It is best to coach your trainees in line with their strengths

By Anderea Morara

Professor Jack Sereti started his life as a recruit. A career in the armed forces is something Sereti had always admired.

So, it was one of the his happiest moments when he was selected from the 200 odd young runners jostling for recruitment into the armed forces a few years after Kenya gained independence.

However, life in the army was not smooth sailing. He was not one of the finest marksmen in his team, but was good in all the other aptitudes that make a great soldier.

But his consistent failure to shoot on set targets incensed his supervisor so much that he developed a strong dislike for him.

He often told him: "a soldier who can not shoot nine out of ten targets is a good recipe for losing any combat exercise."

Frustrations

The situation did not improve. His supervisor started to refer to him by his tribe, and even wondering whether people from his community made bad soldiers. Jack was terribly frustrated and disillusioned.

It was not surprising when Jack graduated without colour and was given sentry duties, which he loathed. He considered quitting, but found he had to serve the stipulated number of years before he could leave the service.

The only solution was to get himself fired, but even this was not easy.

Meanwhile, some of his cohorts were going places, and climbing ranks. He felt trapped in a wrong segment of a career that he had always looked up to since he was ten.

One sunny afternoon a contingent of foreign soldiers walked into the gate when Jack was on duty. Jack quickly moved to attend to them.

He not only directed them to where they were going, but offered to escort them to the duty officer they were to meet.

The contingent of high level army personnel was from Washington, and had come to the barracks — at the Government’s invitation — to conduct interviews for the purpose of selecting "resourceful" young soldiers who could be sent abroad for further training.

Interviews

Jack was initially not on the list of the candidates lined up for the interviews.

However, because of the good impression he had created in receiving the Washington Team, they insisted he come for the interviews, which were being jointly conducted with local senior personnel.

Not only was Jack among the 18 lucky qualifiers, but he was rated the top candidate. Even his superiors were surprised at how well he performed, especially in the written and oral tests.

Obviously, this elite team of interviewers did not give marksmanship the same weighting as Jack’s supervisor had done.

They were more concerned with strategy, responsiveness, leadership and intellectual capacity.

The young men who were being sent for training were to be prepared for high level positions in the army, as the bulk of key positions were still in the hands of expatriates.

The paradox of these interviews was that they involved all soldiers who were under 35 years, including Jack’s supervisor, who was however not selected.

Prior to being sent abroad, the young soldiers were given further aptitude tests to identify their greatest strengths on the specific courses they were to be sponsored for. Once their particular courses had been decided on, they were put under respective tutors (mentors) to start preparing them in readiness for the various institutions they were to join in three months time.

Jack, today a retired army commander and part-time professor of strategy at two universities, is thankful to his former supervisor for causing him expand his horizons.

"If he did not relegate me to the gate, probably I may never have made it to the specialised training, which ultimately transformed my life."

Human development

Jack, however, castigates bosses who only judge their juniors on the basis of their weaknesses.

He says the object of the human development function is to build and maximise on the respective strengths of employees, not banish them for any foibles they might exhibit.

According to Jack, anyone with an oversight over others should be accommodating and seek ways to make those under them better for the benefit of the organisation and the country.

A manager who creates the notion — either deliberately or inadvertently — that he is against a member of his staff is a failure. "Even when, as a manager, you are infuriated by the actions of your junior, you should always try to separate the person from the act."

Jack’s dictum: Senior people in positions of authority should focus on the strengths of their employees and seek to amplify them while moderating the negative attributes.

—The writer is the Executive director of Capacity Development Africa Ltd.

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