1. What have you found most challenging as a CEO or executive of a large enterprise?

What I have found most challenging as a CEO is working with key staff who don't give timely feedback. Timely feedback on projects and deadlines goes a long way in helping decision making and this puts me on top of my game. That's why as often as possible we make sure we place great emphasis on this in our Organization

2. How did you become a CEO or executive of a large enterprise? Can you please briefly tell the story?

I was Managing Director of an Asset Management Company in Lagos but resigned because I was no longer motivated and kept feeling that pull to pursue my dream in leadership coaching and training and so I resigned. Shortly after that, a good friend of mine who is the founder and CTO of Trusoft Limited, a software solutions company were I work presently made me an offer to be the MD/CEO because of my past experiences at managing a company and the rest as they say is history

3. How do you structure your work days from waking up to going to sleep?

I run a very flexible structure because I believe we shouldn't make life too hard for ourselves. I start my day with my prayers after which I have my bath and drop the children off at school. Dropping my children off at school is something I don't take for granted because that's one of the few times I get to bond with them. The next thing I do after that is check my mail. Since the global pandemic started, our company being in the IT industry has mostly worked from home and this takes a lot of discipline. I go through my mails and then deal with pending issues. By the time I am done with this, I am finally ready to face the day and most of the things I do daily involve one meeting after the other. Most of the meetings are online but once in a while some of them are physical meetings. My work day normally ends by 5pm after which I unwind by spending one hour reading except at times when I have an extended work day. I am an early sleeper and also an early riser and most days I am in bed by 10pm.

4. What's the most recent significant leadership lesson you've learned?

The most significant leadership lesson I have learnt is to raise other leaders by empowering them. The more you empower people the easier your life becomes. I also as much as possible take much more than a passive interest in the lives of my team because this makes them know that I care for them beyond what they do for our organization

5. What's one book that has had a profound impact on your leadership so far? Can you please briefly tell the story of how that book impacted your leadership?

That book has to be 7 habits of highly effective people by Jack Canfield. It is one book I have read over and over again and every staff in our Organisation is also expected to read the book and submit a short summary to HR. The book really helped me to not blame people for whatever happens to me, to always take charge of situations because I have the power to and that's exactly the way we all carry on in the company. We all have a possibility mindset and believe that we can always soar beyond the sky

6. How do you build leadership capacity in a large enterprise?

There is no hard and first rule to build leadership capacity in a large enterprise but these are the ways that have worked for me as a leader.
1. Lead by example
2. Show empathy
3. Trust your team with responsibilities and allow them to make mistakes
4. Continuous training and learning
5. Have a growth mindset and transmit it to the whole team

7. What is one meaningful story that comes to mind from your time as a CEO or executive of a large enterprise so far?

There are so many stories but the one that comes most to mind was when we had to bid for a government job. Our company was the smallest and least known but we believed that all things were possible if we believed. We did our homework well, refused to be intimated by the size of our competitors, started planning in the office as if we had gotten the contract and that was exactly what happened 3 months after when the results were announced. What we have simply done is to replicate that process at other times and to a large extent we have been successful