“Mr Brief! Mr Brief!” I smiled as I looked at the phone to confirm that it was my friend making fun of me. Bola can be such a funny lady. Most times we talk about official or unofficial matters, she often makes fun of how thorough I am at getting the details right. “Please, I need to clarify one more thing because I need to get your brief and clear statement of what you need before embarking on the required assignment.” This is me trying to get her expectations right, and this is what got me the nickname “Mr. Brief!”
As much as I want to work with clients and make some money, I always want to get a picture of what “their success” looks like and a clear definition of expectations so I don’t invest the best efforts and end up with a useless result.
I was once a communications personnel in a company where a lot was expected of me. Just as any enthusiastic newbie, I wanted to ‘make a mark.’ Little did I know I was in for a lot of whirling, spinning, and energetic merry-go-rounding.
“Sam, the regulatory board is on its way, and we need to get a word out to all our staff within and outside the head office. Please handle that. I'll send their name to you.” That is the assistant head of human resources, Mr. Jamiu, giving me instructions on what he believes is my duty. “Okay, sir, I’ll get it done right away.”
Like a dumb but faithful servant without a clue about his master’s demands, I went on to get the task done as much as I could without asking any questions. My line manager then had a lot on his hands and didn’t even have the time to guide me or put me through anything. Although I didn’t make a total mess of the tasks assigned, I did enough to get a one-on-one meeting with our head of department.
The painful part was that nobody was willing to tell me “the missing ingredient.” Everyone thought being a graduate with some experience should automatically come with some ‘knowledge’ which they believe I wasn’t totally displaying as of then.
“You said you graduated with a degree in communications, right?” I was wondering why my head of department, Mr. Daniel, was asking such a demeaning question. But again, I said to myself, “Who knows what’s next? It might be a pleasant surprise after all.” Was the lie I told myself to at least calm my emotions. I couldn’t quite respond to his question with a word; I only nodded in agreement. I guess he sensed my reaction and tried to ease things up a bit.
“You have been doing a good job, but I believe it can be better if you just step back and review how you get things done.” As Mr. Daniel made the statement, I had to, in my head, do a short review of the last task I carried out, which was the one assigned by Mr. Jelili. “What could have gone wrong this time?” I asked myself. Like an answer to my thoughts, Mr. Daniel continued his statement by highlighting the lapses and downsides of my work.
“The last task you handled had some lapses. For example, your message didn’t get to all staff in time, and even Mr. Jelili said you didn’t capture all the information.” As of then, it looked like he was correct, and I really felt bad, but now that I know better, those responsibilities shouldn’t have been mine right from the start. The greatest challenge I had then was not knowing how to stop repeating the same mistake. I tried several different approaches but kept receiving “you could have done better” remarks from my boss.
There were days I would be the one to come up with a design, even though we have a graphics department. Days I did several jobs that were not even related to the communication field. I was just spinning my efforts around different departments. Although my colleagues from other departments couldn’t spell it out to me, they often prefer dumping their tasks in my bosom. Because they know they wouldn’t have to directly take any blame.
At some point, I was privileged to meet with a new employee who was a superior. Miss Tomi was not assigned to my department, but she’s like an angel sent to deliver me. As one of the top managers in the Human Resources department, I was assigned to work with her on a project. “I like your spirit and attitude to work, but we need to work on a few things.” This was her comment, and it felt so different from what I had known.
Miss Tomi started teaching me about the need for controlled responsibility and the need to get clarity on the tasks assigned. As a fast learner, I am glad I was able to learn in no time. Although I wasn’t immediately free from the fangs of my other superiors and colleagues, who take joy in spinning me like I were some kind of disc in their hands. However, as time went on, tables began to turn as Miss Tomi made me the new D.J. in town.
In this payback season, I was knowledgeable enough to make a lot of my colleagues and even superiors do their jobs, including some of mine. I remember telling the sales department representative to compose a message while I edited the content to suit their audience.
Looking back, I smile, and I am so glad I went through all of that. Maybe I would have lived my life in a spinning loop of wasted and uncompensated efforts until God knows when.