Name:  Ladanu Zacheus Ayodeji

Title: Pioneer and Director

Organisation: ALPHADEMIA INTERNATIONAL

As a multifaceted individual with proven records in Educational Consultancy, Brand Strategy and Youth Leadership, he doubles as a prolific trainer, writer and speaker.

He holds a BA in English Language; and Professional Certificates in ESL & EFL, Youth Mentorship and Advisory, Community Developments, Business Management, Entrepreneurship and Career Counseling, with a PGDE (in view).

He is the Pioneer and Director at ALPHADEMIA INTERNATIONAL (one of Nigeria's fast rising International Tests Preparatory Centre with campuses in 2 states and counting). He doubles as a Co-Founder, Brand Strategist and Venture Capitalist at CREDENCE CAPITALS. He is also the President of THE REACHERS NETWORK (a Youth Led Non Profit that informatively equip the 21st century young individuals for purposeful living: while overseeing the SCHOOL OF MONEY FOR YOUNG LEADERS - a youth based financial training arm of ALPHADEMIA INTERNATIONAL.

He is a student of life, with a heart to work and learn from others with similar goal for social transformation.

Thank you to the 2,000 leaders who’ve generously done the 7 Questions on Leadership!

I hope Ladanu's answers will encourage you in your leadership journey. Enjoy!

Cheers,

Jonno White

1. What have you found most challenging as a leader?

Managing people remains one of the weightier issues faced by every visionary leader. I have been momentarily challenged to invest in learning about people; as the proper management of this unpredictable entity galvanize unprecedented results in any sphere of endeavor.

2. How did you become a leader? Can you please briefly tell the story?

Managing people remains one of the weightier issues faced by every visionary leader. I have been momentarily challenged to invest in learning about people; as the proper management of this unpredictable entity galvanize unprecedented results in any sphere of endeavor.

For me, leadership would simply take the definition of an art of becoming, rather than a principle of achievement. My flashbacks of leadership precedes those days which I had to lead my colleagues to inter-school debate and quiz competitions, or the part of my inexperienced life when I had wrongly influenced older and more experienced people to err against constituted authorities. It preceded my time of prefect-ship at the high school; or even the undergraduate and post degree days that I started a writing and music club, inspired others in partnership for community development services and engage in school politics that put me in a decisive position.

Leadership for me is as relishing at a hundred steps as much as it was when I took my very first. It is a experiential process that had culminatively built me into who I have become today.

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

My wake up time is between 6am to 7am everyday. I invest into my spiritual development in the early hours of the day. I mostly resume for work by 9am to teach, consult, supervise and train until around 3pm everyday.

Also, I push for a nap around 5pm, engage in some outdoor exercise and eventually spend some time with my family. I read the news, send pending applications and reply my mails between 10:30pm to 12am, which is immediately followed up with studying for another 2 hours, before I finally catch some sleep.

4. What's a recent leadership lesson you've learned for the first time or been reminded of?

It is that every landmark experience and enterprise started out as an infinitesimal idea in an almost ignorable human. Every great venture is built on thoughts which was almost dismissed.

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?

Jim Colin’s Good to Great is one book that has practically revolutionize my entire thinking setup as an entrepreneur and a leader.

The books has impacted my leadership experience in ways unimaginable. It taught me the importance of people engagement as a system that enable a durable structure for my venture. Both sides of the bridge to walk from Good to Great are People Management and Systemic Structures.

6. If you could only give one piece of advice to a young leader, what would you say to them?

Hardwork pays the best interest. If any young mind can dare to dream it, then he must also be ready to work it into believable experiences.

7. What is one meaningful story that comes to mind from your time as a leader, so far?

Prior to Match 2020, my team and I had began the process of setting up my first business venture as a physical space, which was immediately foreclosed due to the global exposure to the COVID 19. With 85% of my personal funds outsourcing for the project, it was a bitter pill for me to swallow as a young entrepreneur.

Nonetheless, I was able to maximize the season by studying biographies of successful businessmen. Within weeks, my spark was restored, and I was able to reassemble my team to pre-design cost effective approaches that would considerably fit our potential clients' budgets. We also leveraged on Video Conference Apps to resolve the challenge of sustaining conventional academic experiences during the contagion - by simply hiring, training and connecting freelance tutors to paying students for academic engagements through subscribed virtual platforms. This idea helped us to raise funds throughout the contagion, and it has remained one of our major services providing platforms until now.