Imparting good manners
Grace Mbogo, an image and etiquette consultant.
What you need to know:
- Grace Mbogo is co-founder of Royal Etiquette Consultancy.
- "Early morning is not my most productive time of day and I schedule almost all my serious engagements late in the morning or in the afternoons."
Grace Mbogo is co-founder of Royal Etiquette Consultancy.
"I do most of my planning and structuring at night and usually wake up late in the morning. I was woken up this morning by a call from a friend who needed me to train a person in her life. She seemed to think I could fix him.
A lot of people tend to regard me like they would a psychiatrist, and I keep reminding them that proper etiquette cannot be imposed on a person; the person needs to want to change.
Early morning is not my most productive time of day and I schedule almost all my serious engagements late in the morning or in the afternoons. My first meeting was a pitch to an established company.
While they liked it, they remained adamant about changing their office culture. It is normal in my line of business to meet people who show a lot of interest but without commitment.
A BETTER AFTERNOON
My afternoon went much better. For the past week, I have been doing image training for a group of fresh graduates to prepare them for the workplace. Today was the final day when the trainees had to act out various workplace situations by meeting various mock panels.
A particular young man struck me. When he came in a few days ago, he had a beautiful portfolio but he could not communicate and was barely audible. He did well today and the panels gave him great reviews and seeing that made it all worthwhile.
Between 6pm and 7pm, I had coffee with my boyfriend, Francis, before I went home. I live with my parents and my younger sister and I got home in time to have dinner and pray together with them. At about 10, they turned in but my night was far from over.
Like I do each night, I wrote down all the people that I met today and the things that I learnt from them — this helps me to grow. Then I spent one more hour reading and planning for tomorrow.
The latest addition to my portfolio is training children on etiquette. If children grow up with proper manners, by 2030 it will be a nationwide culture. After my night routine I was ready to drift off at a few minutes past midnight."
