At NewCampus, we love telling stories of personal transformation from our learners. We spoke to Fijar Muhawimia, Head of Training of JivaAcademy about her reflections on leading her team and training farmers in the Agritech industry. 

Honoring Those Who Pass Down Knowledge

Question: Tell us about your journey from starting from the insurance industry to now the Head of Training in Jiva. Were there any inflection points or light bulb moments for you? 

Previously I worked for the insurance industry. I started as a secretary, actually. Becoming a secretary, I knew very much information about the administration, about scheduling, how to manage the boss and their bosses. 

My previous boss gave me an opportunity to learn about training. One of the sales trainers there needed one assistant so they let me try to lead one group of agents to guide them, to train them in terms of onboarding and how to use the application. 

Since then, I started the journey in training. After being in the insurance industry for a while, I worked for an online transportation company, the company is still in the training department where I manage the training for the users of theirs.  

Now I'm in an Agritech company, which is in the training department also. I'm not saying that training is my passion but in the training department, I can feel something, I can make people different in a better way. 

Also in my religion, that's part of the requirement to enter heaven. So becoming a trainer, our job can create something good for people. People can use that knowledge, the skills that we already taught them and it becomes our ‘Pahala’ in Islam, right? That's the reason I really love the training industry.  

For me, the training industry is really sexy. Sometimes people forget about who taught you before. I really appreciate all the teachers or the members that already give us that knowledge, so we actually get it now. 

Am I saying that too much?  

Understanding User Skills, Knowledge, and Abilities

Question: What are some unique challenges when you're leading?  

The challenge, at the beginning, is how I can manage the user, the learner itself, and how to do a deep dive looking for what is the skills, what is the knowledge, what is the ability that this person needs to have. 

That's the challenge actually, because by the time I move into several companies, even though they’re all in the training department, that is still a challenge, right? Because the user is different. In terms of managing the team, I currently have 20 people on my team. 

With different backgrounds, different experiences, different ages, that's becoming a challenge. Once your direct team is older than you, that's a challenge. When your direct team is younger than you, it's also a challenge. 

Once your direct team is the same age as you, it's also a challenge because you cannot be friends with them, right? We are partners but outside the office, although we are friends, but we cannot blend it within the work. That's also becoming a challenge.  

Nowadays, with the younger generation, the challenge is how they can work, not only for the salary month to month. They need to feel that this work is something for them. 

Right now, we work in the Agritech industry related to the little farmers so how we can connect our skills, our ability to make farmers have a better life, to have earning money more. 

I don't want my team to only work 9 to 5, go home, and then wait for their salary. No, I don't want to do that. That's the challenge actually, how I can make this dynamic team to support our end user to achieve their goal. 

For the ones who are older than me, I respect them. I respect their experience. Their experience will be very helpful for us to start the work, the company also. I let them share what they already knew previously. They can teach us so it is like a sharing session for us. 

For the younger ones, I can show them what work life is like so you cannot depend on your boss. You need to be creative. You need to take initiative. 

That's what I'm doing right now everyday. To make a harmony, one and another.  

The Joy of Training

Question: What about the joys when you’re leading?

Once our module and our curriculum is already set up, we already know how to design one journey end to end for our user, then we deploy it and it works, everybody is satisfied and then feel something. 

Once your user says thank you to you because they finally know these things and they can make the transaction and earnings because previously they didn't know about it. 

After the training, they already know about it and we fully support them. That's the joy that I feel in the training industry.  

A One-on-One Session to Help the Team

Question: How do you manage good communication for your team?  

In the new place that I manage, we have good communication, of course. We have a WhatsApp group. We have a Slack group and we have one on one sessions also with them. 

Usually in a one on one session, I don't want to talk about work because every day we talk about it. 

This one on one session is to deepen what is your expectation for your career, or what are the personal development things that you want to achieve for next quarter, or any personal related things that they're comfortable enough to share with me so I will hear. That's the moment that I listen rather than talk. 

I'm very happy because my team are always waiting for the next one on one sessions. Even if I missed the one on one session due to urgent meetings, they kept pushing me to reschedule.