Standing Out in a Team with Abimbola Balogun

Abimbola Balogun is a wife, mum, lawyer, entrepreneur and HR Professional and cofounder at SoFresh, the largest healthy food company established in 2010 with multiple branches in Nigeria. As a Principal Partner at AB Moore consulting firm, she has helped several businesses build great teams through her online consulting firm in terms of training, coaching, and consultations. She was listed amongst the 100 most inspiring women by YNaija in 2017 and 2019. She is passionate about human capital development and possesses a strong leadership, managerial and problem-solving skills. She is an associate member of chartered institute of personal management.

Below is a summary of the interview Standing Out in a Team with Abimbola Balogun

Abimbola is a Lawyer that practices HR and people management at So Fresh. She says growing up she loved to talk a lot and this prompted her to choose law but after a few years of practicing, she realized she loves working with people and helping them become a better version of themselves. From there she got the professional training and hasn’t looked back since. She adds she easily merges all the things she does because it comes naturally to her.

Abimbola decided to start HR in 2009 after being called to bar in 2006 and working in her law firm, she realized her strengths shone when she was training and helping people. She says a team is a group of people who come together with their unique strengths and skills to achieve a common goal. She adds that anyone can be part of a team as long as they have the required skills to contribute to whatever the team is specialized in. she also stresses the importance of learning to work with other people as operating alone cannot work for a long term business or venture. To actualize your dream, you must have a supportive team. She says in order not to remain passive in a team, you have to work on your personality, ask questions to clear your doubt, try to volunteer so you can come out of your shell. When you become involved, people will see the value you bring as a team member and gravitate towards you.

When asked the best approach to teamwork, Abimbola says you should have a positive attitude, working collaboratively with others to achieve the common goal and when expressing an idea, do so respectfully to avoid conflict. She says to manage conflicts or disputes in a team, the parties involved must listen closely to their opinions and try to understand what the other person is saying.

She stressed the importance of reliability, punctuality, thoughtfulness, and hard work in order to be exceptional in a team. You should be able to exceed expectations when assigned a role or job within a team, this shows you care about the job and the ultimate achievement of the team goal.

A question about some members of the team being under-utilized was brought up and Abimbola says a perceptive leader would have seen this and done something to avoid it but when it does happen the leader should find a way to assign more responsibilities to the individual or they could be reassigned, even moved to a different team entirely that would properly utilize their abilities.

Concluding, she says a team leader should love everyone on the team irrespective of social status or financial status. She advises young people to have a goal\plan for their lives, and they should find or create a team that will bring out the best in them and helps them achieve their goals.