The Higher You Go

The higher you go, the cooler it becomes. Really? Let us begin from first principles. This is a maxim we learnt in geography about the weather. Having come a long way in our professions and careers, can we really say it has been cooler over the years as we ascended the corporate ladder? Even at that,, how can we sensibly apply the Higher You Go principle in the way we work, and the way we live?

Has it certainly been cooler for you over the years as you climbed higher? The higher the cooler may work in geography or in atmospheric conditions, but certainly not in conditions of work, the professions, vocations, family and relationships. It is so because of mounting responsibilities, challenges, economic and social problems.

Maybe it has certainly not been cooler for you. If it has been, then you are a superstar. While there may be some consistency in geographical conditions, it is not necessarily so in economic and social conditions. In geography, it may just be true that the higher you go, the cooler. In the professions, you may be up today, and down tomorrow. Either way it gets hotter.

And so to remain cool, should you stagnate? No. You need to be upwardly mobile to improve your fortunes and the quality of life for you and your family. But you need to consistently do a number of things to make it cooler as you go higher. You just have to do so because the challenges of leadership and the hassles of remaining competitive in the marketplace are becoming overwhelming in Nigeria now. The higher you go..

Everything has an atmosphere. For your personality, it is called aura or charisma. This personal atmosphere can pull or repel using interplay of forces with other persons or objects. Metallic objects that do so are called magnets.

Atmospheric conditions such as hot, cold, harsh, winter or summer are real for tangibles and intangibles. Growing up and making progress in life, business and work also have atmosphere. And so the challenge for you as a manager is to emulate nature and make your atmosphere and others, cooler as you go higher in life and your profession.

You need to chill your atmosphere of going higher so that you can live long and be more productive. For professionals, businessmen and women, it is certainly getting hotter. And many are dying or getting terminally ill in their 30s, 40s, and 50s largely because of high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes, kidney failure, automobile accidents, assassinations and others. Check out the obituary pages of newspapers, you will see a familiar caption: Gone too soon. Then a tribute, followed by names of Committee of Friends. Then the pay off- barrangements as announced by the family. Who wants to die young? Certainly not me. The higher you go...

You don't want to be a victim, then chill your atmosphere. The critical question for you now is: How cool or hot is your present state of working and living? Cool. Congratulations. Please maintain the status quo so that you may live long and it shall be well with you. Hot. You must act fast and begin to chill your atmosphere as nature does...

So how can you chill your working condition? Adopt what I call the Compressor Strategy. If possible, be a compressor. Doing so enables you to increase and multiply using considerable less space, time and energy to achieve more.

To understand this better, take a look at all the electrical appliances in your home that chill, your refrigerator, air conditioners and others. They all have one thing in common, a gadget called a compressor. What does it do? Powered by electricity, it compresses a special gas that circulates, causing condensation which transforms the gas to liquid droplets. When that happens, temperature drops, heat is reduced, and the atmosphere becomes cooler. That is essentially what the air conditioner does. It circulates and chills the air simultaneously.

So why don't you begin to compress all your circulating thoughts, ways, methods, and actions. The way you work and live, why don't you simplify and compress them, chill your atmosphere and make life easier for yourself, your business and your family?

See how technology makes working and living easier with new developments. Any improvement in that field shortens, space, volume, improves speed and productivity, and simplifies work. The coming of the computer has achieved this. Tons of data that were once stored in huge volumes of files, shelves and cabinets are now conveniently stored and retrieved in diskettes, CD ROMs, and flash discs.

What started as mainframe computers have been reduced to laptops? That is compression and simplicity. So how simple is your lifestyle, your work, and the way you run your business. How simple are your products and services, work process, even production process? Are they cumbersome, or has everything been compressed, reduced in time, length, and volume? How simple are your brands for consumers to understand and use? For instance, insurance companies operating with complex wordings of their policies written in very tiny prints, are you listening? Do your policies make buying of insurance policies simpler or more difficult? What about your communication lines, chain of authority and command in your organization, are they compressed or simplified or they are circuitous, of many layers?

If you are a CEO, General Manager or Senior Manager, have you compressed your work processes and the way you communicate with junior staff? Are you one of those bosses that believe so much in line management: You must relate to me through your boss?

Every Monday morning, you hold endless management meetings to stem the dwindling fortunes of your organization in the market place. The business temperature is rising, heating up the atmosphere for your company. The higher you go, the cooler it becomes- that is if you are a leader and not a boss. There is a difference. Leaders command respect and have disciples whom they groom, care for, and give a future. When they do so, the corporate atmosphere is cool. Not so for bosses. They shout and heat up the system with rigidity and arm twisting tactics. They demand loyalty, and are grudgingly followed by unrepentant and complaining workers.

Nothing heats up a system like complaining workers. They poison the atmosphere. Even almighty God does not tolerate complaining followers. That was why he chose Moses, a man with a large heart, tested by age and experience, to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt through the desert to their promised land. And it is also why, when God wants to use you for any great work, he first of all crushes and compresses you in the school of wilderness experience, because He knows that without humility, you will make things hotter for your followers as you go higher.

And so dear professional, how large is your heart? How humble are you? Do you serve to lead (servant hood), or do you lead to rob (robbing hood)? Call any leader today, a server, oh, he will quarrel with you Yet watch every IT installation, without the server, nothing works. What managers need now is not leader-ship training, but servant-ship training?

As a professional, leader, CEO, manager, supervisor, stop heating up the system. You have a responsibility to make it cooler, not just for you, but for others as well. My charge to you is this: be a compressor, humble yourself, have a large heart that has no room for pettiness, serve, motivate, simplify, and put your trust in God.

Do these and you can confidently harmonize your ways and means with geography which tell us that, The Higher You Go, The Cooler It Becomes.

Eric Okeke, corporate storyteller, motivational speaker, business writer and copy writer. He is one of Nigeria's most experienced financial journalist. I recommend that you read this valuable book, "How To Tell A Great Story" that is dedicated to teaching people just like you about the famed R.P.I Principle. Go now to http://www.howtotellagreatstory.com

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