CREATE ROOM FOR INTERNAL COACHING.

For at least 3-4 years, I had only Stella and Tunde Rhema as my lieutenants. We rode in the same car virtually every day. Lived together and spent arguably 18 hours together every 24 hours. When we had money, we made ourselves comfortable. When we were broke, we managed what we didn’t have. 🤣😂

WE BONDED!!!

People see my relationship with Stella and Tunde Rhema as unusual; especially Stella ( 🙄 ) but they forget that we have toiled, cried and groaned together. The bond we share is literally unbreakable now.

The biggest victory is that I POURED MYSELF INTO THESE 2. So much so that today, I can beat my chest that they can run a business confidently and strategically. With these 2, I learnt the power of transparency, cohesion and focus…

THEN OUR TEAM INCREASED…

We had Kefas and Terah. We have Nanyil (who first interned with us 3 years ago and now has taken over Stella’s role as Operations Head), Ireti (who is leading all our efforts at SOBCA FUTURISTS) and Abubakar (our amiable, power-smiling utility colleague). As the team increased, we had some issues with PRODUCTIVITY. Scaling our work to match the new team formation was a challenge. Talk about FORMING-STORMING-NORMING-PERFORMING (If you know, you know). So I had to activate a new strategy…

1.) I used to think I should PERSONALLY INVEST in each staff so that they can catch ‘my vision’ for SOBCA. It failed. Because of the DISPENSATIONAL DIFFERENCE between us, I was losing the younger ones. So guess what I did? I turned to Tunde and Stella to INVEST IN THEM. It worked!!! Tunde PATIENTLY taught each one of them our CULTURE, NORMS & BELIEFS. Being a Gen-Z (or Younger Millennial) himself, they found their own vehicle for understanding how to adapt our culture. I went to sleep. Stella was the CUSTODIAN of the culture. She ENFORCED it so that their adaptations were within the BOUNDARIES of our strategy.

2.) I stepped down from CEO. I elevated Stella to CEO; released Tunde (who was due to travel) to create his own company (that we partner with) and let Stella re-hire Nanyil as her COO (moved her from being my PA). Again, it worked!!! It looked like my presence was ‘too towering’ and that became a blocker of business. My ‘absence’ from office and operations triggered more growth in team capacity. WoW!!!

3.) We made each Staff to champion an outcome. To test our model, everyone had to own something. So our roles are: Me (Consultant to SOBCA & President), Stella (CEO), Tunde (Partner and Consultant to Group; Stella’s Right Hand), Nanyil (Junior COO), Ireti (SOBCA FUTURISTS), Abubakar (Facility Management and Utility); of course with Molabo Oretade (Née Kola-Taiwo) heading SOBCA MIND & BEHAVIOURAL CLINIC (MBC). It has never been more strategic.

Before I conclude, let me tell you that it has cost us A LOT OF MONEY to make this work. Several lunches, trainings, coaching, staff meetings, WhatsApp fights, occasional threats, etc. But here we are, growing!!!

I say this because MANY PEOPLE DESIRE SOBCA STRUCTURE BUT DO NOT INTEND TO INVEST TO MAKE IT HAPPEN. Please NO DO PASS YOURSELF.

SOBCA does not pay the best wages but we have ONE OF THE MOST BONDED SET UP.

If you want to get the best of this post, please do any of the following:

1. Read BASED ON LOGISTICS, my book. (Available in-app).
2. Hire Stella to show you how we did it. Pay her to show you how.
3. Register for SOBCA FUTURISTS. See details here: https://sobcaonline.com/futurists/

I hope this helped.

m a k t u b!!!

The Octopus.