Looking forward to Cape Town!
Looking at the presentation and different orientations as shared by Dr. Tremper, I can only imagine what a better world ours would be should every one of us dared to live in harmony with others! It brought to mind Change Your World, a program of Maxwell Leadership that I love to facilitate. In one of our promotional resources, it states that “To change our world, we need more than good intentions, we need a process, we need a platform and a movement.”[1]
The upcoming trip to South Africa is key to my journey as a student of leadership. I have admired those leadership principles that have brought South Africans to the freedoms they enjoy not only free from Apartheid but the process of building their governing structures post-apartheid. “Cultural competence is essential for every leader.”[2] I thought we would live in a better world today with the capacity to shift perspectives and adapt behavior to cultural differences and commonalities as shared by Dr. Tremper and indeed this is essential for all of us, especially those in leadership. John C. Maxwell says “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way” while we look at cultural competence from a global leadership perspective, there is a great opportunity for us to connect with leaders not only from our own culture but a lot of leaders from other cultures.
“So, we will begin with denial and this denial is characteristic of people who have limited experience with people from other groups.”[3] I would imagine with the recent world affairs, the popularity of the internet, and social media we would only have a very limited number of people not connected or familiar with other cultures. This could have been the case 3 decades ago but nowadays things have taken a different shape. The other problem is likely to be that some may not be interested in other cultures and simply choose to remain dismissive which is more unfortunate.
It was interesting hearing Dr. Tremper speak about butchering names! I am one of those who will not bother when anyone can’t pronounce my name. Having lived as a refugee for so many years in countries other than mine, I realize it would take me forever to attempt to teach others the right pronunciation of my names “Your task is to develop a deeper understanding of your own culture, cultural self-awareness, and increased understanding of culture in general”[4] The fact that we start by understanding our culture and cultural self-awareness is very essential, especially having plans to help others in one way or another. The Change Your World facilitation the value that I always start with is Hope. There is a quote that I love which I start with Augustin stating “Hope has two beautiful daughters; their names are Anger and Courage. Anger at the way things are, and courage to see that they do not remain as they are.”[5]
[1] John Maxwell and Rob Hoskins, Change Your World.
[2] Karen Tremper, ‘IDI Group Profile Report’.
[3] Tremper.
[4] Tremper.
[5] Maxwell and Hoskins.
About the Author
Jean de Dieu Ndahiriwe
Jean de Dieu Ndahiriwe is a Clinical Correctional Chaplain and former Child Refugee from War-torn Rwanda. A member of the Maxwell Leadership Certified Team, Jean is passionate about Servant Leadership and looks forward to seeing more leaders that inspire Lasting Peace and Justice for all, especially "the least of these".4 responses to “Looking forward to Cape Town!”
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Jean, I enjoyed reading your thoughts in your blog post and appreciated that you wove the Maxwell Leadership insights into your writing. I would love to hear more about world change needing more than good intentions, but also a process, a platform, and a movement.
I, too, found Tremper’s words interesting regarding our responsibility to develop a deeper understanding of your own culture, cultural self-awareness, and an increased understanding of culture, in general. I look forward to working on this individually and also with our DLGP group. I am excited and feeling hopeful for all we will learn from each other.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts!
Hi Jenny,
Thank you so much for taking time and comment on my blog. Surely understanding ourselves and our motives will help us accept and deal best with others, Tremper is spot on, her presentation is loaded with meaningful experience during her work and travels.
Loving this journey of learning and looking forward to see you soon,
Blessings.
My name is always butchered as well, and I always joke that I will answer to anything. However someone once told me that names are important and we should teach others how to say them. I think they might be on to something after reading your blog and Meyer. Culture is important, and our names are our culture.
Now… if I only had courage to educate someone when they mispronounce it. That’s a different story.
Hi Alana,
I agree with the value of names and culture.
For me, the issue isn’t the courage to educate the correct pronunciation; the problem is I will spend so much time doing the educating! Every opportunity I find speaking to new audiences, I will start with the meaning behind my name and teach them a little french and Kinyarwanda pronunciations as part of my speaking.