Day 21: Hesselbein Global Leadership Academy Day 2

I managed not to get lost on my way down to breakfast. It was a bit confusing - American Universities aren't as distinct from the cities in which they reside as Australian Universities. I'm terrified I will wander the wrong direction and get lost in Pittsburgh. The trip down is a very steep downhill so it's pretty hard in heels to walk quickly.

The first presentation of the day was by Ms Laurie Kelley and focused upon listening. Listening is a key part of leadership - people will not be keen to follow and contribute to a dream of someone who does not engage with them. We were paired up and tasked with talking about our favourite holiday and what we want to achieve in the future. This was a fantastic opportunity for me to get to know Sam, the other female in my group. We bonded over exaggerating listening techniques and laughing at one another - I am sure we will remain quite close friends over the course of this academy.

The next presentation was a panel discussion on creating a culture of excellence - presented by Dr Jim Earle and Ms. Deborah Walker. This was a great talk, particularly from Deborah Walker, about the importance of integrity throughout your entire life, whether you are currently in a position of leadership or not. From there, we discussed about ways we can motivate others and recruit a team of individuals who will help achieve the goals of the organisation. Ms Walker spoke from personal experience working with Pittsburgh Government and Law Enforcement to improve moral and how important personal integrity was to building that culture. This workshop was particularly useful for me reflecting on NUWiE and how best to build its success and passion within the society.

Tony Fountain had us participate in a fun activity that tested our problem solving skills. In two groups, we were tasked to find our way across an invisible maze. It was a race between the two teams to get the most across. I was the first across for my team - for me, the maze was easy because I was observing both teams actions and could quickly memorise the safe squares. Unfortunately, we lost as the rest of the team was unable to make the same observations and memorise the path. It was also another demonstration of the importance of followers and leaders in a team - with everyone trying to direct no one observed and directions were frantic and confusing.  The important takeaway message from this activity was to do with responding to challenges and failure - the essential steps of observation and analysis to avoid the repetition of mistakes. To fail to learn from history dooms you to repeat the error again, as demonstrated by the number of people failing to clear the maze the exact same way every time.

After lunch we were put into smaller groups mixed across the participants and given a project. We were hypothetically put in charge of a tour company that was running a tour adventure overseas. As a management team we had to make decisions on behalf of the company in order to maximise profit and customer satisfaction. Our team got off to a shaky start - the challenge of so many leaders wanting to take charge was again plaguing the group. Furthermore, it was hard for everyone to hear the options, the challenges and thus contribute. Initially our decisions cost the company a lot of money and didn't please our customers. However, after assessing our group's decision making process we focused on sharing the leader role around the group, ensured that everyone understood and could contribute and found ourselves with better team morale and making choices that maximised customer satisfaction and profit. In the end, we had the happiest customers out of all the teams, although we were still a little low on cash.

I was particularly chuffed when one of my group members came up to me later and said that they felt I was a natural leader because I focused on engaging everyone and she really admired that about it. Pretty much made my day.

Our final presentation was from Rear Admiral James Helis. We discussed what our values and ethics were and how we stay true to them throughout our professional life. He also discussed the role of leadership in providing ethical direction and instilling a sense of service in an organisation and how a different leadership can affect the direction of a company. It was certainly an important lesson for those of us who aspired to leadership in business.

The evening events were a lot of fun. Our first stop was dinner with a notable person in the Pittsburgh area. For our group, given that our civic engagement site visit was to the American Red Cross Centre, we had dinner with Patricia Waldinger, CEO of the American Red Cross Southwestern Pennsylvania chapter, at her house. And what a house! She is also an amazing cook - her parents were restaurant chefs and she made the most amazing roast and there was a brilliant cake for dessert. We were truly spoilt that evening. Over dinner we discussed our backgrounds, learning more about the other members of our group, as well as what Patricia thought we should know about the American Red Cross so we could engage with our civic project tomorrow. 

Our group with Patricia in her entrance hall (the house was huge and had amazing views)

After dinner the entire Academy regrouped to catch a cruise along the river. Pittsburgh is so beautiful by night and it is very much like Newcastle - a history of steel manufacturing which has turned into a successful engineering, innovation hub with a tourism economy. The best part of the cruise was the girl from Palestine. She had never been on a boat in her life and her childish glee was infectious. I took many photos for her, she was running around videoing and sending her friends back home snapchats of her on the boat. It really put some perspective on how lucky I am that I have had so many experiences in my lifetime.

One of the Pittsburgh Bridges - it did rain on the cruise, briefly.

After the cruise we got on some vintage tram-style buses to catch the cable car up Mount Washington to watch the sunset over Pittsburgh. It was absolutely stunning. Pittsburgh is beautiful and has such great history. It's so much like Newcastle, it kind of feels like home.

The view of Pittsburgh with a fence coming out of my head!

This academy is rushing by and I can't believe that tomorrow is my last day. Still stressing out over this speech but thankfully Kelsey (my roommate) is super supportive and has been putting up with my angst. Hopefully I'll have this nailed by the time I hit Thailand!