Category: Business

WITH determination and focused attitude, persons with disabilities have the potential to build successful careers in whatever sectors of the economy, experts have said.

This was the submission made by a cross section of experts who spoke at a public forum recently.

The event was at the maiden edition of Theseabilities Business Summit for Entrepreneurs with Disabilities.

Tagged: “Entrepreneurship as a tool for social development”, it drew participants from the organised private sector.

Among the roll-call was Mr. Folusho Philips, founder/CEO, Philips Consulting, as special guest including Mr. Peter Bankole, Director, Enterprise Development Centre of Pan African University, Bunmi Lawson, CEO, Accion Microfinance Bank, Omotola Fawunmi, CEO, Project Stretch.

Others included Tracey Webster, CEO, Virgin Unite Africa & Branson Centre for Entrepreneurship, South Africa, and a host of others.

According to Adeboye Abioye, the founder of Theseabilities Limited, “The aim of the summit is to create awareness about liabilities that people with disabilities, and to help grow awareness from the cooperate environment, and to create a networking platform for people with disabilities to make them leaders of the cooperate sectors. It is also an opportunity for people with disabilities to meet themselves so that they can know they are not alone.”

He added: “There are whole lots of people that are struggling with the same problem, but having a disability is not the end of the world.”

In her keynote address, the Managing-Director, ACCION Microfinance Bank, Mrs. Bunmi Lawson said there are more abilities in disabilities, citing the para-olympians as examples.

While explaining the modus operandi adopted by her firm, she said Accion provides funding support for entrepreneurs who have the commitment, passion to start and grow their business, irrespective of their status.

“Once you have the determination, creativity, and what it takes to be an entrepreneur, we are always here for you to give you all that helping hand, because there are more abilities in your disabilities”, she said.

In his remarks, Philips said Nigeria is a great country that has great people and that nobody is ever truly disabled, adding: “Entrepreneurship roles are created for people with disabilities because the corporate bodies cannot employ them. I believe there are opportunities for everyone who has made the decision to find something doing and not waiting for the government to do something for them. Try to appreciate the fact that you are better and don’t ever feel disabled.”

Tracey Webster urged various organisations and corporate bodies to come together and partner with the disabled who have made up their mind to go into various businesses. As all they need is their support.

For Webster, “coming to Nigeria all the way from South Africa to speak to people with disabilities is one of my dream come true.”

Expatiating, she said: “The whole concept of entrepreneurship is open to anyone, whether able or disabled. You all have every characteristic a normal human person who is into entrepreneurship has. There are so many things you can do. It has nothing to do with your disabilities, it’s about that idea that you have got. Entrepreneurship is looking for that idea to find or create wealth. I believe the solution to unemployment is entrepreneurship. By supporting entrepreneurs to grow their business we are giving more people the opportunity to get jobs.”

The end was finally here. Ten strangers stood up to leave, but not before exchanging hugs, business cards and some homemade jam. As last words of appreciation and revelation filled the room, some of these compatriots were shaken by strong currents of emotion that washed over them. They were happy to be returning to their normal lives, yet sad because somewhere deep inside they wondered if they would ever see each other again. They had come to know, support, learn from and laugh, bond and have fun with each other, over the past four days. At that moment, these ten strangers, if they had desired it, could easily and successfully have taken on the world as a collective.

This was the scene at the end of my four-day Insights Discovery Licensed Practitioner Accreditation Programme in Johannesburg. I was struck by the fact that there was more sharing, caring, support, learning and authenticity in those four days than I have had in some of the corporate teams that I have spent years with. In less than a week, we had established more intellectual and emotional connections than most teams see in years. There were no “rights” or “wrongs”; no good or bad; no winners or losers – only individual differences that flavored the learning experience with richness that benefitted everyone. It is this experience with my nine South African colleagues that inspired me to dedicate this week’s article to the concept of “Winning Teams.”

A team can be described as a group of people coming together to achieve a common objective. Every team is a group but not every group is a team. The challenge in many organisations is the illusion that they have teams, when what they really have are groups of people who never truly evolve into teams, much less transform into “Winning Teams.”

My definition of a winning team is, “A defined set of individuals, with complementary behaviours, executing interdependent tasks in a deliberate manner, unified by their commitment to common objectives and achieving a heightened state of collective performance that is superior to the sum of their individual results.”

I recognise that this is a fully loaded definition that requires some “unpacking.” So, let me break it down.

1. A team is a defined set of individuals. There must be a high degree of distinction between those who are part of the team and those who are not. It is essential to know who matters and who does not. Imagine a competitive football game in which members of both teams wore the same jersey and wore masks to hide their faces. How would a player know who to pass the ball to and who to support? A team must have borders that allow it to define and sustain its identity.

2. Members of a team exhibit complementary behaviours. They act in ways that complement each other and their actions when taken together form a complete and balanced whole. In a team, members supply each other’s needs and make up for what is lacking in one another. In order to accomplish this, there must be a high degree of self and interpersonal awareness that leads to mutual respect and valuing.

3. Members of a team execute interdependent tasks. There is a high degree of mutual dependence that exists between the tasks to be accomplished in team settings. Consequently, teamwork is essential for teams to deliver great results. There must be a high degree of responsibility and accountability between team members because of the high degree of interdependence. No single task on its own can accomplish the desired objectives.

4. Members of a team work in a deliberate manner. Team members carefully and thoughtfully weigh their actions and consider the impact those actions have on team members and team results. They execute their responsibilities within the team in a purposeful, premeditated and voluntary manner. They are fully engaged and fully plugged into what needs to be done to accomplish the team’s goals.

5. Members of a team are unified by common goals. This is what transforms a collection of people into a team. Without common purpose, there is no alignment, focus, accountability or integrity within the group. When members do not buy into the collective vision, the energy and resources of the group which could have been applied to create synergies and leverage are, instead, dissipated i.e. is wasted or squandered. Commonality of goals implies that there are no hidden agendas.

6. Team results must be superior to the sum of individual parts. At the heart of teamwork is the belief that individuals are able to achieve higher levels of performance and outputs when they cooperate, than when they don’t. Teams give members the opportunity to focus and specialize in what they know how to do best. A winning team is a team that is able to deliver results that exceed what its members can achieve working alone.

Is your team a winning team or are you just pretending to be one?