I learnt team-building from books ? Olugbodi - Vanguard

By Olayinka Ajayi

Following the decadence of the organisational structure and human development in the world,? Yinka Olugbodi, a prolific Human Resource Consultant and the CEO of TeamBuilding International, in this interview, speaks on how professionalism and passion for organisational development through team building training, have seen international organisations staff travelling down to Nigeria to be trained by his organisation.

Excerpts? of the interview:

My background

I finished from Salvation Army Primary School Surulere in 1979 and Fakunle Comprehesive High School Osogbo in 1984. I? graduated from the University of? Lagos,UNILAG in 1992 where I studied English Language. I also have a Masters degree in Human Resources from? ESUTH Business School. I? have some professional qualifications from Lagos Business School. Basically, I am a H.R Consultant and I majored in team building which is basically part of organisational development. We also recruit and train staff for organisations.

*Yinka Olugbodi

How did you come about team building ?

I have worked in many front line organisations at senior managerial levels;like Vision Advertising, Multichoice, Global Leadership Interlink, HI TV, and Access bank. I think the inspiration came from my former boss in Multichoice who used to be the head of HR and I was assisting him. I must confess, he is more than a boss, he is my mentor.

One of his specialties is team building and I found it to be very interesting to go into. Back then, we used to do it as an in-house training for staff. I got the idea when I was still the H.R manager in 2003 and it stayed in the pipeline for about five years. In 2009, we started properly. It will be four years old this May.

What is team building about ?

Team building is an action learning and training activity which you learn through activities and games . I found out it?s a virgin area which I can easily go into. However, most people are not actually looking at that direction and it has been good.

How are you sourcing for clients?

As God would have it , it?s not that hard for us because most places I have worked before, I have had good relationship with my colleagues. So, going back to them to train them on team building is not stressful. Also, what is really helping us is that, team building is a new compulsory leadership training in the country that most people are not focusing on .

It may interest you to know that multi-national companies like oil companies, United Nations, USAID are among our key clients. These white guys most times invite us . They also travel from around the world to Nigeria to attend our training. We have done this training in Zambia, Ghana and United kingdom.

Do you have any challenges ?

The challenges have? always been in pioneering an enviable organisation such as this, working with international? organisations . You know these organisations? have standards and they always look for what they want in any organisation they are dealing with.

So, you have to be as professional as you can to win their confidence . I have not been to any team building school or what so ever. I only learnt most things from my immediate boss? and from books and online. Infact there is no team building school any where in the world.

Another challenge is for people to give you the opportunity to showcase what you can offer. But once you are given that opportunity and you do your work? professionally, people will always call you for jobs.

Do you? lobby to get contracts?

From the onset, when I was working in Access Bank as a procurement manager, I made my stand known as a Christian that I don?t get involved in any sharp or corrupt practices. I don?t touch what is not mine. There are times when people call us back to give them something after offering them our impactful training and we boldly make our stand known to them.

What? inspires you to keep moving?

The passion to build lives and?? team building is what keeps me moving on in my chosen career. If you wake me up in the middle of the night to do something I love , it will be team building because it comes naturally.

How do? you intend to impact on the whole? nation?

I do that on two platforms; one is on the spiritual angle, through church programmes and the other is on social platform. We organise monthly integrity workshops training, where we invite organisations, corporations and government officials because? most of the problems we are facing is corruption and the response has been good. We have senior managers, supervisors and top executives that attend. This is our way of bringing social reformation to Nigeria and making sure changes start from the head.

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Source: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/05/i-learnt-team-building-from-books-olugbodi/

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