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.

Koroi Hawkins maps out his values with Dolores, centre, and Barbara looking on

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.

Fellows with Dolores and Barbara on their last day with us. Dolores and Barbara are the authors of the awesome resource ‘Altitude’