FROM CHAIRMAN AND STAFF OF DATABANK FOUNDATION...

THE FACTS ABOUT LIFE

WHO WILL YOU LISTEN TO?

HOW HIGH CAN YOU FLY IN THE MIST OF CHALLENGES?

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comforts and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenges and controversy".....and how he takes defeat.....

 WHAT WOULD YOU CHOOSE THIS DAY ????

Why is it so difficult to forget the burnt bridge or the shut door?
It implies try a diffirent route to the one expected destination because this route has beeen misused or its over populated.
Success as its always said has many fathers.
So does the route to success.
Lets try to see the other bridges when the only one we know is burnt or destroyed.

 

 

 

SOME PICTURES OF THE YLMP LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE IN KUMASI.......

HOW HIGH CAN YOU GO?



WHAT DO YOU THING ABOUT YOURSELF?



WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?

THE CEMETERY

Dreams are the wishes that people have about the future. Dreams have given birth to leaders who have changed the world from the field of economics to politics to relations between the opposite sex. Talk of Martin Luther King Jr. Kwame Nkrumah, Nelson Mandela and currently our own Patrick Awuah co-founder and president of Ashesi University.

Some people have said " the cemetery is the most beautiful place on earth" on the basis that it contains dreams of people that was never acheived. Dreams that could have changed the world in a twinkle of an eye. Most of those dreams where not fulfilled because the dead people allowed obstacles to hinder the realization of their dreams.

To you my wonderful reader, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a dream before a step. Are you ready to step into your dream?

Alvin Toffler said "the illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn"............ Some people in the 21st Century, with high technological advancement, to make work easy and faster, refuse to change to become leaders of this age. Alvin will call these people illiterates. Culture is suppose to be dynamic not static. Man is an ever evolving animal who can adopt than any other living being. The adaptibility of man is both physical and mental to make living confortable. As leaders of positive chage, lets not be 21st Century illiterates.........

HOW MANY TIMES CAN YOU FALL

"The true measure of a man is not how he behaves in momemts of coMfort and convienience but how he stands at times of controversy and challenges"- Martin Luther King Jr.

The world has measured people, institution, clubs, countries and hailed them based on the above quote.

Talk of the amazing come backs in the history of the UEFA Champions league finals between Manchester United and Bayern Munich in 1999, the finals between Liverpool and A.C Milan in 2005.

Talk of personalities like Witney Houston who rose to fame during her early stages of her career, fell due to drugs and rose again before dieing; Prof. Evans Atta Mills losing presidential elections continuously twice and winning the third time, Prof. Allottey failing several times in the O' level examination only to rise to be the onlt africa to create a theory used when going to space. 

Counries like Japan and China have fallen and rosen to surpass lots of potential countries after the effects of the WW 2.

How many times have you fallen?

How many times have you risen?

How many times do you expect to fall and rise?

Many have pursued courses and goals andafter the first fall or challenge, gave up and never returned to their target.

What will you do When you fall?

Its been repeated time and time again that little drops of water makes a mighty ocean. Have you on any occasion considered this quote on the aspect of your health.

Plato said "attention to health is life greatest hinderance". It is a good thing to make sure you keep up with your health. With all of today's pesticides and hormone injected foods it is good to stay on top of a healthy well balanced diet. But, if you pay too much attention to health and worry about it all the time you will do more harm then good. Don't let your health hinder your a good mood.

To therefore not worrying about our health, lets follow the old saying that "an apple a day keeps the doctor away".

The apple is related to the little insignificant thing we do to keep us fit and strong: taking a stroll to visit a friend, laughing out laud everyday, having fun, releasing stress little by little enjoying fresh air, and eating fruits. all done uncontiously keeps the doctor away.

Lets remember that the apple a day is your little drops of "tablets" making a mighty and healthy living.



WALT DISNEY



"An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching" Mahatma Gandhi.

This twenty first century has witnessed a lot of talkers from all corners of the world. Talkers who have made the grave the most beautiful place on eath. Saying a million things at a time and creating not even one hundredth of what was said. When confronted about their failures, its always the same excuse....."its in the pipeline" or "its not my fault. Its the enviroment".....

Mahatma was a walker and talker, Walt Disney was a walker and talker, Kwame Nkrumah was a walker and talker. the list goes on and on.

What have you said since your birth and not done?

Lets become the doers and not the sayers. Lets walk the talk.

That is a mark of a great leader whose traits are followed centuries after their demise. 

The wisdom of age are never forgotten. Once again I quote from the mouth of an outstanding philisopher whose thought for thousands of years has influenced our way of living presently. He said that "there is no harm in repeating a good thing".

Good deeds comes from the hearts. As mother Teresa said "the fruit of faith is love and the fruit of love is service". This service is to mankind, without regrets, repeated over and over again.

How many times have you repeated a good deed? Do you always refer someone to a particular good deed you've done? Referrals to Good deeds indicates pride. Good deeds must be done in a humble manner and must be forgotten that it has ever been done. That is a great mark of leadership. Enjoy the weekend with lots of good deeds from you to the less privileged.

" Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance. " ( Plato)

Plato explains people form opinions based on their knowledge. People's knowledge directly reflects the information that was retained. People are ignorant, because they don't know everything and they try and form opinions. They say what they think, not what they know.

I therefore ask you, what are your opinions based on? What are your suggestions, ideas, advice based on?

Are they based on knowledge or ignorance?

As its stated, " even the foolish is considered wise when he remains quiet"



Prof. Francis Allotey



The opinions of the past have become the knowledge of today. Talk of Homer, Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Isaac Newton, Max Weber, Nkrumah, J.B Danquah and Professor Francis Allotey just to mention a few. These individuals left knowledgable opinions which have impacted on the world greatly.

What knowledgeable opinion of yours has changed you, your family, your society, country,continent and the world?  







"SERIOUS ILLITERATES"

" The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn". - Alvin Toffler

The world has evolved from informal means of education, to a mixture of the informal and formal means of education. A global world where information is at the tips of everyone's hands. 

The questions therefore are: How many information have you accessed? How many information have you processed? How many information have you utilized to your benefit and that of your community and country at large?

The ability to learn has been given to every individual in the world be you a black person or white or caucasian.

I ask again: How well have you used your learning ability both formally and informally?

Prof. F. K Drah of the Political Science Department, University of Ghana said he will continue to learn even to the point of death.What about you; what are you doing to the point of your death; will you learn;

 and what will you learn?

Leaders are the best learners in the world.  

 Finally....“Any fool can know. The point is to understand.” ― Albert Einstein

The Young Leaders Mentorship Programme is organizing its second annual play production this Friday (27th July, 2012) at  of the GNAT Hall.

It is based on Meshack Asare's The Cross Drums and performed by our mentees. Follw the adventures of young Billa and Meriga as they overcome obstacles and unite their two waring villages despite the odds through the bonds of friendship.

This heart warming talwe is testament to the fact that there is indeed a leader in us all; we only need to dig deep within ourselves to find it.

It will be educative and fun.

A True Leader

A true leader is one who takes personal responsibility and ownership...

This boy in the next table at the restaurant was super active. He was all over the place and would just not listen to his parents who tried to discipline him.

Standing on the long sofa that connected both the tables he was making a kite out of the napkins and throwing the spoon and knife down. Finally what I feared, happened... juice glass in hand while jumping... he lost balance and spilled it over my trousers.

The father said, "Rohan, that's not done. I have been warning you. Say sorry to the uncle... say sorry."

The boy muttered something I could not hear.

The mother said, "I think more than Rohan, we should say sorry. I am really sorry for what happened."

On our way back...

"You saw how the father was insisting on that brat to say sorry," I said.

My wife said, "I am actually thinking of 'the mother who took responsibility' for what he did, and said sorry to us. I realized she felt the embarrassment over the short comings of her son and took personal ownership tendering an apology."

Besides the mother to mother connectivity, one could see and sense the real leader in the family. (http://www.inspired-personal-development.com/a-true-leader.html)

The inner sense of what is right or wrong in one's conduct or motives, impelling one toward right action is known as conscience.  Leadership effectiveness and efficiency depends on the effective use of one's conscience. The use of this ability has led to the raise and fall of many individuals and institutions both known and unknown. Examples of such individuals include India's Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi commonly known as Mahatma Gandhi, and Nelson Mandela of South Africa. It is agreed in all societies about the value of conscience and its effect on the development of the society. Also the fall of some individuals who, from my point of view, did not appreciate the use of their conscience leading to their down fall include Idi Amin of Uganda.

When one's consicence is bought, it becomes difficult to correct the buyer when he or she goes wrong, for you do not knock the head of the one whom you have your hand in his or her mouth lest he bites it off.

Therefore as leaders our court of justice should first of be our good consicence. This should be our constitution to guide our actions and inactions to make an impact on the individuals around us.

 

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has".- Margaret Mead
So i ask you: What type of Ghanaian are you?

It is therefore my dream that every Ghanaian will be "the dreamer" to help increase the development process of this noble country.

As part of the mentorship programme, a mini seminar was held on the 6th of July 2012 at Accra High School on the topic "Career Development and Study Skills". Mrs Felicia Ashley, HRM of Databank, was the resource person for this mini seminar.

According to her, Career development is a process. It’s not a one day dream. Below are some questions she asked the mentees and junior mentors to ask themselves in terms of career development.

Why do I want to be there?

Where do I start from?

What role must I play in getting there?

In summary, as discussed, to know what career path to tread, we must know ourselves; watch out for our areas of interest, know our values, beliefs, abilities and most importantly pray about our career.We can develop our careers through workshops; career counseling and through mentoring programmes.

 In terms of the role we can play ,Felicia advised that we  look out for role models in the fields we are interested in, engage our mentors, and be hardworking. Careers are constructed through choices. The choices we make in life would lead to our desired goals. As young ones, we must learn to be dedicated and focused. To butress her point she made reference to the bible. “Hard work will put you before Kings”

We again learnt some few tips on studying skills. She touched on the relevance of having personal timetable and encouraging study groups not forgetting to go over what has been taught in class.
In conclusion, we gathered that it is very important to plan our studies. We must balance our time adequately for all courses, take active part in group discussions and solve past questions. Above all we must commit our ways and plans into the hands of The Almighty King.

It was a very fruitful session with Felicia Ashley, Head of Human Capital, Databank Financial Services Limited. God Bless you Felicia!!!

The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say “I.” And that’s not because they have trained themselves not to say “I.” They don’t think “I.” They think “we”; they think “team.” They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don’t sidestep it, but “we” gets the credit…. This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done. (Peter Drucker)

The art of leadership stems from within. It is a life stlye that people take notice of while you lead them. Some have leadership qualities gifted, some learn how to lead. Leadership initially starts from the leading of the ones' self. To lead a group of people to a stated destination starts from the leader leading him/herself  through self discipline based on life driven principles and values and after the destination has been reached acknowledges the significance of the followers

It is therefore necesary to be self discipline in order to discipline and lead people to a goal. You can n't take the spark in peoples eyes when a log is rooted in yours.

Mahatma Ghandhi, Nelson Mandela, Lao-Tzu have all taught us the practical nature of a leader. This is emphasized in the quote by Benjamin Disraeli who said "I must follow the people. Am I not their leader?

Lets all live like leaders in our small communities. Little drops of leadership makes a wonderful world of positive change. Thus the task of leadership is not to put greatness into people, but to elicit it, for the greatness is there already (John Buchan)

 

Creativity and innovation has made the world go round. Those who have impacted on the world created a path for others to follow. talk of  Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Google boys etc. The willingness to think outside the socially structured box. The ability to swallow mistakes and build on them has been one of the foundational stone of built leaders.

Do not follow where the path may lead.
Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
Harold R. McAlindon.

Trails show the path to a destination. Leaders leave trails for the progress and development of followers. Nkrumah left a trial for the gradual independence of the african continent from colonialism. 

Trails can be related to the light house for sailing ships, Jesus Christ for all christians, Aristotle for the development of democracy and the so on and on.

Roland Agmabire

So as future leaders lets create our trials or improve upon the old trails we are using for it to be straight enough for later generation just like Mr Roland Agmabire of RLG Ghana. 

leadership through service

To lead people, walk beside them … As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence. The next best, the people honor and praise. The next, the people fear; and the next, the people hate … When the best leader’s work is done the people say, ‘We did it ourselves!
Lao-Tzu

So just like our Lord Jesus said, lead like a sevant. Its our duty as up and coming Leaders of the world and Africa to serve all those around us so to make them happy so when we are not around, our absence will mean a lot to Africa. Just like the the absence of Lucky Dube, Kwame Nkrumah, Heil Selasi has been felt across the continent.

Thus the price of greatness is responsibility

The task of leadership is not to put greatness into people, but to elicit it, for the gatness is there already.
- John Buchan

Greatness is an innate quality of every one. It is up to everyone to discover where his or her greatness lies. Others are on the field of play like great footballers, some in the governance of a country, others in acting and so on. We are born different and our difference is bring out the uniqueness of our greatness to the service of humankind.

To nurture our greatness begins with self-indentity, effective education, determination and hard work. This comes with the acceptance of our ignorance which paves the way for our brains to accept knowledge. As was stated by Socrates "I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing" .

An article from Geoffrey Colvin of Cable News Network (CNN) provides the secrets to greatness:

No substitute for hard work

The first major conclusion is that nobody is great without work. It's nice to believe that if you find the field where you're naturally gifted, you'll be great from day one, but it doesn't happen. There's no evidence of high-level performance without experience or practice.

Reinforcing that no-free-lunch finding is vast evidence that even the most accomplished people need around ten years of hard work before becoming world-class, a pattern so well established researchers call it the ten-year rule.

What about Bobby Fischer, who became a chess grandmaster at 16? Turns out the rule holds: He'd had nine years of intensive study. And as John Horn of the University of Southern California and Hiromi Masunaga of California State University observe, "The ten-year rule represents a very rough estimate, and most researchers regard it as a minimum, not an average." In many fields (music, literature) elite performers need 20 or 30 years' experience before hitting their zenith.

So greatness isn't handed to anyone; it requires a lot of hard work. Yet that isn't enough, since many people work hard for decades without approaching greatness or even getting significantly better. What's missing?

Practice makes perfect

The best people in any field are those who devote the most hours to what the researchers call "deliberate practice." It's activity that's explicitly intended to improve performance, that reaches for objectives just beyond one's level of competence, provides feedback on results and involves high levels of repetition.

For example: Simply hitting a bucket of balls is not deliberate practice, which is why most golfers don't get better. Hitting an eight-iron 300 times with a goal of leaving the ball within 20 feet of the pin 80 percent of the time, continually observing results and making appropriate adjustments, and doing that for hours every day - that's deliberate practice.

Consistency is crucial. As Ericsson notes, "Elite performers in many diverse domains have been found to practice, on the average, roughly the same amount every day, including weekends."



Aliko Dangote- the Richest men in Africa.



Evidence crosses a remarkable range of fields. In a study of 20-year-old violinists by Ericsson and colleagues, the best group (judged by conservatory teachers) averaged 10,000 hours of deliberate practice over their lives; the next-best averaged 7,500 hours; and the next, 5,000. It's the same story in surgery, insurance sales, and virtually every sport. More deliberate practice equals better performance. Tons of it equals great performance.