THE MINDSET APPROACH

One of the requirements to graduating successfully in my school is to have a three month internship in any media institution to acquire practical knowledge of all the theories you’ve been taught. And so I’m now doing my internship at a radio station in the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana, Sunyani. I have been here for almost a month now. And boy, the experience! My encounter with a number of the journalists at my place of internship has taught me a lot of things. One of the lessons is how we respond to our environment. Different people of different mindsets will respond to the same environment differently. The station that I’m with deals mostly in local content and by local content, I mean its restricted area of the Brong Ahafo region. It deals in national issues though it localizes it to maintain their objective of promoting local content.

The general manager of the station by all standards I will say is a very knowledgeable and experienced man. He speaks highly of his workers. He demands more from them. He doesn’t just require near excellence from them, he hates mediocrity. He defines success in a certain light that will be discussed later. He first started working in the media but left it for the banking sector after some time. He worked in the banking industry for some years and then returned to media, not as an on-air personality but as a genera manager to direct the affairs of that radio station. It is worth noting that he was very successful in the banking industry. He has deliberately not orchestrated but accepted situations where he has had to work under people who were once his juniors. He believes life has its own way of showing human beings lessons. All you have to do is observe. He says, you can’t always be the master, sometimes you become the subordinate and you have to be willing to accept that challenge to understand what life really means. He accepted to work under his former junior just so he will truly understand how the world functions and people behave when situations like that turned around. And he has interesting revelations to share.

My managing news editor who has worked with about four stations is very thrilling. I’m not really a fun of twi radio but he fascinates me a lot. He started out as a radio DJ but ended up as a morning show host and he has been doing that for so many years now. He revealed to me that he doesn’t just do things, he plans and also chips in the God factor because he is an ardent Christian. His philosophies in life include humility, God-fearing, respect, gender equality, recognition for all human beings no matter their class, etc. He has a very positive mindset about everything he does. He hosts the morning show here at my place of internship. He believes that the President may not be listening to him, but the local representatives of the President like the Regional Minister, the Municipal Chief Executive, Directors of institutions and several other people are listening to him and if he does anything foul on his show, the President will be at his doorstep in the next minute. In the same vein, he believes that all the good work he has been doing on air has had and continues to have a better and massive impact on the society. He says “when I sit on radio, I assume the whole world is listening to me.” His prime concern is to serve his listeners to their satisfaction.

Now, to the producer of the morning show, he is fun and very intelligent, but doesn’t speak much. He can be very controversial and daisy but always very solid with his arguments. He is always doing something. He is either in the studio or behind his laptop in the newsroom. He doesn’t just produce the news, he also hosts on air programs. He is very good at what he does. When he puts on his sunglasses even under the air conditioned newsroom and sits in his chair, then it means sleep is calling.

Now, this is my observation of the entire news team. The generality of the entire news team doesn’t really inspire me. Some of them make comments that suggest that they are not really convinced or passionate about what they are doing. They don’t think they are achieving their goals. Some are not even enthused about how the station operates. And then I say, if you are in an organization and you don’t like something, why not voice it out for it to be addressed? I think the news team can do better.

But amongst the news team are some really inspiring members like some of the editors. Wow!! Very enthusiastic and hardworking. I say, the news team is divided into two, those who are positive and those who are negative about what they do.

Now, here is my point, I’ve spoken about different people in the same environment and how they are responding to it differently. Some are very positive and others are very negative. There are some who think that their work has no impact because decision makers of are not really listening to them. While others also think that the main decision-makers may not be listening to them but their representatives are doing that. All these differences are stemming from the fact that they have different mindset approaches to their environment. While others are making good use of what they now have, others are cursing themselves for being in the same circumstance.

From what I’ve seen in my short life, this attitude pervades in every single environment a group of people find themselves in. You either love it or hate it depending on your mindset. What you can make out of your present environment depends very much on how you respond to it. There are people who have lived in far worse environment but have emerged victorious because of just one thing, their mindset. Others too have failed even in some, well, if not similar, then better environment because of the same mindset factor. You are hopeful or despondent about the future and all comes down to mindset. It is said that work smarter, not harder. Well, smartness comes from the mindset.

I say, you can make a difference if you really want to, no matter the environment within which you find yourself. Don’t be a captive of your present environment. Inspire the people around you to do more. You can be more.

                                          YUSSIF SCRIBES.