Seminar: Working Together for CUIB

It is believed that organizations strive when employees adhere to the vision and mission of the organization than on their personal visions. It is in line with this view that employees of the Catholic University Institute of Buea have been called to focus on the vision and mission of the institution which is to awaken in students the sense of purpose and direction so that they can become professional servant leaders with moral and spiritual values who will contribute to the sustainable development of their communities.

The call was recently made in a training workshop titled Leadership and Team Building, “Collective Empowerment of CUIB Staff,” organized by Go Ahead Africa under the auspices of its chairman, Roland Kwemain at Capitol Hotel, Buea.

In order to achieve this vision and mission,Roland Kwemain of Go Ahead Africa and Board of Trustees member of CUIB reminded employees that students were VIP's and that empowering students is only feasible when employees work together and respect the values of their institution.

”For us to grow as an institution, there is need for us to focus on what unites us than on what divides us or we focus on what brought us to the organization and not on our friendships,” Go Ahead Africa chairman, Roland Kwemain said.

During the workshop which comprised of theoretical and practical activities, participants were drilled on the importance of team work, the factors that affect team building, leadership among others.

”Team work is key, however trust and communication are very important in a team. For a team to be effective, it is good to know members and how each of them functions,” Emile Singeh, CEO of Go Ahead Africa stated.

He further emphasized that being a good leader does not only entail having a title and giving commands but entails being committed to your team through listening, sharing and taking ownership of tasks.

On this note, employees of CUIB were called to always evaluate or do self-assessments, to enable them improve on their shortcomings as evaluation identifies and fixes loopholes. In addition, on effectiveness they were encouraged to communicate with each other such that the right information is sent out to all.

The pro-Chancellor, Fr. George Nkeze, reiterated on issues like the vision and mission of the institution as well as the core values of CUIB which include entrepreneurship, the EoC, integrity amongst others. He further informed and reminded faculty and staff of the management goals of the institution by 2019. On academia, faculty were called to encourage and bring out in students skills and talents through experiential learning, group genius to enable students be loyal and proud of CUIB wherever they go.

The training workshop comes at a very important time for the school, the start of the 2014/2015 academic year.

”The seminar is organized to sensitize newly recruited faculty on the values of the institution before they begin teaching as well as remind old faculty and staff of the values that make CUIB unique in its philosophies and practices,” Fr. George Nkeze, Pro-chancellor of the institution said.

The workshop ended with a team building outdoor exercise in which participants were split into 4 groups of 13 persons and activities performed to exhibit which group had a mastery of communication, leadership, ideas sharing and decision making. Participants left happy and satisfied.

"I feel refreshed and I am grateful to the organizers of the seminar. I have learnt that listening to others at work is educative and needed for the growth of an institution. I will work to give the students the best of me,” a participant at the workshop mentioned.