There are many skills one has to employ in their work to achieve the productivity needed to succeed. There are many hard skills as well as soft skills and today I want us to consider one of the soft skills that we normally leave behind in our career journey – Hunger. Hunger is a human skill which a number of people think is inessential when they attain a certain stage in their personal and work life. Hunger is the drive, momentum, the ability to keep going, start life again, to reinvent, to know that even if you fail, you can rise up and do it again – over and over and over again. Without hunger you cannot do it. The same hunger you had when you left school to join the work force, start a business, and become part of a team is the same hunger that must spur you on in every stage of your life – whether work or personal. Never throw away that hunger even when you feel you have “arrived.” There are people who are now moving to their bigger and better days but have abandoned their hunger because of the achievement that they think they have and are enjoying now. How much do you want to grow? Do you know that you stop growing once you stop being hungry? The only person who can stop you from growing is YOU. If you were not aware before reading this article that you are the one who is solely responsible for your success or failure, now you know. What are you going to do different in this next half of the year in areas of your life that matter – work life, personal life and social life for instance?
I have had people asking me this question time and again that, “Dzigbordi, what is your motivation, what drives you to continue yearning for more and becoming better at what you do? You never seem to get tired even with age and in the difficult times. What is your secret? I always enlighten them on the soft skill called ‘Hunger’ that people seem to forget about once they feel comfortable at the level they find themselves. I let them know that I have developed and keep developing my hunger skill enough to continue dreaming and pushing myself to become a better version of me so that I can be relevant in my service to others. It is not innate, but it involves conscious working on and constant practicing in every stage you find yourself whether you are in the failing, rising, preparation or success stage. I always hunger to learn more, to do more and be the ‘go – to – person’ who can serve others through my experiences to become a better version of themselves and be relevant in whichever workspace they find themselves.
Your hunger is evident in your daily actions so start right where you are instead of waiting for everything to fall in place and become perfect for you because it will not. It is what you do with your daily actions that will let things fall in place and produce the results you want when done positively. This is where confidence will set in. I always say confidence is something you do overtime and you become; it is the ability to be willing to try when others are not. It requires patience, attitude and perseverance just like hunger, it is not a one – time skill but developed over time. One major characteristic of everyone who practises the hunger skill like I do, loves to and is willing to learn even from people whom they are older than. The goal is to gain knowledge that will be of benefit to clients and people they work with regardless of the one teaching. As we grow up from childhood, the hunger we had that made us curious to ask about the ‘why’ of everything is gradually stifled by boundaries of what we should and should not do and these same boundaries infiltrate the workplace when we become adults. Thus, most people find it difficult to move into new territories when they get used to one way of doing things and in effect, inhibit their growth.
Similarly, Warren Berger author of “A More Beautiful Question,” agrees and notes, “…Many companies – whether consciously or not – have established cultures that tend to discourage inquiry in the form of someone asking, for example, ‘Why are we doing this particular thing in this particular way?’” We need more opportunities for curiousity to flourish where we work. We all know learning is not about acquiring and regurgitating information just to pass a course or examination; nor is learning just about obtaining new skill set in order to improve our career. Learning changes how we think – pure and simple. And the irony is, if learning changes how we think, it actually can help us regain the curiousity needed to grow in today’s workplace. Individuals with high curiousity describe the thrill of being challenged by new situations and learning new tasks. And they experience great pleasure associated with such learning. Whatever the outcome from their learning, it is reward enough. It also provides motivation to continue to want to learn. Such individuals also like to gather information from varied sources. It becomes fascinating to find and learn new information and how to apply it in their lives. The seeking out of new and unfamiliar information is a stimulating and exciting exercise. Nobel – prize winning physicist Richard Feynman noted, “Everything is interesting if you go into it deeply enough.”That is the kind of curiousity we need to develop in the workplace for greater collaboration and to innovate new ideas and inventions. – trainingmag.
As you go on in your journey, it gets to a point where you have to choose how far you want to go; some settle for mediocrity whereas some ace heights in attaining the pinnacle of knowledge. Having a passion or hunger for learning is something that you can possess mostly by choice. Your hunger for something can result in a lot of positive consequences. It can be strong enough to move mountains, inspire ideas, initiate programmes, be on the move and come up with discoveries and inventions that man has never known. Having that hunger for knowledge gives you the motivation to find ways for solving problems, come out of adversities, and reach your ultimate goals as a leader. The excitement in accumulating knowledge can make the learning process an enjoyable and productive one. Finding newer ways of learning, doing it in different ways, incorporating new methods, and exploring different views make the initially dull work plan a desirable one. As often said and believed that knowledge is power, you can find it in your observation of how the learned are able to master life and respond to the challenges life brings their way. When you allow yourself to be open – minded and accommodating to receive new information, it can ignite the power of your brain and mind in so many ways. For a better future for ourselves as leaders and others – managers, coworkers, junior staff, family, friends, etc., we must keep the hunger for learning alive; and this is what will give us reason to ceaselessly grow. Let us find ourselves and know ourselves inside out as that forms an important factor of being that instrument of change in the workplace and beyond.
Here are four tips from bedifferentorbedead about hungry people that can help you in developing you hunger skill:
- THEY DO NOT TALK ABOUT THE PAST
They talk about what needs to be done, not what was achieved yesterday. They do not suffer “custodians of the past” lightly. Dwelling on what worked yesterday frustrates them to no end. They see reflection on the past as an impediment to taking action and moving forward.
- THEY NEVER STOP LEARNING
They are voracious learners who pursue knowledge paths that are consistent with the new competencies the organisation needs to adopt to perform at high levels. A shift from monopoly business to a competitive one requires adopting marketing and customer service expertise; the hungry person acquires the knowledge and skills necessary.
- THEY HAVE BOLD, AUDACIOUS GOALS
They have “unrealistic” career goals. They declare an audacious goal without any idea of how they will achieve it, and they go for it. They trust they will find a way to get to where they want to go.
- THEY HAVE ‘SPIDER SENSES’
They are restless, waiting to be on the move. They are anticipatory people who are always poised to act. Some might describe them as impatient and frustrated when they are hovering and waiting as opposed to acting. Their “spider senses” allow them to spot the opportunity to jump.
The soft skill of hunger is one that no leader can do away with so let’s embrace it and work toward making our workplaces highly productive.
Are you ready for TRANSFORMATION?
Dzigbordi K. Dosoo: The H.E.L.P. Coach
Dzigbordi K. Dosoo is a Soft Skills Expert, Personal Impact, Professional Growth and Influence Expert specializing in Humanness, Entrepreneurship, Leadership and Power – H.E.L.P.
A career spanning over two decades, she has established herself as a Certified High Performance Coach, Speaker, Author, Wellness Expert and award-winning Entrepreneur with a clientele ranging from C-Suite Executives, Senior Management, Practitioners and Sales Leaders spanning 3 continents.
She is the Soft Skills Expert and Founder of Dzigbordi K. Dosoo (DKD) Holdings; a premier lifestyle business group with brand subsidiaries that include Dzigbordi Consulting Group& Allure Africa.
Dzigbordi has been featured on CNN for her entrepreneurial expertise. She is one of the most decorated female entrepreneurs in Ghana having being named “CIMG Marketing Woman of the Year” in 2009; “Top 10 most respected CEOs in Ghana, 2012; Global Heart of Leadership Award and, Women Rising “100 Most Influential Ghanaian Women”, 2017.
She can be reached on [email protected] and @dzigbordikwaku across all social media platforms.
