Empowering Women with Skills for Excellence

The Peak Performer Africa, a platform promoting positive insights for achieving peak performance, has empowered women in Lagos State with the essential skills to attain excellence in their space. Esther Akinsola reports

At the maiden edition of The Peak Performing Woman Interactive Session which was held in the Victoria Island area of Lagos on the theme, “Overcoming Self-limiting Beliefs” powered by The Peak Performer Africa, the panellists charged every woman in Nigeria to eschew self-limiting beliefs and be the better version of themselves to attain peak performance.

The panellists included the Executive Director of StanbicIBTC Pensions Ltd, Nike Bajomo; the Head of Sustainability and Brand of Lafarge Africa Plc, Titi Oguntuga; the Executive Director of Finance, Kaiser Ltd, Biodun Mamora; and the Deputy Managing Director, Inter-Bau Construction Ltd, Doris Okechukwu Mbadiwe.

Bajomo described the initiative as utterly significant in “the space that we are in Africa and Nigeria”. She emphasised, “This is because the way we are brought up, the way we are configured, our background, culture speaks a lot to how we develop women.”

The StanbicIBTC ED, however, argued that the culture of how females are raised as women has put a lid on what they can and cannot do. “And we know now in 2022 that most of it aren’t true.”

A woman can be a visionary, says Bajomo. “A woman can be the best version of herself and as they say, ‘do whatever a man can do’. As women, we need to hear it more and more. After all, we are products of our backgrounds, traditions and things we’ve heard before.”

However, while admitting that it would take a while for women to unwind and unlearn some of the things they have learnt before or come to believe, Bajomo lent her voice, “Believe in yourself first. If you do to believe in yourself, even if people believe in you, you’ll make a mess of yourself. Choose to pursue the best, that vision you have for yourself.”

The executive director further reminded the women that their past does not define their future. “We must have got a few things wrong down the road on our journey, but those mistakes are not what define us; they are things that should make us stronger.

“They are things we should have learned from and repositioned ourselves in a way we can propel ourselves forward. In the technology space, they will say ‘fail fast and fail forward’ (learn by doing). Learn from your mistakes and move forward. Your past does not define your future.” This is as she dissuaded every woman from using age as a barrier to achieving sterling performance in life.

Following swiftly, Oguntuga tipped her hat to the initiative. “It is one of the credible platforms that women can leverage to have access to more knowledge, insight, and tips on being peak-performing women. When they are peak performing women, it touches every aspect of their lives, relationships, work, career, and business. It drives them to the point of self-fulfilment.”

For her, there is a dire need to tell more positive stories to get women aware. Hence, she believes that more platforms like this are needed where women who have been there get to share their experiences with others.

She, therefore, enjoined every woman, “There is no end to knowledge. We need to keep learning,” adding that women need to keep themselves exposed to the opportunities available. “We need to expand our networks. We need to hand-hold each other because it’s a journey and we just need to keep walking on that journey”.

On her part, Mamora listed some self-limiting beliefs including “I’m not good enough”, “I’m too old”, “I’m too young”, “I don’t have enough qualifications”, “Why should I try again after I was rejected the last time?”

According to her, these beliefs range from internal to external factors regarding one’s aspirations and could be from anyone including teachers or parents. “As panellists, we shared some of our experiences and ideas on how we have overcome some of these things because I think it’s general. Everybody, at some point, had those kinds of beliefs, but it’s the ability to overcome them that makes you a peak performing woman.”

While conceding that these challenges vary from woman to woman, Mamora believes that once a woman can identify the self-limiting beliefs plaguing her, then she can reinforce a positive belief. “And forums like this will help you break free from such,” she chipped in.

On her part, Mbadiwe admitted, “Some of us have and are still living with some self-limiting beliefs. Some of us have overcome them. I think it’s good to identify what each person’s own is and deal with it.

“We’ve discussed how some people believe that they are too young or too old to start a business or to do what it is they have a passion to do. What we are saying is that age, generally, should not be limiting people.”

She, therefore, recommended that each person should figure out how to eliminate her self-limiting beliefs. “The most significant thing is we do get to the point where we overcome them and then become the best version, the God-version of ourselves.”

Without subduing them, she pointed out, you can’t meet your full potential. Adding to that, the DMD cautioned, “You can’t be as productive as you are created to be, and you can’t be your original self”.

Meanwhile, the Convener of The Peak Performing Woman, Dr Abiola Salami, said the need for a new level of action in engaging, empowering and celebrating women propelled the initiative. “We need to create more platforms in the world that empower, engage and celebrate women. In Champ, we have been about this women’s engagement for many years.

“We started the Peak Performer in 2012 and since 2013 we have implemented one initiative or the other. The Peak Performing Woman is our new vehicle for action that we designed to reach out to women.”

From our media platform, Salami highlighted, The Peak Performer Africa that “We are building to be the number one destination for thought leadership that we are using to build one mind at a time”.

According to him, there is a drive to give a laser focus on women entrepreneurs and women professionals who are interested in nation-building. Thus, this initiative is designed to enable women to deliver excellence in whatever vocation they find themselves in.

While the conversation at the first edition centred around overcoming self-limiting beliefs, it is the first episode of the web series that started in September, The Peak Performing Woman web series where a video is released every Wednesday to inspire and embolden women.

The second edition spotlighted critical skills that women need to acquire to enable them to transition from employees to entrepreneurs. In the words of Salami, “Another episode was on how women can overcome the fear of public speaking”. He insisted that more women having the courage to speak publicly, adds value to them, their families and the nation at large.

There’s more for this year. “We have a power list of 100 Peak Performing Women in Nigeria coming out in the next few weeks. For this year, the Peak Performing Woman Award and Sumit will be held in December, where we will bring 1,000 women together to engage, empower and celebrate with them. We will be recognising some icons at that event,” says Salami, the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of The Peak Performer Africa and founder of the Peak Performing Woman Network.

Calling on more synergy, Salami added, “Any serious organisation needs to plug into what we are doing and collaborate with us. We are on a moving train. We are gathering momentum and reaching out. It would be a privilege to have organisations – public and private, and individuals partner with us. This is neither a Lagos thing nor a Nigerian thing. We are positioning ourselves for the globe in what we do.”

This is as The Peak Performing Women Series is on the quest to impact every woman, encouraging them to put their right foot forward, starting with one woman at a time.

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