Robert Benninga, a former CEO, who has spoken to over 250,000 executives worldwide as a motivational speaker, aired his views on ‘being the best one can be especially in tough times,’ as part of the ‘Views from the Top’ programme launched by Leading Concepts.
Robert Benninga, a renowned motivational speaker, has a swelling on his left hand. It happened two days earlier. And he says, it has a message in there. He might not understand it now, this minute, but then Benninga believes and preaches that every thing happens for a reason.
That can sound like a very fatalistic observation coming as it is from a motivational speaker. So is this man asking you to address life like a yogi, with that half-content smile on your face, saying ‘Everything is for your good?’
While one-liners are his forte – “people want very quick mind-bites” – there is more to Benninga’s observations than merely being repetitive or appearing to be sententious.
A man who asserts he has ‘been there, seen it, and done it myself,’ running companies for nearly two decades, Benninga, born in Amsterdam, Holland, and educated in the US in science and MBA, had a physical stimulus that prompted him to chuck off the cushy job and follow his heart.
And that event was so epoch making, its reverberations are still felt, if not directly. It was the collapse of the Berlin Wall in November 1989. “I felt it fell all over me. It crumpled my career only to find out later that it actually opened my own path.”
He was on the verge of taking his German retailing and services firm all over Europe and the US. “Instead of going West, which was completely normal, we went East. It was a very successful move by the way, and we made a lot of money. But in my mind, I was asking myself: Is this what I want to do? Am I doing this with heart and soul? I had to listen very carefully to myself, and I heard the answer: No, I was not doing what my mission was.”
And that mission, he says, “is to facilitate personal growth primarily in companies because I speak that language. I also do a lot of charity projects with many underprivileged groups.”
Two years later, he quit the company. Benninga evolved as a speaker, and has toured the world extensively, including an earlier visit to the UAE. “When I look back, my capacity to inspire people has always played a major role in my corporate jobs,” he says. “When I quit, friends of mine asked to share some of my experiences on the relationships between bottom-line performance of companies and human performance. Why not, I told myself, and within two months, I was doing speeches.”
It was a difficult transition for a man used to corporate lifestyle. “To take the step, to follow the heart takes a major commitment. I am very grateful to my wife — she is Chinese from Hong Kong — who supported my move.”
“The term motivational speaker,” he says, “is wrong. Nobody can motivate anybody else. What you could do is inspire somebody else.”
Benninga would rather call himself a ‘professional who facilitates personal growth in the corporate arena.’ And the need for such professionals is even more important, he says, during tough times. “It is not a luxury, it is the foundation of the company.”
In Western Europe, the number of people working against their wills, on jobs that they do not necessarily like, is 55 per cent, explains Benninga. “They do it because they need a job. While there is no hard statistic about that fact in the UAE, according to a gentleman I met here, it could probably be the same here. There is a huge difference between doing a job and getting paid, and taking the act of doing a job to a level where you yourself would be doing it better.”
However, motivational speakers the world over find their activities a little down now, observes Benninga. “A lot of companies take the understandable but wrong decision of cutting back personnel development. I hate the word human resources because humans are not resources. They are not like paper clips, or machines; humans are the ones who determine how well the machines function. We should be talking about human capital or human potential.”
He does not blame the companies for being ‘leaner, meaner, and tougher.’ “In tough times, the leadership has to tough, clear and even autocratic. There is nothing wrong with that. But when the people left are lesser and the targets set for them are higher, it is more important than ever that these people are highly charged.”
Benninga has spoken to over 250,000 people worldwide, doing projects with some 500 companies. “I think what people appreciate in what I do is my solid business background. Secondly, it is my vulnerable and honest approach in delivering the message. I speak the same language that every body does. Thirdly, I am extremely knowledgeable in this field. Fourthly, I am good speaker. Finally, what touches people always is the energy behind my message. And that is to help people stop fooling themselves, stop limiting themselves, and take life to the level they are entitled to be.”
There are three possibilities before a man who works, says Benninga. “First is the decision to just leave. In today’s economy, very few people have the guts to do so. The second possibility is for the employee to tell himself that the company will go exactly the way he likes it, which is very unlikely. The third situation is for the individual to work in the situation in such a way that he/she is at his/her very best.”
That is the change Benninga strives to bring about in individuals.
Language and words play only a 10 per cent role in motivational speaking, says Benninga. “The body language attributes to another 25 per cent, but it is how you feel, how you radiate your energy with the participants that accounts for the rest.”
Everybody he addresses, says Benninga, is attracted to the totality of his message. “One should give people the time for the message to sink in. I have written six books though I am not a writer. And the number of responses I get about how people have been inspired by my talks is wonderful.”
Benninga uses spirituality and meditation in his talks. “Just like a building with many floors, life has many different floors — physical, financial, material, relationships, emotional, mental, intellectual, philosophical, meditative, religious, spiritual, cosmic, universal. We always focus on one aspect — we are on one floor of the tower of life. You are still in the entire tower though. You are not stuck in this floor. You have to look at the building of life.”
There is big tendency in life for “I” to overpower everything else says Benninga. “I believe there is a bigger context to life, a bigger plan. I also believe that we have a very strong, delegated responsibility. If the ego gets big, and you say, you are in charge of the bigger plans, I don’t think it works. When ego takes over, it becomes “Edging God Out,” or “Everything Good Outside.” Ultimately, happiness lies inside, not outside.”
Benninga helps you move from a ‘rational must’ to ‘emotional want.’ “Many people, professionally, do things that they feel, they must do. It is like pushing against an elephant. Your rational must is push management, which is tiring for every one, the one who pushes, and the one who resists. But when you focus on ‘emotional wants,’ life is much easier. You don’t do anything anymore because you have to but because you want to. ‘Have to’ is the rational must, and ‘want to’ is the emotional want.”
One of Benninga’s boyish dreams was to be singer, and though he wasn’t particularly into public speaking as a child, today, he feels, he has come close to materialising a childhood dream through the seminars he hosts now.
Benninga’s 7 I’s to good living
Integrity:
Live in integrity with your self and the world around you.
Interest:
Don’t act interestingly; be really interested.
Intention:
Ask yourself, why do you do what you want to do?
Intuition:
Listen to that little voice inside you about what is right and what is wrong.
Intelligence:
Be not just book smart; be street smart. Don’t underestimate the value of good education.
Inner Energy:
Inner Energy results in outer energy. If you have the fire inside you, you can do anything.
Inspiration:
Tune in to the spirit, whatever it is for you.
