When we look at 2022, as an organization, it’s been about resilience.
The challenge of operating within the Nigerian environment meant that we had to explore options outside of the country, and in some cases, even outside of West Africa.
We remain committed to tourism development in Africa, so the relocation option wasn’t for us.
As we navigate our 2023, we highlight 3 lessons from 2022. Perhaps, you can relate to our story. You could share yours as well and how you tried to navigate them.
- There are always team members who are ready to go the extra mile. You find them through their commitment to their own self-development. Their motivation goes beyond extrinsic rewards to a more intrinsic sense of self and worth. Identifying them is easy – spend some time observing the person who goes the extra mile, who engages in learning new skills and who seems to be the one everyone else goes to. It’s not about how many hours they spend at the office. Find people who connect with your vision, and you are on your way to success.
- Talking about success, we hear people tell us how successful and well-established we are. We love it, although maybe it’s not yet translating into the $$$$$$. And that’s ok because we are here for a long time, not just for a good time because we know the journey has curves and dips. The focus is to continue to apply rigour to our work, create value for our clients, and advocate for issues in society that most tend to take for granted, such as inclusiveness, accessibility, and decent work opportunities in the tourism industry.
We are here for a long time, and a good time.
We couldn’t have achieved what we did in 2022 without collaborating with industry colleagues and we look forward to more opportunities to do so in 2023.
- The journey is more important than the destination. It really is! How you travel, and how you move can show so many interesting things; the scenic route is always the better route in our opinion. So as we continue our mandate for sustainable tourism, we know we have a long way to go, but we believe in taking it one step at a time and helping our clients understand that having excellently designed and ambitious sustainability/performance reports, without the requisite investments in impacting others, won’t result in long-term success.
And we learnt that not every client can see it that way, and not everyone needs to, but we can choose to only work with those who do.
We also believe in collaboration, volunteering, knowledge sharing and continuous improvement. We couldn’t have achieved what we did in 2022 without collaborating with industry colleagues and we look forward to more opportunities to do so in 2023.
What about you? Share your lessons from 2022 with us.