Name: Dieu Beni Kalayeto

Title: Teacher

Organisation: Grande Ecole de Victoire school

Dieu beni Kalayeto has over 3 years' experience in the education sector. He is currently a teacher at Grande École de Victoire, where he focuses on the instruction and development of children's talents. He holds a high school diploma from Collège Bonsomi in science, specializing in mathematics and physics. Kalayeto is driven by his passion for education and hopes one day to witness change in the Congolese education system. And he's pleased to share his experience as a leader through the Seven More Questions on Leadership.

Thank you to the 2,000 leaders who’ve generously done the 7 Questions on Leadership!

We’ve gone through the interviews and asked the best of the best to come back and answer 7 MORE Questions on Leadership.

I hope Dieu's answers will encourage you in your leadership journey. Enjoy!

Cheers,

Jonno White

1. As a leader, how do you build trust with employees, customers and other stakeholders?

I do my best to be honest and I give people the consideration they need by listening carefully to what they've to say.

2. What do 'VISION' and 'MISSION' mean to you? And what does it actually look like to use them in real-world business?

To me, vision means having an idea, something which is not material, and a mission is the assignment of how this vision can be materialised.

In real-world business to use them looks like being confident in what you do and succeeding, because a mission without a vision is a loss of time and a vision without a mission is nothing. One should be able to join both.

3. How can a leader empower the people they're leading?

First of all, the leader must love those people because you can't empower or even lead people you don't love. He must also build confidence in his people by valuing their work and congratulating them each time they do something meaningful and look for ways of speaking gently to them when they make mistakes. He should be able to give people a second chance when they've failed to show them that being gracious to people is valuable than crucifying them for their mistakes.

The Bible says: God so loved the World that he gave his son Jesus Christ. By saying this, the Bible shows us just that God trusted men, that God decided to give people a second chance after the failure of Adam in the Eden. A leader should live that way.

4. Who are some of the coaches or mentors in your life who have had a positive influence on your leadership? Can you please tell a meaningful story about one of them?

I was so smart when I started school. But at some point, I got lost and exhausted about renewing the efforts. That's when I began failing badly. That's when I met a teacher who renewed in me the love of studying, especially of maths. His methods and his motivation got me back to the top. I can't speak about this without mentioning my previous math teacher from the one above; he was also important. It is in his class that I fell badly and I lived in humiliation and shame before others who were seeing, from that moment, as a normal guy for some, and others were asking themselves what happened to me.

I met the teacher during the holidays before the beginning of the next school year and helped him burn some papers. We talked so much, and at some point, he told me," This year you were so bad, I want you to change." I made him the promise that I will. It wasn't easy, and I even had some fallback, but the other teacher that I mentioned first motivated me a lot. As a result, I regain confidence in myself and consideration before others. That period even taught me a valuable lesson that I should never live according to the applause of others.

5. Leadership is often more about what you DON'T do. How do you maintain focus in your role?

As a teacher, I have forecasts that give me deadlines for each lesson. This in mind helps me to maintain the focus in my role; also, I'm motivated about giving my students the best instruction with the available means. Knowing that it's not so easy.

6. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Everyone plans differently. How do you plan for the week, month and years ahead in your role?

The good part of being a teacher is that you have a school diary and forecasts which help you to plan the week, month, and year; also, I usually take time to prepare my lesson before the day of teaching the lesson.

7. What advice would you give to a young leader who is struggling to delegate effectively?

I would tell him to find people that he can trust, to entrust with his vision, and to test them. He must not be tired and disappointed the first time he tried. He should try again and again.