We were lucky to catch up with Faith Emmanuel recently and have shared our conversation below.
Faith, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
One of my favorite quotes is the one by Winston Churchill- Success is not final, failure is not fatal, it is the courage to keep going that counts. I think that’s what has helped me thus far.
When I left high-school, I wrote my University entrant exams (UTME) thrice, while I didn’t fail any, I didn’t get into the University of my choice until the third attempt because I kept on writing the wrong combination of subjects. Today, I am a graduate. (I actually graduated 5 years ago), but the moral lesson is, if I can get admission at the third attempt, I can get anything at the third attempt if the first and second attempt fails.
That was my first lesson on resilience and that has kept me going so a simple way to answer is that I get my resilience from the aggregation of my previous experiences, and the inspiring stories of my friends, acquaintances and people who rose after falling multiple times.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I am a Globally certified Human Resource Professional, People Leader and Employability Skills Trainer. I have about six years aggregated experiences, with three years in lead roles where I have piloted and executed people and business driven initiatives with amazing results. In fact, a few months ago, I was listed as one of the top 20 disruptive People Leaders in my country, Nigeria.
I started out working with General Electric, as a process analyst while taking up bubble assignments with the HR team, I later moved to a fin-tech where I implemented processes that positioned the organisation as one of the best places to work in Nigeria, before moving to Big Cabal Media, a digital media organisation as the Head of Talent. At the moment, I am on a career break, while looking for the next best opportunity to explore.
Something new about me? I just launched an initiative themed “HR Clinic” where I provide people-centric solutions to NGOs, Pre-seed founders and HR at start-ups, guiding them on how to build sustainable culture, and people processes that keeps their employees engaged and productive. You can send an email to helloemmanuelfaith@gmail.com to make enquiries.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Knowledge seeking- A friend recently reminded me about how eager I was about soaking in knowledge. I often advise that at the beginning of your career, you should be a sponge of knowledge, soaking in as much as you can.
The second is the ability to show your work: One of my favorite saying is to show the relevant stakeholders that you are working. It will accelerate your progress and reinforce your credibility.
The last one is to learn basic soft skills like communication skills, analytical skills and stakeholder management- they are really pivotal to your career growth and acceleration.
Awesome, really appreciate you opening up with us today and before we close maybe you can share a book recommendation with us. Has there been a book that’s been impactful in your growth and development?
I will always pick “The Defining decade” by Meg Jay. Most of us lay the foundation of our career in our 20s, and in the book, the author talked about the importance of building our identity capital from the array of experiences we gather and how these positions us for different kind of opportunities.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://t.co/s53Tw1R0Kd
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmanuel-faith/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/themmanuelfaith
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVsVuBXf8C8YBvFKpp-otmA
Image Credits
Photography by Ebubechi studios. Styled by-Ololade Idunnuoluwa
