The Kogi State Livestock Productivity and Resilience Support Project (Kogi L-PRES) has held a two-day Ethical Workers’ Leadership Retreat for all the management and support staff; this is a bid to strengthen institutional integrity and enhance project staff productivity.
The retreat, organised in collaboration with the Centre for Ethics and Self Value Orientation (CESVO), an international anti -corruption NGO based in Lokoja, was themed, ‘Understanding the Fundamentals of Ethics, Workplace Ethics and Public Service Value Orientation’.
While declaring the retreat open, Otaru Abdulkabir Onoruoyiza, the State Project Coordinator, described the training as a strategic investment to build the capacity of the project staff on ethical standards, public service values and institutional resilience to improve productivity at work place, adding that the exercise was beyond routine capacity building, but a deliberate effort to help project staff grow both professionally and personally.
He urged participants to reflect on their work ethics, adjust where necessary, and build on their strengths to deliver the L-PRES Project Development Objective (PDO) in Kogi State.
‘Project implementation is a collective responsibility; true institutional change must begin with the individual contribution to the successful implementation of the L-PRES Project.
‘We have thought outside the box to embrace this worthy collaboration. We are now partners in progress.
‘I advise the project staff to immediately practise what they have learnt as they return back to the office so that the resources invested will not be in vain,’ he said.
He charged project staff to remain committed to self -development, stressing that the knowledge goes beyond L-PRES and will remain relevant even after the end of the project cycle.
Prince Salih Yakubu, executive director, CESVO, said the training was in fulfilment of a pledge made when Kogi L-PRES was honoured for its integrity record.
Yakubu disclosed that Kogi L-PRES ranked second among only ten states that met CESVO’s ethical standards after its annual secret investigations nationwide, adding that the feat earned the State Project Coordinator induction into the CESVO Hall of Fame as Integrity Icon of Nigeria (IION), and the project, the Corporate Ethics and Integrity Compliance Award.
He disclosed that CESVO has trained over 47,000 Nigerians in the last five years on ethical reorientation.
‘The choice is now theirs. We have done a lot of exposures. ‘What we want to see in the next few years is transformation in character, conduct and leadership to make Kogi a model for other states’.
He revealed that a communique was issued at the end of the retreat to set a clear direction, while structures would be put in place to ensure the knowledge is imbibed.
The two-day retreat featured interactive sessions, case studies, role plays and psychometric tests.
Six critical modules were covered, including effective office communication, ethical leadership, managing executive stress, emotional intelligence, strategic planning and office politics.
Yakubu, in his paper titled ‘Managing Workplace Executive Stress: A Silent Killer,’ decried rising stress among Nigerian workers, such as loss of sleep over work, headache, palpitations, hypertension, among others.
He identified excessive workload as a major cause and advised workers to be decisive, set priorities, avoid perfectionism and procrastination, and maintain a healthy lifestyle.
In a related development, Tom Adejo Yusuf, CESVO Faculty Advisor, in his presentations on Emotional Intelligence and Office Politics, described office politics as the use of power and social networking to influence change, pointing out that it could be positive when it promotes fairness and ethical decision-making, but negative when it involves backstabbing, manipulation and self-promotion.
He noted that over 60 percent of employees engage in office politics and advised staff to be cordial, genuine, helpful, maintain proper documentation, build relationships and guard their character.
The participants described the retreat as eye -opening, thanked the management of Kogi L-PRES and pledged to turn over a new leaf, with a vow that their conscience would henceforth remain their guide.