Personal Effectiveness at Work Training Experience
By: Kehinde Olubi, Programme Director, Amag Executive Academy |July, 2021
We conducted an in-house training at a client’s office for some delegates on Personal Effectiveness at Work.
Three people stood out among the delegates, one of them named Kany (not the real name) had an issue with greeting people and even told us he does not talk to his neighbours and does not see the reason why he should greet people in his neighbourhood.
Kany raised a question on why he should greet or talk to people living in the same compound with him. He said he only talks to his neighbour to move his car if he wants to go out and his car is blocking him. No need of interaction whatsoever.
His colleagues tried as much as possible to advise him, but he still did not agree with them.
We sighted some personal examples to encourage him to improve on his interpersonal relationship with his neighbours. He reluctantly agreed to work on his attitude.
The second named Banie came late on the first day of the training and had missed two sessions. He was complaining bitterly about the training scheduled on a weekend that he was supposed to use to rest after a busy week at work.
During my next session, I observed that Banie adjusted his attitude and was showing keen interest in the class also asking clarifying questions. During lunch break, he engaged me and wanted to know more about the discussion. When we closed for the day, he offered to drop us off at a convenient place where we could conveniently find our way home.
The next day, I was expecting him to come late as usual, but Banie proved me wrong. He came earlier than some of his colleagues and maintained so much seriousness during the training sessions. We completed the training and left before all the delegates, to our amazement, Banie caught up with us along the way and ran towards us offering to drop us off at a more convenient place.
We told him not to bother as we had already boarded a commercial bus, but we later agreed so that he will not be discouraged when he told us he had been calling me on phone to let us know that he will be dropping us off. He was actually running after us, unfortunately, I did not hear the phone ringing as it was kept in my bag, but I later saw 4 missed calls from him.
We were really surprised at his kind gesture and wondered why he offered to help us out.
The peculiarity of the area was that there was a gridlock, and we could not drive our car to the office location. On the first day we were caught by the task force who extorted some money from us instead of helping us out. They wasted our time and refused to listen to our plea about the difficulty we were facing to find an alternative route to where we were going. The problem, they were very much aware of and did nothing to help commuters. We had to go on commercial motorcycles, – a serious risk – facing on-coming vehicles praying to God to protect us.
Ordinarily I do not take commercial motorcycles, but I had to, just to make sure we deliver the training that will impact the lives of the delegates for good. God saw us through, and we successfully completed the training for two weekends.
The third person who I will call Jacy, told us how he will going forward adopt a new attitude. He said he used to carry the problem he was facing at work home and unleashed his annoyance on his family when he gets back home to the extent that his wife told him that it was better for him not to be coming home after work as they do not always have peace whenever he returns from work.
We counselled him to always maintain a work life balance by leaving issues relating to work behind at the office and adopt the right attitude after work by showing love to his family which he promised to work on after the training.
Though the training was conducted on a weekend and the timing was not convenient for the delegates, they were happy and confirmed they gained a lot during the training sessions. They also promised to apply the learning points to their work especially “To do list”, prioritizing work based on their importance and urgency.
Other delegates were so happy about how impactful the training has been and promised to apply the learning point to their work the next business day.
This same learning experience and much more can be delivered to your employees through our training programmes. We promote continuous learning. Why not train with us!!!
