This is an excerpt from a narrative report submitted to financial partners, but serves to tell a story that has directly resulted from our work with TWFTW.
Vincent Nyoni – Regional Personnel Development Coordinator (Southern Africa)
“When they talk to me, here is someone who can help me develop.” –Vincent Nyoni
As I muse on the impact of this project (to intentionally develop exegetes and on-the-job trainers), my thoughts first tend towards the regional facilitators that we have been able to raise up from the communities we serve. Vincent was the first translator we promoted as a Regional Personnel Development Coordinator. Stepping into this new role, he found that both working through the Gallup Strength Assessment and the process of being coached into becoming a coach greatly increased his confidence and competence in teaching and encouraging others. As he started to replicate this process within the Southern Africa region, there was at first a lot of confusion as to what he was doing. People thought he was coming in to take over as a supervisor. However, he was able to use the tools and approaches he was learning to build trust, development-focussed relationship, and efficacy in enabling others to learn and grow. He found himself, in his words, “doing a kind of counselling” with people in a variety of roles and through these relationships, he motivated people to grow, learn, and overcome obstacles through their own professional development. He has found himself used to help identify and train consultants-in-training, coach training coordinators though planning and running their first events, aid national directors in finding the right people to fill important roles, aid the region in project and staff planning, and coach directors in taking responsibility for the development of their teams. Vincent says, “When we talk with people, we can remind them that we are a learning organization and increase their desire for continuous learning”.
As a coach moving around in different regional cultures, he has developed abilities to bridge between cultures, help people create more effective relationships with leaders, and to support peoples’ desires to grow and learn. He has reported that our key impacts are motivating people to learn, improved communication between directors and staff, helping people succeed, and improving our ability to put people in positions where they can thrive.