I’ve met and been inspired by great women in my life, I’ve read about exceptional women, women who have conquered barriers. Of all of these women, one woman stands out to me……..my mother!!! And no one has even written a book about her…….yet!

This woman was made of steel. She took the bull by its horns and was never afraid to speak her mind. She knew when to fight and when to just sit back and watch.

Our Heavenly Father has the reputation of making Master Pieces, but I think He outdid Himself when creating this woman. This woman was simply exceptional……and she didn’t even know it.

She worked hard, she broke her back to feed her kids and she never complained. She hated laziness. We were all assigned specific duties daily. Sometimes I wondered where she got all that strength.

When it came to disciplining her kids, she was in the front line. If you came to her to report that you had heard someone speaking ill of her, she would slap the living daylight out of you. Gossip was out of question. I do not remember talking back at her, but how could you….unless you were signing your death warrant. Her rule was simple with her children, her house, her rules,otherwise,you were free to move out.

My mother never went to school……ok, she went through adult education, enough to enable her count the pages of my exercise books to confirm that they were all intact. We were not the easiest children to deal with. But she valued education, not once while she was alive was I ever sent home for not paying school fees. If she needed to go and plead with the Head Master, she was ready. With all my education and degrees, I’m not even half the woman my mother was.

And today as we celebrate Women’s Day, I celebrate an incredible woman. A woman who sacrificed everything, until her last breath, for her family. The night before she died, she made sure she had prepared the following day’s lunch for her children.

I take after my mother, in more ways than one. I draw my strength from her legacy because even in death, this woman continues to shape my life. I am my mother’s daughter!!!

Dear Lord, grant my mother eternal rest and may you continue to bless her children. Happy Women’s Day to all the selfless women out there, all the great women who refuse to stay on the sideline and watch things happen. To all the women who sweat it out to make this world a better place, we celebrate you today and everyday!!!

Whenever someone calls me to say, ‘Hi Ann, I’m looking for a job. Can you help me find one?’ My response is always standard, ‘what kind of job are you looking for?’.

The other almost standard response usually is, ‘any job’. There is however a problem with that answer. First, ‘any job’ is very difficult to find because it does not exist. No potential employer advertises for a position called ‘any job’. Secondly, a person who is looking for any job is probably not very serious. That’s because, any time you leave your house in search of employment, or even approach a potential employer,at the back of your mind, there is a particular job you are hoping to land.

One of the reasons why some people are not getting jobs as soon as they should is not because they are not qualified enough or educated enough, it’s because they are not sure of which direction they are headed. The thing is, if you don’t know where you are going, you will keep walking round and round and end up in the same spot you started.

Therefore, when you sit down to structure your CV and check out the job columns, you need to have your head straight. Be sure you know what you want and pursue it as aggressively as you can. You will be rejected a couple of times, you may even want to give up and try to settle. You however need to remember that nothing in life comes easy, these days even falling asleep has become difficult.

So go out there and pursue your dreams.

The Human Resource office is one of the most feared offices in any organization. As a matter of fact, it is the only office you rarely want to pass by and find out how the occupant is doing, lest something you are hiding crop up.

As a new member of staff, even the best orientation program does not prepare you for the kind of reception the staff will give you. As a matter of fact, when you join the company, everyone sticks their neck out, they want to know how they new ‘lady’ is doing. There are whispers during lunch sessions and everyone is just not sure anymore.

Then you begin to see people come to say hello.Others will try to speak in vernacular, just to find out if you speak the same mother tongue. If you fall for that trick, you automatically become ‘their person’ and now they can ask for favors. Others will approach you to gossip about one of their colleagues, just to hear what you will say. Others will hand you goodies, just so you are in good books with them.

Then there are those veteran employees….those who think they have earned the right to be where they are and by extension, the right to do whatever they want. In their own words, ‘we have been here since the inception of this company,what call she tell us’. These ones will test your patience. Their attitude is foul and in their own mind, they believe you are only there temporarily. ‘She will leave too, just like the other one left’, they say.

This is a very trying moment for every HRM and it is important that you remain your own person. All of the above people are meant to help you adjust to the new working environment. The earlier you are able to establish who each employee is, the better for you. Do not be fooled by niceness, most of the times, it doesn’t last.

Any HRM who joins an organization thinking that at one point, they will be the most popular staff or that the staff will like him/her is greatly mistaken. Human Resource Management is like a double edged sword, you are on my side today and tomorrow, you shift sides. At the end of the day, what matters is justice and fairness.

NB: Human Resource Practice is not a popularity contest…..believe that

One of my University Professors defined ‘Integrity’ simply as ‘doing the right thing when no one is watching’.

It is important that whether you are at work or anywhere else, you avoid doing the right thing only when under supervision. As a Manager or Employer, you may decide to be late to work or even accept a bribe because you are convinced that no one is watching. The thing is that such habits come back to bite you when you least expect.

Being a person of integrity is however not easy. You must be strong willed and know exactly what you stand for. People will test you without even realizing that you are being tested. Some of these tests will show up wrapped as presents or even money. But unless you have made a decision not to compromise your integrity, you will easily fall into this trap.

Do not hand your power over to an employee simply because you could not control your urge to collect a bribe because the moment one pays you to receive a favor or job, they are in a position to blackmail you at will.

When you have nothing to hide, no matter how much people try to create stories about you, they will never be able to prove it……… and there is pride in that, take it from me!

Whenever we hear about ‘Motivation’ at our places of work, the first thing that crosses our minds is what the employer is going to do to make us feel better at work, or other, love our work.

We start to think about increased salaries, more allowance etc. The truth of the matter is, we are all motivated by different things. Abraham Maslow clearly explains this in his theory of Hierarchy of Needs.

The choice of whether to feel or not to feel motivated at work is always a personal one. Any additional things done by your employer to improve this are just touch ups.

The biggest motivator your employer can ever give you in the opportunity to work. Working for someone is not a favor you are doing for them as people tend to imagine. There is someone who is able to do the job you do, even better than you. The only difference between you and them is the opportunity you have. The opportunity to be alive alone is enough motivation for each person to keep fighting and moving forward.

So every morning when you sit on your desk and start wondering what your employer is going to do to motivate you, you need to remember that your motivation comes from within you first. You must desire to sit on that desk and do everything that pertains to sitting on that desk. You must prove to yourself that you have earned the right to do what you do because you are competent enough. Otherwise, if the inner motivation is lacking, your employer does not have a magic stick that when it is swung over your head, it will move you from ‘unmotivated’ to ‘motivated’.