Leaders Aren't Trained (Zambia 2016, Part 1)

It was a dusty day in Kitwe when I walked out of the blinding sun into the stick and tin structure serving as a small church. Inside, I there was a seemingly random assortment of middle aged men in suits, breastfeeding mothers, and a handful of nuns sitting on log benches oiled shiny by the skin of countless worshippers. I clenched a bundle of notes, some typed some handwritten and photocopied with my own chicken scratch on the margins. My 70-something colleague Dave had handed them to me and mildly wished me luck. I squinted my eyes at them all across the Atlantic trying to make sense of all this talk of progress disciple-making, foundational assumptions, and strange sounding acronyms. Then it was show time.

I’m not much of a teacher now. But in 2010, fresh out of seminary and woefully insecure, I’m certain I put those nuns to sleep as I droned on reciting every sentence in those notes, inserting my own dry anecdotes and instantly getting lost and having to search the page to find my next bullet point. Every Zambian there assured me after four days that the seminar was a true inspiration and had changed their lives forever. In my memory Dave said something like, “yeah okay not bad for your first time.” Thanks Dave.

I suppose I began to believe that if I could just become a more eloquent and confident teacher, mastering those notes and perfecting my delivery, maybe then I actually could change some lives. So for the next few years I tried. Oh I tried. And I improved. I left the notes on the podium. My anecdotes got better. I inserted my own fiery convictions. And people in the Congo, Ethiopia, and Ghana assured me that with increasing fervor that I was changing their lives forever with my revolutionary teachings. But I couldn’t shake this sneaking suspicion that most of those people were going home and setting their eagerly scratched notes reverently on a pile of notes from other life-changing seminars about farming practices, micro-enterprises, social entrepreneurship, or community health and then going about their real lives as usual. I can’t blame them. I’ve done the same thing countless times after any number of life changing conferences, retreats, and special events. That is, I’ve done nothing. I might discuss those new ideas with a couple friends or dream of some new possibilities, but in the end, my “real life” calls me back to earth.

I came across and interesting article in Forbes recently that told me what I long suspected but preferred not to hear: leaders aren’t trained. Leaders are developed. In fact the article went on to tell me that most leadership “trainings” do more harm than good. How could this be? Because, one friend told me as we discussed it, trainings can give people the impression that they have changed when in fact they haven’t. They’ve been inspired, educated, and convinced but not changed. Change happens in the nitty gritty behavioral choices we make tomorrow morning, next month, and next year. Because a seminar is a radically different environment from our daily lives, it is harder than we think to make that application leap. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen. It does. But it requires a level of inspiration, personal conviction, and reinforcing experiences that most people will never attain in a seminar and no lecturer can guarantee no matter how eloquent.

So what’s a trainer to do?

First we need to pay attention to how people learn. I promise you, a content-heavy lecture is NOT how people learn. They learn by discussing. They learn by reinforcing experiences. Most of all, they learn by teaching others. They learn through a frequent teacher-student feedback loop.

Second, we need to be willing to get into the nitty gritty. Visionary types like me hate the nitty gritty. I don’t know, it’s just so... nitty gritty. But as they say, the devil is in the details. So let’s say I just blew your mind with the seminar to end all seminars. What are you really going to do with it tomorrow? Have I made it abundantly clear what I want you to do? Do you think you can do it? Did I give you the resources and materials to do it? Do you feel it would be worth it? Who is going to remind you to do it when the gravity well of the status quo starts calling you? Who do you ask when you have a question or run into a problem? I’m afraid I haven’t had good answers for those questions in the past. I’ve just hoped they would figure it out.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying these last 6 years of training national leaders has been a waste. I genuinely believe that many people’s lives have been impacted. And along the way, I’ve been intentional about building friendships with a few key people and nurturing those friendships over the course of years. Plus I’ve learned a ton and honed a boatload of my own leadership skills along the way. I’ve gotten comfortable in Africa and developed a genuine love for my friends and colleagues there. I would do it all again.

But after this last week in Zambia, I’ve begun to have some hope beyond my seminar cynicism. I think there are better pedagogies out there and I think I’m starting to understand what is required to build a successful leadership community in Africa built around shared values and practices. It may take more time and energy than I ever imagined but I think it’s possible and it’s starting to happen. Most importantly, I think I’m willing to give it a shot. Stay tuned. In part two, I’ll let you know a bit of what I’ve been implementing this last week and the new possibilities and challenges we’ll be facing.