Career coaches and experts have stated that success in business and other careers requires high-level networking, relationship building, and an understanding of office politics.
This was stated at the EQ and Career Conference 2024, themed ‘From Campus to Corporate: Building Emotional Intelligence for Career and Business Success’. The conference highlighted the importance of emotional intelligence, networking, and relationship building for success in business and careers.
The conference, which featured the launch of the book ‘Portrait of a Purpose-Driven Professional’, aimed to equip young graduates and professionals with the skills and strategies needed to excel in their careers.
Experts emphasised the need to understand office politics, build strong relationships, and develop emotional intelligence to overcome challenges and achieve success in the corporate world.
The convener of the conference, Ogechi Eleojo stressed the need to focus on emotional intelligence, skills acquisition, and career advancement strategies that would help young graduates and professionals excel in their careers, including businesses.
She noted that the conference, organised for fresh graduates and young professionals, would help transition them from campus to the corporate world and energise their minds for greatness.
She revealed that subsequent editions of the EQ and Career Conference, which would be organised in partnership with the National Youth Service Corps, secondary schools, and primary schools, would equip teachers to transfer the skills to future leaders.
The conference, which also featured the launch of the book ‘Portrait of a Purpose-driven Professional’, written by Eleojo, was the fourth and first physical edition.
Senior human resources business partner, Commercial and Group Supply Chain, Flour Mills of Nigeria, Shola Odeyinde, stressed that the conference would help participants understand emotional intelligence and create self-awareness and understanding to manage relationships better in their workplaces and generally in life.
Odeyinde, who noted that growth is embedded in building virile resilience, encouraged young graduates and professionals to build their resilience threshold to accommodate more, such that any time they face a challenge, it would help them surmount it.
The chief executive officer of CrossTie Solutions, Adebayo Adegun, tasked young graduates and professionals to understand the dos and don’ts of everybody they relate with based on who they are, noting that “school life differs from work life.”
The business leader, who opined that the era of ‘my job will speak for me’ is over, advised participants to be intentional about building relationships with influential people in their workplace to help their career progression.
Human resources and business partner at Wema Bank Plc, Tiwalade Adeuga, who reviewed the book, emphasised the importance of relationships, resilience, and networking with people in the workplace, as elaborated in some chapters of the book.
Adeuga, who described the book as a useful tool to build capacity for young professionals and those who are already advanced on the career ladder, also encouraged attendees to get copies of the book and benefit from the wisdom it contains.
