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Speaker: Klaus Regnault
 Klaus Regnault is a
Peak Performance Consultant based in Dusseldorf, Germany. He
is associated with Josef Brauner, former president of Sony Germany, Board Member of Deutsche Telekom and
CEO of T-Com. Together, they
run Complex Coaching and Consulting, covering the areas of
business, sports and the arts.
As a corporate trainer,
he conducts workshops based on his "Complex Coaching" method, which unifies
physiological, mental and emotional aspects of performance. Regnault also
talks about his experiences with the Maasai Warriors in Tanzania. The
Maasai are regarded as the most mentally tough Warriors on Earth.
Certain aspects of their training and sense of teamwork are applicable to
the corporate world in Western countries, and Regnault helps organizations
make the transfer in practical and effective ways.
As an international
tennis coach, he works with professional players ranked in the top-100 in the
world. He also trains golfers to help them become mentally tough under
pressure. Klaus Regnault has been the European
representative of Dr. James Loehr's sport psychology speaking tours from
1988 through 1992. [Watch Klaus Regnault on
VIDEO]
Regnault on his experience with the Maasai Warriors
I have worked over 15
years in the areas of Peak Performance and Team-Building processes.
Because of my background, it was very interesting to visit another culture
that is not science-oriented like the Western World but picture-oriented
instead. The Maasai are guided by their intuition much more than we are.
As a result, they have much less fear in stressful situations. I believe
we can learn a lot about how to deal with performance stress from this
African tribe.
Maasai are happy,
laughing kids, but much more disciplined than any Western society.
Discipline and joy are complementary, not on opposite sides of the
emotional spectrum. They are emotionally healthy; they can show a big
range of emotions but remain very disciplined and focused. They prepare
to face fear by systematically following the rules of peak performance
training.
In our Western society,
we are never prepared to deal with own fears. We are not
systematically educated in dealing with life-threatening challenges,
unless we enroll in a military program. Maasai men are schooled in
how to deal with fear at every stage of their lives: they are prepared for
peak performance in their passage from childhood to junior Warrior, to
senior Warrior to elder.
For every stage they
have specific rituals, most of them are centered around the way they groom
their hair. The kids have short hair. The Warrior is the only
one allowed to have long hair. He starts as a junior Warrior with a
shaved head; then he lets it grow. The Maasai senior Warrior's hair
looks like the helmet of Romans. Their people met the Romans in
Egypt before they went to Kenya and Tanzania. The
key ritual for the Maasai Warrior is to kill a lion with a metal-tip
spear. He must do this alone. If he succeeds, he becomes a
hero and can wear a hat made of lion’s skin.
Maasai women are very tough and resilient as well. They perform a
lot of tasks in their nurturing, organizing role. They respect their
husbands' role but they carry a lot of weight in their society's everyday
life. The Maasai
stick together, you can’t break the team; it goes through life's
challenges together. They perform circumcisions to prove that they
can withstand pain. The community allows seven years of no
circumcisions so the same age group learns how to deal with fear as a
unit. Their cohesiveness as Warriors is demonstrated when a lion charges
towards them. Typically, the lion goes after area from where the
spear has come from; it does not attack the individual. This allows
the teammates to back up the shooting Warrior with their spears and subdue
the animal.
In my seminars, the
Maasai Warrior story is used as a metaphor. It is not my intention to
compare two different cultures but to show how we can add some of
their strength to our strength. The best Managers I’ve met during my work
were in some sense very much like Maasai Warriors.
The Foundation Project
I started the
Foundation to help kids who are not able to get educated because of
poverty, AIDS or other factors like family problems. The candidates
are underprivileged but academically competent kids. Only 5% of kids in
the Maasai population go to secondary school. I want to take them to the
next step, so they can become self-reliant. I aim to launch the
fundraising programs in 2007. Your help in this valuable project
will be greatly appreciated. One way to start is by hosting my
public and corporate seminars, which are coordinated and supported by
Salum International Resources.
Thank you for your kind interest and support on behalf of the Maasai
children and I.
Klaus Regnault
Seminar
Outline - "A
Metaphor of Excellence: The Maasai Warrior"
This unique event can be customized to fit your keynote speaking needs or to
be experienced as a teambuilding workshop. The Maasai Warrior story
has a powerful resonance in the participants for its relationship with the
key principles of Peak Performance training, such as:
-
Operating in a High, Positive Emotional State
-
Seeking the Challenge Response when faced with competitive pressure
-
Understanding the power of making Stress and Recovery waves
-
Acting the behavior you want to feel
-
Performing and preserving rituals that lead to the Ideal Performance State
-
Monitoring the individual and team performance
-
Facing challenges as a cohesive team unit
1. Seminar Overview
1.1.The Maasai Warrior is
educated to be a Peak Performer.
1.2.The Maasai Warrior is
educated to be a Team Player.
1.3.The Maasai Warrior is
educated in the power of Performance Rituals: The story of the Maasai
Warriors hunting a lion
2. Common Values
2.1. Maasai give their
children an incredible amount of love
·
why are they so
self confident
2.2. Maasai are grown up
in age groups (7 years)
·
why do they trust
others so much
2.3. Maasai respect each
other
2.4. Maasai respect their
enemy for their strength
2.5. Maasai do celebrate
the success of the other
2.6. Maasai are positive
thinkers (they usually don’t judge)
2.7. Maasai learn to
answer pain with a challenge response
2.8. Maasai know that
they can only be successful when the team works well
·
they share
everything even with their guests
2.9. Maasai learn about
humility
3. Common Goals
3.1. The tribe must
survive
3.2. Maasai Warriors have
to become brave
3.3. Maasai Warriors want
to become heroes
3.4. To be very helpful
for the tribe as a child, a boy, a Warrior, a senior Warrior, as an elder,
the jobs for every member of the tribe are very clear
3.4. Every tribe loves
heroes because they feel more secure with a lot of them
3.4. The tribe has to
stay independent from the two states they are living in (Kenya, Tanzania)
4.
Communication and
Cooperation
4.1. Maasai Communicate
through dances (social)
4.2. Maasai Communicate
through stories (history lessons, education)
4.3. Maasai Communicate
through singing (hunting a lion)
4.4. Maasai Communicate
with two languages: Maa and Kisuaheli
4.5. Maasai Warriors
Communicate through rituals and symbols
4.6. Cooperation and
friendship
4.7. Cooperation to
achieve something of excellence
5.
Motivation
5.1. Lots of cattle for a
good social standing
5.2. Maasai Warriors are
machos who have to show how brave they are to impress the ladies
6.
Profile and skills
6.1. Maasai Warriors are
very fit (they run 70 km with the cattle to the market in 5 hours)
6.2. Maasai Warriors are
very fast
6.3. Maasai Warriors are
very calm
6.4. Maasai Warriors are
very proud (a matador can learn the walk from a Massai to look proud)
6.5. Maasai Warriors are
excellent with their spears (they can handle their tools perfectly)
6.6. Maasai Warriors have
knowledge about their cattle (they know about their business)
6.7. Maasai Warriors know
about the character of the Lion (they study their enemy)
6.8. Maasai Warriors know
about the right pace (during hunting)
6.9. Maasai Warriors are
experts in decision-making under pressure (the lion jumps)
6.10. Maasai Warriors
always believe that they will be successful
6.11. Maasai Warriors are
in high energy performance state at all times
7.
Rules and Rituals
7.1. Respect your elders
7.2. Be ready to die for
a friend
7.3. Every role in the
group is very clear (the example of hunting a lion)
7.4. Rituals to get used
to pain (Circumcision, scares, fears)
7.5. Presents to a friend
have to show the risk or the effort a Warrior is willing to take (ostrich
egg, Maasai-stick)
7.6. Maasai Warriors are
wearing red clothes and a Maasai stick
7.7. The hero is wearing
a lion’s mane
7.8. The chief is wearing
a chief’s stick
8.
Be prepared for
the job
8.1. Summary of the most
important points of the Maasai Warrior story related to Peak Performance and
Team-Building
8.2. Important points for
building a team in the corporate world
8.3. Training and
seminars instead of circumcision, and hunting a lion
8.4. Examples of rituals
in the world of business (Coca Cola, Procter & Gamble, Nike, Henkel)
8.5. The Corporate Maasai
8.6. Communication skills
in the company (inside, outside; to human value, to customers)
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