Top Ten Lessons from Esther Cobbah - #EstherQUOTES

1. The World as a Garden. Celebrating our flora and fauna is part of good stewardship of God’s earth. We need to take good care of the world God has given us.

2. #MyBeautifulGhana. When we appreciate our beautiful ideas, beautiful plants, beautiful talents and beautiful people, we become healthier and wealthier.

3. Talents. We need to rethink our careers; explore and nurture our God-given talents as professional opportunities.

4. Early Career Focus. I grew up interested in anything that had to do with development and promoting mutual understanding. I never related them to communication.

5. Introduction to Communication. Interestingly, a town crier (gong gong beater) and local hawkers triggered my interest in communications. Their rudimentary messages about banking, spring water and eggs caught my attention.

6. Proud Cyto Girl. I am a proud Cyto girl. I went to public and local authority schools throughout my formative years. The teachers taught us well and parents had confidence in these schools.

7. PR Pioneering. I studied communication and journalism in school but it was at USIS that I found my passion, that is Communication for National Development. I loved the challenge of pioneering external communications wherever I went.

8. Communication as a Science. Creative communication without a scientific basis is useless. Data is an important foundation for getting it right.

9. Empathy. Effective communication begins and ends with the other party. We often disseminate or transmit information and imagine that we are communicating. There must be mutual understanding; and it starts with listening.

10.  Governance. There can never be good governance without effective communication. That’s why a government can be convinced that it is serving the people and yet get voted out.