We spend so much time dwelling on issues and writing about other people’s lives or concerns that it can become a sort of refuge from ourselves.
A sort of safe haven not to confront or deal with our individual issues – whether it be professional or personal.
So, in the first days of this fellowship on women and economic literacy, I was uncomfortably surprised that we had evaluate many personal things. It was sooo difficult. Fellow Koroi Hawkins and I were paired on one of the most confronting exercises on values. Boy, did we struggle; finishing well after everyone else.
Self-awareness is a critical part of being a good leader, explained our leadership mentors Dolores Cummins and Barbara Baikie. The clarity it affords certainly enables you to be more decisive leaders.
In a nutshell, for most of us anyway, it was as if we were being reintroduced to our ‘deeper’ selves – if you catch my drift. It was clear by the end of the week that we had learnt a lot Thanks to Dolores and Barbara though, I don’t think we would have engaged as much without their expertise. We really miss those awesome women. We’ve been very privileged to have them as mentors.