In the past, we have discussed issues like self-management, relationship management, getting things done, etc. Putting all of those together should, over time, lead to the development of a personal way of life complete with the right personal philosophies and personal discipline of doing whatever you need to do. Your personal ways of life are the results and a demonstration of the personal standards you have developed and set for yourself. Setting your standards towards that is our subject today.
In ‘Adventures in Power, Book Two’, Chief Obafemi Awolowo told a story about himself and the Prime Minster, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa.
On 30th September 1960, the eve of Nigeria’s independence, the Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, invited Chief Obafemi Awolowo for a meeting at 7pm. Chief Awolowo drove from Ibadan and got to the PM’s official residence in Lagos at 6.55pm. Unfortunately, the PM was still busy with foreign dignitaries that had come for the independence celebrations, and therefore couldn’t be with Chief Awolowo immediately. The PM, through his Private Secretary, Mr. Odukale, regretted the inconvenience the delay might have caused. When Chief Awolowo sought to know how long the delay might be, the Secretary responded that he did not expect it to be up to an hour.
Chief Awolowo said to the Secretary, “… You will tell the Prime Minister that I am here at the time appointed by him. I have come all the way from Ibadan. I certainly cannot and will not wait. If he is still keen on having a meeting with me, he could contact me at Dr. Akanni Doherty’s place between now and eight o’clock, or at the Ikeja VIP Rest-house any time after half past eight.” Chief Awolowo continued, “… Sir Abubakar rang me up about 9pm at the Ikeja VIP Rest-house. He expressed regret for not being able to attend to me at the time appointed by him, and offered to come over to see me immediately at Ikeja. He came, and we discussed …”
The refusal of Chief Awolowo to ‘wait’ for about an hour was neither disrespectful nor necessarily because he had another engagement. The important thing, which was the Chief’s ‘message’ was basically that ‘no one can mess with my time.’ The Chief had the right and responsibility to himself to protect how he can be ‘treated’, even by a Prime Minister. On the other hand, the Prime Minister demonstrated his humility in visiting and apologising to the Chief later the same evening when he eventually had a window. Each of the two gentlemen did what was right and honourable in the circumstance. One had a standard on how to spend his time and the other had a standard on how to sincerely make amends.
Sadly, in our environment now, we, daily, unremorsefully break promises we have made to others and accept disrespectful treatment from others as well. It is a statement of our poor personal standards that we accept to be kept waiting at a wedding for five hours before the couple arrives. It is a demonstration of our low standards when we accept poor-quality workmanship from the contractor we commissioned to get a job done at our factory. Our poor standards in everything we do and let us others do to us are substantially responsible for the many failures in our society. We can only do better by having higher standards of what we do and what we accept from others.
Regardless of our calling in life, we project what our personal standards are every day and night through the quality of what we do and the quality of what we accept from others. The parent that only tells the truth and that demand their child to tell only the truth is setting a high moral standard for their life and the life of their child. The entrepreneur that accepts low-quality raw materials from suppliers, higher reject rates from the production gang and delivers poor-quality products to their customers is setting low standards in their business life and it will only be a matter of time before the business goes under.
What is ‘standard’? The Cambridge Dictionary definition of ‘standard’ is ‘a level of quality’ or ‘a moral rule that should be obeyed’. Our personal standards will, therefore, be a composition of the quality of what we say, how we say what we say, what we do, how we do what we, and what we ultimately deliver to others. In addition, our personal standards are also about the level of quality of everything that we accept from others.
Why are standards antecedent to our success? It sometimes happens that the first time we meet with some individual, we either just like or trust them or neither like nor trust them. Unbeknownst to us, liking and trusting them even when we really do not have much in support of our position is likely to do with something about them. It could be the way they approached us, or the way they were dressed or how they spoke, or just something right that resonated was in dissonance with us. The point is, certain things about them made us like, trust, dislike or distrust them. The other side of the same coin is that people can and will also make the same judgement about us. If we do what is right, people would like and trust us, thereby creating opportunities for us. If we do what is wrong, people may dislike or distrust us, thereby shutting the doors to opportunities on us. Consequently, continuously developing ourselves, saying and doing the right things, and rejecting what is substandard and wrong from others are all elements of our personal standards and key to our successes in life.
Scope of our personal standards: There is literally no limit to what our standards should cover. It ranges from our appearance and hygiene, manner of speech, capacity to listen to others, authenticity, integrity, loyalty, the continuous development of our knowledge and skills, willing to help others, work ethic, level of commitment and diligence in what we do, what we are willing to tolerate and accept from others, etc.
This week, we have introduced what setting personal standards is, how our personal standards are antecedent to our long run successes and the scope of our personal standards in life. Next week, we will take up how we can determine and set our personal standards.
