and shared new insights on ordinary concepts. Allow me to care and share with you my interpretation some of the nuggets below:

  • At school, we are taught how to read, write, comprehend etc, but we have not been taught to listen well. Some of the biggest issues in relationships whether personal or in the work space stem from a lack of active listening.
  • Question to leaders – do you listen to allow your team to solve their own problems or do you listen to give a quick solution? The speaker mentioned that sometimes when you listen intently and deeply to someone you will notice that the wisdom they need to solve their own problems is within them and it will come out. This reminded me of the proverb that says, “Though good advice lies deep within the heart, a person with understanding will draw it out.” Proverbs 20:5-7 (NLT).
  • We cannot seek to address the social issues of the marginalised population sitting in big city conference centres and boardrooms. That’s like providing a prescription/medication for a problem you have not thoroughly diagnosed. We ought to co-create solutions with those we are attempting to help.
  • We live in a world where everyone wants to be right, but not everyone wants to be understanding of other people’s views. We all should understand that the world is filled with different kinds of people and they all have a right to live because the creator deems it fit.
  • If you are the leader of your business – continuously communicate your vision with your team. Don’t assume that since you have mentioned it before and it burns in you that everyone else is on the same page.
  • The relevance of the MBA? MBAs are very useful but you need to know what to get out of it. An MBA should not be used as a token of status but rather as an effective tool in shaping your business idea.
  • Wisdom is all around us – Sometimes you don’t have to reinvent the wheel; we can learn from the different business models who have made it to build a successful empire.
  • Choose your business partners very carefully – make sure there is vison alignment with the partners otherwise your vision will be “contaminated”.
  • When you start something, don’t expect perfection in the beginning. Start with enough and other things will become clearer and better as you go along.
  • Focus – know what you are pursuing, there will be other people who will want to add to what your dream should be, but be unrelenting in your pursuits.
  • Prepare to learn about yourself, the good and the bad stuff and be okay that it’s part of your daily life walk.
  • You should keep learning, its hard but not learning and growing is dangerous.
  • To keep learning, you must be comfortable with failure. How you handle failure determines how successful you become.
  • Have shameless persistence – keep knocking on doors, don’t give up.
  • Story telling is an underestimated, but effective communication mechanism. In fact, story telling should be default for communication as the things people remember the most are things told in stories.

Hope you find these nuggets useful…let me know your thoughts?