There is an emerging belief in many traditions in the region that people who regularly eat a large amount of tilapia fish between ages six and twenty-one or thereabout, develop higher intelligence and emotional quotients than their vegetarian and meat-eater counterparts. I know what you are thinking, “. . . mwalimu, give us a break; give us something fresh; how can this be? What do fish and meat-eating habits have to do with leadership and personal mastery?” I am glad you asked these questions. Here is the thing - I was equally throbbed when I first heard about the assertion. In fact, I denounced and rubbished off the explanation until I recently traveled to Ukerewe island on Lake Victoria where I learned, from locals, about its reasoning. What I discovered during the sojourn not only surprised me but interested me as well. The discovery stirred my curiosity about fish. I have since decoded traits and behaviors that fish exhibit and that can be embraced for high team performance and how we can improve life in leadership and personal mastery, at work and at home. In the spirit of service and with a deep ache for the highest vivacity, I share the same.
Irrespective of where the powerful invisible hand of the higher power placed us, there are common things that each one of us craves in life. We pray for good health. We crave great business and private relationships. We yearn for stable financial security. We ache for personal significance. We seek peace of mind. But, then again, there is a twist to the tale. Carry out a test, as you go out today - ask twenty people that you meet if they want the things that I mentioned above. I bet you will get an echoing and deafening ‘yes.’ To be expected. Similarly, ask the same people if they have made any effort or taken any decision that reflects their desire for the things above. I bet, this time around, the number of ‘yes’ will be lower than twenty. Disappointingly lower. To be expected. Why? Because anything meaningful and worthwhile in life is uphill. Challenging. The larger point, dear reader, is that it takes both intention and effort to achieve personal and business desires.
Fish are intriguing creatures. Do not just enjoy them as a cuisine when they are served on the table as part of the menu. Yes, savor the IQ and EQ boosters that they possess, if you hold the belief. Above all, study their particularities and behavior as living organisms. The latest cutting-edge neuroscience research reveals that tilapia fish exhibits certain peculiarities that if properly integrated can stimulate and drive performance in business and life.
For starters, tilapia has a supple head. If you are hawkeyed, you will vividly see a network of brain cells called neurons interlacing each other like shoe fasteners. Neuroscientists have used this discovery of neuro-circuitry to accurately map the flow of neurochemicals in its head. This, in turn, has helped us to understand its behavior concerning excitation and inhibition and how the same can be decrypted and applied for our sustained survival [personal mastery] and achievement of individual and team peak performance [leadership]. An understanding of how these brain chemicals work in fish offers you and me techniques to build high-performing teams and assists in simplifying communication with customers, bosses, subordinates, peers, and other key stakeholders.
The upshot from the seminal neurochemical study is that some chemicals have a motivating or fueling effect while others are inhibitory or dampening in nature. The former stimulate brain activities – and generate excitement. The latter have a calming effect – quietens and pacifies. The larger point is that what motivates us, what angers us, and how we respond to rewards or threats, are contingent upon neuronal network activities within our head. We can learn a lot from tilapia fish on how to behave in different situations. Of all aquatic living organisms, tilapia is the only kind that can change physiology from one extreme to another extreme in the shortest period of time. Unfortunately, tilapia is the most attacked and vulnerable breed of fish. However, it has survived and outlived other aquatic creatures that were even bigger and stronger than it due to its agility and ability to morph and change state promptly.
Tilapia has a trademark behavior - it herds. Unlike salmon, but much the same as tuna, tilapia prefers to swim in groups or schools [shoals]. You hardly come across a tilapia swimming alone. If you find one, the odds are that it is unwell. It has given up on life – left to die. Stemming from the groundbreaking science of neuro-contagion, tilapia is, for most of its life, in active or excitation disposition rather than in inhibitory mode. It is, thus, able to cover long distances hunting for food, running away from predators, or looking for territory to establish a new home. Habituating in groups does not only provide security but heaps and enhances peer pressure on the weaker members to work at a higher level of performance – to swim faster and be more alert. Tilapia flourishes in groups, not in solitude.
Like tilapia, you and I are a kind that depends on one another for social rewards – for the provision of food, security, moral support, and emotional development. Provision of these social rewards is in turn driven by how good we are connected to each other in our social orbits, at work or at home. As human beings, we are naturally adapted to seek rewards or provisions that make us feel accepted, attractive, important and included. Rewards that we obtain as a group or for the group keep us together and united. When we cooperate and work as teams, we are able to do more, be more, have more, and achieve more. Our individual performance improves. Being part of a team makes the dullest person smarter. This reminds me of an old African proverb, “. . . if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” As a leader, if you are serious about high team performance, you need to be serious about boosting the morale of your team - keep your team in excitation mode all the time. When a team leader improves something for the team and of the team, something extraordinary happens with the team – average performers become high performers and good performers become superstars.
I pointed out, above, that a tilapia fish is safer when it abides in a shoal than in solitude. The larger point, dear reader, is that teamwork provides strength. Once upon a time, there was an old man. When he sensed that his time to die was near, he called together his four children to give them parting advice. He ordered his domestic servants to bring a bundle of sticks into his room. He commanded his eldest son to break it. The son, relying on his physicality, strained and strained. He was not able to break the bundle. The other three sons also tried to break the bundle of sticks. None succeeded. “. . . untie the bundle into individual sticks,” said the old man. He continued, “. . . each one of you should take a stick.” Then, he called out to them to break the stick that they were carrying in their hands. Each stick was easily broken. He coughed to clear his dry throat. With labored breath, he counseled the quartet, “. . . my sons, you see the meaning of the whole exercise – let affection bind you to one another. Together you are strong, separated you are weak. Unity gives strength.” The old man closed his eyes and breathed his last. The moral of the story is that our ability to work together, to help and protect each other is what enables us to survive in austere environments and thrive in comfy conditions.
Spartans never fail to amaze me. They were warmongers. They won one battle after another. Their victories did not lie in the body mass of the soldiers, in the strength of the soldiers’ breastplates, in the soldiers’ dexterity to throw a spear, nor did it come from divine intervention. The Spartans were victorious in war because of the shield wall called phalanx that they formed when advancing towards or retreating from an enemy. The formation was built in such a way that the soldiers in front could hold their shields out tight and overlapping with the shields of the soldiers beside them. The phalanx created a solid and impenetrable wall of shields that was difficult for the enemy to attack and penetrate. Perhaps, the Spartans studied and learned this technique of defending themselves from the enemy’s assault from tilapia fish.
I mentioned above that tilapia are the most vulnerable fish species. They fall prey to many aquatic creatures. They get attacked now and again. Because of this, tilapia is always in a fleer mode. However, just like the Spartans relied on the phalanx tightness against the enemy’s attack, the tilapias' survival lies in their agility and collaboration to form a wall when they are attacked. They swim in tight groups with younger and weaker members positioned in the middle of the shoal. Any attack by a predator is met and shielded by the stronger members positioned in the outer flanks of the shoal’s formation akin to the Spartan phalanx.
Whoever said that teamwork gives strength was spot-on. Teamwork is about covering each other’s weaknesses. Teamwork is about improving each other’s dark side. Teamwork is about leveraging each other’s strengths. The success of an organization does not come from its products or services but from how well the individual members of the team cooperate, collaborate, and pull together in one direction toward a shared vision. It is the company that we keep, the people that surround us that determine our level of achievement as a group and as individuals.
A lion used to prowl in a field where four oxen dwelt. The lion tried to attack the oxen many times, but whenever the lion came near to them, they turned their tails to one another so that in whichever way and direction the lion approached them, he was met by the horns of one of them. However, for some reason, cynicism and self-interest crept in. They quarreled. Each one of them went off to pasture alone in different parts of the field. Then, the lion attacked them one by one. Soon he made an end to all the four giant oxen.
Views from the top are that as individuals and businesses, we all experience dangerous forces, negative stimuli, and downtimes - real and perceived. The forces work to deter or delay our success or even eliminate us. We have no control over them. It is just the way it is. It’s inevitable. But science is clear – trademark behavior is a vital element to achieving high performance. Our ability to do remarkable things in life depends not on our ingenuity but on how well people in the business or family pull together as a team. The more we trust the mates to our left and the mates to our right who will protect, secure, and watch our back, the more prepared we are to spot and leverage opportunities, confront threats, and achieve success as a unified team and as individuals.
Lester Chinyang’anya | General Manager – Operations | Minet Malawi
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