Homegrown and Worldclass Podcast: Recent Episodes
Paul J. Braga
Practical guidance to help you grow from where you stand to where you stand out as a local worker in Africa because excellence is not an import product.
If Aliko Dangote was able to become a homegrown and world-class businessman and if no foreign or local school can take credit for his great achievements, what does it tell you about your possibilities of becoming a homegrown and world-class African worker from wherever you stand?
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Click right here to ask your question, make your comment or share your Homegrown and Worldclass story!
I need your help to find just one other local worker in Africa... I need one of two things from you (or both, if you will): good old word of mouth and new digital word of mouse (click). Will you help me?
Homegrown and Worldclass might not be for you for some reason. But it might well be exactly what your colleague, your friend, or your sibling had been expecting all along to help them grow from where they stand to where they stand out as a local worker in Africa!
So, please pass this on now or, better still, keep listening then pass it on and see to it that they too pass it on. "But why exactly should I do that?", you may ask... Listen on.
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Three professional development pathways for a local worker in Africa that I want to cover in this episode are DFY, DWY, and DIY. Let's unpack them.
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As you follow one course until success, it helps to define areas of focus because life is complex. Success in life is always a balancing act of what some call the wheel of life.
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As a human being, you have three needs and three needs only: to be, to bond, to blossom. Any other need you might think of relates to one of those three... Let's see how these three needs play out and actually hold the keys to how you manage your life and career.
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Growing as a professional is essentially a learning and communication exercise. In Episode 29, I already dealt with learning... In this episode, I’ll be talking about communication.
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Here’s the number 1 lie hindering your growth: “I don’t have time”.
You may wonder how that’s a lie as you actually think and feel you don’t have time. But there’s the rub: it’s your thought and feeling, not a fact. The fact is you have 24 hours a day every day. The only day anyone might have less is the day they die.
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Communities are built on communication, which is made possible by a common language. It seems so obvious. So, why aren’t we taking advantage of that more to advance our careers? Let me explain...
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Can there be any such thing as job security? And whose job is it to ensure you have job security? Let's dive right in!
First of all, do not confuse job security and job safety...
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As a local worker in Africa, you will need money for your job search or to start your business. But money is neither the first nor the most important thing you need. So, let me explain what work is about before you let the lack of money stand in the way.
To work is for you to put your Energy, Abilities, and Time to serve the needs of others. That’s how you get to EAT, or to put it another way, that’s how you get to make money. Let’s dig deeper into this.
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I dedicate this episode to my friends Elizabeth Peter and Samm Obathany as well as all Tanzanians who work in the hospitality sector. This short and sweet special episode will focus on one secret I brought back from Tanzania.
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Certains dons se voient sans efforts d’autres exigent qu’on creuse plus ou moins loin – comparez les ressources forestières et les ressources minières de la RDC, par exemple. Le don, c’est le potentiel. Il doit être non seulement reconnu mais aussi utilisé, comme tu l’as si bien perçu.
Et c’est la connaissance ou la conscience du don qui fait rejeter la médiocrité. Le potentiel connu nourrit les aspirations. On réalise qu’on peut être, faire et avoir mieux.
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Your number 1 skill as a local worker in Africa (and anyone's number 1 skill anywhere in the world for that matter) is learning. Learning is the parent skill of all skills. All knowledge and know-how are acquired through learning.
Whether you are in a formal or informal setting, there are basically 5 ways you can learn and excel professionally...
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Employee or entrepreneur, what should I be? Early on, I decided I wouldn’t be anyone’s employee. I wanted to be an entrepreneur. Then wisdom visited me, and I understood the triple benefit of employment for wannabe entrepreneurs. Are you at that fork in the road as a local worker in Africa? Or do you know anyone who is? Keep listening to this Episode 28 of the Homegrown and Worldclass Podcast on Mastery Fork Road and the Local Worker in Africa.
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In Episode 26, I told you that mastery is about practice started, scaled, and sustained. Nothing highlights the über-importance of starting, scalability, and sustainability like entrepreneurship. So, in this episode, let's talk about Pursuing Mastery in Entrepreneurship as a Local Worker in Africa. Want to build a career as an entrepreneur? I'm going to provide you with a structure that will help you build from foundation to finish.
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In podcasting, as in all professions, three actions matter:
- start,
- scale,
- sustain.
And the last two aren’t possible if you never start. Mastery comes from practice started, scaled, and sustained.
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Rechercher la maestria dans un domaine n’a rien à voir avec décrocher une maîtrise dans ce domaine. Très peu de diplômes préparent à l’exercice compétent d’un métier. Et c’est encore plus vrai pour les diplômes universitaires. Je partage mon expérience à cet égard dans l’épisode avant d’annoncer quelques un des métiers que j’ai appris en les faisant.
En français, il y a cette expression malheureuse : formé sur le tas. Et si on disait formé par la pratique d’une part et formé par la théorie d’autre part ?
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There is obviously a lot more to say about pursuing mastery in humanitarian aid. But here’s the takeaway: the combination of humanitarian standards and competency frameworks will give you a crystal-clear view of the right direction to mastery.
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If you ask me to summarize success at work as a conference interpreter in a single word, I would say "Trusted".
And if you asked the same in 3 words, I’d say "Trusted Meaning Broker".
Early on, I figured out intuitively that interpreting was about getting the meaning of discourse in one language as fully as possible and conveying that meaning as masterfully as feasible in the other language. Of course, in those early years, this is not the language I would have used...
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About two decades ago, an international NGO hired me as Training Officer. At the time, I was a self-trained trainer whose only hands-on experience had been to facilitate marriage preparation sessions at my local church for a couple of months.
You rightly imagine all the gap-bridging I had to do quite fast. That's how fast I want to be today in sharing just one trick with you if you are pursuing mastery in Capacity Building as a local worker in Africa.
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In this Episode 21, I want to start a conversation about Pursuing Mastery as a Local Worker in Africa... What is your field of work? Do you want me to include it in this Pursuing Mastery series? Go to www.homegrownandworldclass.com and leave a private voice note.
In upcoming episodes, I'll take through my own experiences of:
- pursuing mastery in conference interpreting as a local worker in Africa,
- pursuing mastery in humanitarian work as a local worker in Africa,
- pursuing mastery in capacity building as a local worker in Africa,
- pursuing mastery in podcasting as a local worker in Africa,
- pursuing mastery in entrepreneurship as a local worker in Africa,
- Etc.
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Today, I just want to focus on the process of dreams coming true, with a special thought for all the young people my wife and I met recently in Accra. All of you who have dreams about your marketplace contribution, your marriage, and your overall mission in life, this is for you.
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Aujourd’hui est jour de Saint Valentin et il est très difficile de ne pas y faire attention. Dans cet épisode de Francophone catch-up, je veux donc vous parler d’amour, d’attention et d’attentions.
Et bien sûr, je vous ferai un point en français de l’essentiel des 8 derniers épisodes disponibles en anglais.
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Click right here to ask your question, make your comment or share your Homegrown and Worldclass story!
Africa has been a net importer of food and agricultural products since the early 80s, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Will it take shorter to address the problem than it has been in the making?
How long will it take from the forum in Dakar to the farms to our forks or fingers? How long will today’s 294 million hungry Africans wait before Africa changes from net importer to net exporter of food and agricultural products, feeding itself in the process?
Not decades, not too long, we hear.
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Localization in business goes by a different name than in aid; it is called “local content”... Local content policies mainly aim to boost local employment, local supplier development, and local community development. But they may contravene multilateral and bilateral trade agreements and lead to disputes.
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I have 2 words to summarize the problem with localization in humanitarian aid: passive voice. Another set of 2 words reflects the two sides of the localization in aid debate: Decentralization and Decolonization. And both have the passive voice in common. What do I mean by passive voice? Tune in!
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This episode is an introduction to the important topic of localization broken down into the next 3 episodes:
15 Localization Fanfare in Aid
16 Localization Frictions in Business
17 Localization Failures in Agriculture.
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Attention is precious. That's probably why we say, "You pay attention". Attention is a precious resource. It's a life-saving resource.
Today, I just want to thank you for the gift of your attention... You know, these days anyone can start a podcast but indifference can kill any podcast any initiative quite fast. So your attention has spared the Homegrown and Worldclass Podcast from stillbirth due to indifference.
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The smart thing about ‘dumb questions’ is that they reveal candid ignorance, genuine interest, and an honest character.
Ignorance is the starting point for us all. Acknowledging what we don’t know is how we come to pursue knowledge and abilities when we get the opportunity. But here’s the rub: the more competent we get in some areas, the less we want to appear ignorant in all the others where everybody knows we are. So, we don’t ask the question we badly need to be answered immediately.
This episode is inspired by one ‘dumb question’ someone asked me recently as a conference speaker.
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Upskilling and upscaling as a local worker in Africa is what the Homegrown and Worldclass Podcast is here to help you do, as you know by now.
In this episode, I tell you about the 3 Ls you need to consider as a local worker in Africa with respect to upskilling and upscaling. These are Learning, Labour, and Livelihoods. And you’ll get two more Ls for the price of three as you listen on!
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Francophone Catch-up episodes provide the Homegrown and Worldclass Podcast's francophone audience with summaries in French of episodes previously published in English.
Cet épisode est un résumé en 22 minutes des épisodes 1 à 9 du Homegrown and Worldclass Podcast:
- Africa's Chronic Diagnosis for a Curable Ill
- Local Content... Locals Contempt
- Growing or Groaning, Whining or Winning
- The One-Action Success Plan
- Your Next Success Story Starts Now
- The Anatomy of Success at Work
- A Strategy for Success at Work
- Do Your Mastery Homework
- New Year's Feedback Vs New Year's Wishes
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New Year's wishes can be generic platitudes at times. And I don't even want to think about the ones that land in your social media account as "Forwarded many times".
Seriously, between even thoughtful New Year's wishes and constructive feedback, which is more likely to move you forward? What do you wish you had constructive feedback on this season regarding your personal and professional life?
But first, let me clarify what constructive feedback is. My wife gave me a good one on work-life balance a couple of days ago. Maybe I should say, work-wife balance...
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How to grow in mastery and prosperity as a local worker in Africa?
To answer that question in a simple, structured, and systematic way is the aim of the Homegrown and Worldclass Podcast. And here's why: local workers in Africa must awaken to the truth that excellence is not an import product. That's how you grow out of mediocrity and poverty.
In the next three episodes, I will cover baby steps 1, 2, and 3 of the Homegrown to Worldclass Journey to Mastery and Prosperity. But first, let us sketch out your next success story in 5 simple questions. Then you will flesh it out using baby steps 1, 2, and 3 from the next three episodes.
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The Anatomy of success at work is the basis of Baby Step 1 of the Homegrown to Worldclass Journey to Mastery and Prosperity. Baby Step 1 is: Dissect your work.
Your work has four intrinsic components that I call the 4Ts. Your success at work hinges on your meticulous identification and diligent honing of your 4Ts. Those are:
- Traits (character traits)
- Technical skills
- Transferable skills and
- Tools-related skills.
Let's take a close look at them.
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A strategy for success at work is the next thing that you need after dissecting your work into a 4T Competency Quadrant. Baby Step 2 of the Homegrown to Worldclass Journey to Mastery and Prosperity is: Design your strategy.
I define strategy as the art of doing something different or doing something differently in order to make a difference in the long run. Here's the three-pronged strategy I designed for my own purposes. It is the Masters-Mindset-Method strategy.
If you're like me, you will need masters for inspiration and instruction on your way to mastery. You will also need to come to grips with the moral and mental facets of your mindset to be a balanced human being. And lastly, you will need a method to grow.
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Episode 5 on Your Next Success Story Starts Now urged you to start writing your next success chapter. In this episode, and as an example, I want to humbly share how I am heeding my own advice and beginning to write my next success story in the field of podcasting.
And of course, I'll be using Baby Step 1 - Dissect your work (from Episode 6, The Anatomy of Success at Work) and Baby Step 2 - Design your strategy (from Episode 7, A Strategy for Success at Work). I hope you will draw some encouragement from this episode to take the jump for your next success story.
The homework will take us from where we stand to dissecting our work, then designing our strategy and, finally, deploying our gap-bridging and growth-hacking tactics. Join me now at the mastery homework desk!
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Have you ever intimately experienced the skills gap diagnosis, either individually or as part of a team or a line of work? I mean, somebody says, "Africa lacks capacities". You're there, and you know Africa is you. If that's you, I would love to read or listen to your story and insights in the chatroom.
One of the most glaring examples of locals contempt I have seen is the distinction in some national soccer teams in Africa: the players who play locally are called locals; those who play abroad, especially outside Africa and mainly in Europe, are called professionals.
Just like driving is a single action (with many steps) that takes you to your desired destination, this is the single most important action that leads you to any success. When we launch the homegrown and Worldclass Podcast on the 1st of January 2023, we'll use this tool and others to get right into your Homegrown to Worldclass journey from the get-go. Let's break it down.