RAIFFEISEN BANK INTERNATIONAL AG Q: We focus on the topic of "vision" from several angles. You say yourself: "At the end of the day, I don't see a job in my head, but a vision of my life". What does it look like, the vision of your life?
Mahlodji: The vision of my life is that I leave this world in my sphere of influence better than I found it. I wish to use my life experience to help others who may have faced or are facing the same challenges - as I have at different points in my life. My vision is a world where we empower each other. If I can contribute to living in a world where everyone wants to learn from each other, that would be very close to the vision of my life.
Q: You are a successful entrepreneur and have, among other things, founded the FutureOne Community - a community that wants to improve the future. Your website says: "For visionaries who realize dreams and ideas and have a positive mindset." How important are dreams and visions for life?
Mahlodji: People need goals that can be realized in the long term. Especially the innermost dreams and desires - the inner call that shows us who we want to be - are a support for the goals of our life. The inner call is always there, it always means well with us, it knows where our journey is going. When I was young, I was always told that dreams are just dreams. But if there's one thing I've experienced, it's that those people who give their just dreams, nothing more. a chance are always happier - despite all the ups and downs they experience. In our affluent society, we are often no longer able to imagine a better future because we have become unimaginative and because we have also often been told that dreams have no place in the world of work. Companies and leaders must learn again to dream with their teams. We have to learn to dream again in this world.
Q: Having a vision: all good - but how do I best implement it? What qualities do I need to achieve my vision in the end?
Mahlodji: It is virtually an unwritten law that visions we want to realize change over time. They take on different forms and are only successfully implemented if we give them the chance to be adapted more often. What I mean by this is that you don't start with the ideal image of your vision or your idea right away, but with the first simple step. This can be talking to people about it or writing the vision on a piece of paper. It is about bringing the vision from our brain and heart into reality. Visualizing it, talking about it, giving it a name. We need to tell others about our idea because you need a sparring partner to balance those things you can't do yourself, to work with you on the same vision. At some point, the moment comes when the pieces of the puzzle fall into place - you meet the right people or find the right project. These are coincidences that you have controlled yourself. When you walk through the world and put your ideas out there, you already start to slowly implement them. What you should never do: wait for the right moment because there is no such thing. If the first version of a vision seems embarrassing to you, that's normal. But if you put out a version of your idea that is already perfect for you, you were too slow. The important thing is to go out and learn the art of embarrassing yourself again. The great visions of this world were not fixed at the first shot, they were always processes.
Q: You have a moving story yourself. From refugee child to successful entrepreneur. You also tell about it in your books. What drives you?
Mahlodji: I have the great fortune and privilege that, despite this story, I now live a life according to my standards and ideas. Unfortunately, however, I see that there are millions of people around the world who are not living their potential - people who are doing a job that does not fulfil them. They are fulfilling the expectations of others, not their own. Since I know this feeling well and know that this can be changed, I have accompanied many people on this path of change. I have seen that every person can find and walk their own path. This is what drives me, gives me motivation and energy to continue and make the world a better place. My simple assumption is the more people go their way in a meaningful way, the more people will try to improve this world. By "meaningful" I mean that you put yourself at the service of this world. The beautiful thing is, wherever I go, I experience every week that this is possible.
Q: Where do you get your ideas from? Who or what inspires you?
Mahlodji: Ideas are a dime a dozen. In my opinion, you always have to be in the right phase of life and the time has to be ripe to be able to discover them. I deal with so many different people - young people, older people, technicians, athletes, people from human resources, managers and many more. If you are open here, listen and exchange, you are constantly kissed by the muse. My ideas come from the fact that I move in very many different areas of life. I am confronted with new things every day that I have no idea about. And who inspires me: the people I meet. I am currently inspired by Felix Lobrecht, a German comedian who has always remained true to himself and has thus become one of the best comedians in the German-speaking world. I am inspired by people who have had their backs to the wall but have achieved much more than those who actually had an easier start in life.
Q: Ö1 calls you a philosopher of the working world. In what role do you see yourself?
Mahlodji: I see myself as a translator between the worlds. One who is really a philosopher at heart, but who has learned to choose the words in such a way that the respective people to whom I speak also feel seen and heard. I always try to be authentic.
Q: How can large companies manage to turn their employees into visionaries? Is there a difference to small companies or start-ups, EPUs, as far as visions are concerned? Do they even have it easier?
Mahlodji: Large companies actually have it easier because they have more people who contribute to the big picture. But their problem is often that they didn't talk about their vision before. When they did talk about a vision, it was usually the CEO's or the shareholders'. Startups are vision-driven in the first place and with small companies it comes down to this - there are family businesses that have incredible charisma and then there are small businesses that are boring. By boring, I don't mean that they don't do a good job, but that they don't inspire people.
Q: What tips would you give to companies for their vision work?
Mahlodji: In large companies, I would start by listening to the employees, asking them what future they see. Have events that focus on utopia, where employees are allowed to answer questions like: If we had a budget of 1 million euros and we had to spend it in six months so that everyone who works here would be happier, what would we do? Such utopian games give rise to incredible ideas. For example, I would also ask those employees who have children to take them along for a day - not only so that the kids can see what kind of job mum or dad is doing, but also so that they can share their ideas. I would implement a so-called "clown day" where everyone can come up with something crazy. So, I would consciously make sure in the company that I hear, understand, and include the knowledge and perspectives of all employees. Large corporations often have incredible visionaries in their teams, unnoticed, and they usually came into being because they had great visionaries at the top.
The vision of Raiffeisen itself is also incredible. Raiffeisen understood what cooperatives mean for people. From my point of view, Raiffeisen stands for community in its purest form. As a first step, groups can connect their employees with the original vision by, for example, having a day of their own to discuss how the vision came into being and how it can be applied to our lives today. You could ask them how the original idea of Raiffeisen can be enlivened in this often chaotic world today and then have them transpose it anew into the present world. This is how you will find the visionaries in the company.
Q: Do visions have an expiry date - like resolutions that you don't keep after all?
Mahlodji: A vision or utopia must always be bigger than a human lifetime, so that you can never actually reach it - if you reach it too soon, you fall into a hole because you don't know what will come afterwards. I have the vision that every human being has the chance to discover his or her own path and to walk it. With eight billion people, I would have to live at least 500 years to achieve that. But it's my big goal, that's what I'm working on and trying to develop others to make the journey there. Visions don't necessarily have an expiry date, but they have a timeliness and sometimes need to be dusted off now and then. And you have to remind yourself very often why you started something.
Q: Our issue will be published in mid-December, just before year-end. Visions instead of resolutions: what is your vision for 2022?
Mahlodji: My vision for 2022 is that we all look back and say what we experienced in 2020 and 2021 has trained us well for what lies ahead. We don't know how long the pandemic will last, we don't know what comes after, but we know no matter what comes our way, we have endured for two years, we have continued and we are still here. My vision is that every one of us understands that no matter what happens, you can always participate in this life and that life will always be better than you assumed. At the beginning of the Corona crisis, we thought we will see massive waves of insolvency, everybody will lose their jobs, the vaccine will take three to four years to be developed, we will never recover from this. Looking back today, we do have waves and waves, and yes, we do have problems in society when it comes to vaccination, but it was developed faster than we thought, we are back to pre-Corona levels in unemployment, and the economy also recovered faster than we thought. We often talk ourselves down about the future, but it is better than its reputation. My vision for 2022 is that we are aware of this.
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Raiffeisen Bank International AG published this content on 19 January 2022 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 19 January 2022 09:51:00 UTC.
