Leadership Workshop: Finding family

I have always been one to binge-watch documentaries, especially ones on apartheid and consequently ones on Nelson Mandela as well. Thus, as I went into the leadership workshop I certainly had fears that the workshop would just be a week-long version of one of those documentaries. However, I found myself surprised at not only the content and structure of the workshop but its outcome as well. We arrived at the hotel which was to be our home for the week truly as strangers, and it took some time for some of our walls to come down. But by the end of the week, we were more of a family than anything else. Each scholar was so warm and a joy to get to know and it was also inspiring to learn of the different struggles that most scholars were able to overcome in order to get here.

Overall, I found the experience to be very confrontational. Confrontational in the sense of having to confront oneself, both the good and the bad, and reconcile with both those realities. Through the workshop, I explored my motivations and learnt how they influence how I think, relate with others and ultimately how I show up in the world and this was eye-opening for me. I left with a strong sense of self, and a deep need to understand and even love myself more. My biggest and most important takeaway was the idea that leadership began within and was mostly an internal process. This process isn’t linear either, it is a process of self-discovery and ultimately self-mastery. My perspective on the importance of community has also changed and I now appreciate the people that have acted and continue to act as support systems in my life.