Majority of educationists are like almost every trainer polished speakers, aren’t they? Have you ever experienced a challenge of handling a difficult speaking engagement or seminar participant? The visit to DRC by His Excellency, the President of Kenya this week rekindles my training experience in Kinchasa, the Capital City of DRC, back in June 2013. The training participants were particularly excited to meet a Kenyan, who could during break-time share experiences of new leadership in Kenya, of yet another son of a former president, as was the case with DRC.
At that time, Joseph Kabila was the president having taken over from his father Laurent-Desire Kabila. On my part, it was quite exciting being updated on Etienne Tshikendi, the then famous and vibrant oppositionist, whose son is today the President of DRC – I had read widely about him, over the years.
Most importantly, it was a great International training experience having been contracted, to conduct a 4 day Leadership and Performance Management Seminar for senior staff of United States Agency for International Development – USAID, in Kinshasa, DRC station. The first 2 day seminar on Monday and Tuesday involving the team of middle management staff, largely comprising of locals, flowed exceedingly well.
The second seminar on Wednesday and Thursday was for senior staff, mostly nationals from different countries. That included about 3 white American ladies. As soon as the second seminar commenced, one American Lady introduced herself as (let’s assume) Dr. Angela. Alongside, she wondered why I didn’t indicate in which university I teach, during my introduction.
Somehow, I evaded the question since I was more of a workplace trainer or knowledge application expert rather than a lecturer. More still, she wondered why I knew so much about American culture, yet I am not one of them (I hadn’t shared my education background from a Nairobi based well known American University).
Failure to immediately address these concerns seemingly agitated Dr.Angela. She couldn’t withhold her wrath and openly belittled or disagreed with my assertions on two instances. Instantly, as an experienced trainer of trainers, I predicted her intentions of frustrating the seminar, for some unknown reasons. My response was quick and very straight forward. “Dr. Angela! Kindly let me continue without interruptions or privately make any clarifications at the end of the session. This will help your colleagues to smoothly enjoy the lessons.”
The session was about mid-morning and Dr. Angela could never have expected such a reaction. As such, she chose to walk away instead, leaving the seminar proceeding smoothly for the rest of the day. Alongside, Dr. Angela (as it later emerged) was seriously reprimanded by the mission boss and humiliated through being made to re-join the seminar the following day. That day she sat pensively until the end of the whole program.
In a professional forum here in Nairobi a few years later, we bumped into each other with the co-ordinator of the training in Kinchasa, who pleasantly updated me on what transpired after my Kinchasa experience. Seemingly, Dr Angela had wanted to attend a similar seminar in London, which was disapproved. Instead, the head of Kinchasa mission had opted for a training arrangement that could benefit all senior staff, which I executed.
As justification for the London trip nevertheless, Dr. Angela needed to prove her case. She couldn’t imagine how an African and particularly, an ordinary Kenyan, could manage to meet the expected International standards in a foreign mission – sadly, her disruption strategy couldn’t work.
Earlier, I was one day in 2010 almost overwhelmed by the ego of Lucia (not real name), an Italian Lady, based in Ethiopia, during a Leadership seminar conducted for AMREF Training School, Nairobi. Upon noticing her disinterest right from the beginning of the one day seminar for about 15 participants from different parts of Africa and Asia, I chose to disrupt Lucia’s perceptions through finding out whether as an Italian, she understood the Latin Language.
Though she confessed ignorance, Lucia couldn’t imagine that I could recall a citation learnt from a priest, while in primary school. Immediately, Lucia settled down and enjoyed the rest of the day – photos with Lucia are still retained in the pictorial section of our website. Thus, if sure of your content and ability to disseminate the same, it is possible to undertake training and take full charge of training participants of any race anywhere, isn’t it?
Rgds
Mwangi Wanjumbi (MKIM)
Personal Empowerment Coach
Seasoned Speaker/Consultant Trainer on Strategy, Performance, Change Management and Leadership.
Officially UNSUNG Architect of CBC
Author of 1. KICD approved Career Dynamics in the 21st Century, 2. Living Beyond Survival:No More Tiptoeing in Life
3. The 21st Century Student:Are You Creating The Future Today? Also, Retired 5 Year Monthly Strategy Columnist (2013 – 2018) for The SME Today Magazine Phone 254772516210
That was a nightmare in Kinshasa. Most people would have lost it.Unlike you, I’m shy and nervous when speaking in public. But, like Moses my friend, you keep getting invitations to speak in Public. In 2008, I was nominated to be the Patron of the local primary school I attended.So, once every term, I was given the privilege of talking to parents, teachers and students during closing day. It was a big day for the school and they arranged guards of honor by scouts and traditional dance performances by pupils, for me. I could also invite some former old boys and girls . The most complex part for me was to speak in public . I did a research on public speaking and found out two things : Even the most prolific writers still get butterflies when called to speak in public but have learnt the art of camouflaging their fears. Two:That once you start speaking connect with the crowd by having eye contact with a section of the same and ask a rhetorical question that demands an answer. If they answer, it means that they are listening to you . Based on that knowledge, I was good enough and I did a splendid job for four years until I differed with the management of school over some ethical issues involving them . Upto this day, they still demand I resume my duties while the local secondary school has twice offered me chances to serve in the board of Management, but I have always politely declined.
Had I delayed my reaction for 5 or 10 more minutes, the training could have been called off by the co-ordinator. Luckily, one of the qualities of professional trainers is to identify and dehorn difficult training participants.
In 2009, we, under the National Industrial Training Authority – NITA (formally Directorate of Industrial Training) initiated the Professional Trainers Association of Kenya – PTAK. I was founder member no 8. The 10 founder members not only learnt from each other, but also developed training content, which we disseminated to 100s of trainers for many years.
My speciality was on Training Evaluation, Training Impact Analysis and Training Reports. That’s why I never conduct any training without at least an Evaluation and Training Report. Meanwhile, for many years, I have coached numerous professionals including Lecturers interested in the training business.
Based on this background, I could easily tell Dr. Angela’s intentions, thus saving not only the Kinchasa training program, but also my professionalism. I have in the past witnessed near physical confrontations in professional forums, hence my alertness.