Having briefly discussed the general topic of global citizenship in my previous blog, this piece aims to examine my own personal learnings in relation to my Leadership in Action experience abroad. My six week LiA project was organised through Makesense Americas in Lima, Peru and involved my working with a local NGO called Comunidad Peru on their education and nutrition programmes with members of the Shipibo-Konibo community in Cantagallo. While I have learnt a great deal over the course of the project, one of the key personal learnings I gained from the experience was a greater understanding of myself as a leader when put in an unfamiliar environment.
Going into the LiA in summer two, I was very unsure of what to expect in relation to the project structure and the work we would be expected to do. In a bid to protect myself from getting too stressed or anxious about how many unknowns there were before I arrived in Lima, I kept myself busy with work in the months beforehand and tried to put the entire LiA out of my head. This meant that when I did eventually arrive in Dublin airport at 4am on the 7th of July, I had somehow forgotten that part of the purpose of the trip was to test my leadership capacities and my ability to work with the other scholars in the group, not just my willingness to work hard and hold the work I produced to a high standard.
While I came away from my summer one research better able to adjust my expectations and be flexible when it came to what I could achieve over the duration of the project, it was in large part an exercise in self-leadership. There was no prolonged need to work with others or to alter my communication style. The centrally-organised LiA thus constituted a radically different experience. Working with a group of three other scholars within the large group of thirteen was really challenging at times, both in a professional and personal sense.
In the professional sense, it was quite difficult to adjust my communication style when working with our small team on the project. As a person with perfectionist and competitive tendencies, my work ethic and internal drive has been particularly shaped by my experiences in an elite sports setting. Until I came to college and my involvement in sport became more of a social activity, my understanding of appropriate levels of hard work and commitment was shaped by quite a harsh inner critic. Used to a high pressure environment in which criticism is given in a direct, factual manner where the underlying assumption is that any deficits or faults will be corrected once identified, that nothing said is personal, and that the criticism ultimately serves as a positive for the team, one has to develop a mindset that retains the useful information without being harmed by its delivery.
While I am proud of the strides I have made around my inner critic and at times excessive competitiveness and perfectionism, this LiA proved that when I was taken out of my comfort zone and put in a new situation where I was surrounded by (initially) strangers in a foreign country, I reverted back to bad habits. At times I took a very blunt and factual tone with my team-mates in a way that seemed harsh to them but appropriate to me. Put back in a situation where I very much cared about the deadlines and goals that had to be met, my stressed brain sought out a tried-and-tested method of effective information delivery, no matter the response it elicited. I had to remember to recognise and respect that we all had different working styles, each with their own benefits, and that just because someone worked in a different way to me it didn’t mean that they weren’t working towards the same goal. During our time spent working on the project, it became clear that while the end goals we had set for ourselves were undoubtedly the most important thing for us, it was also important that we figured out our professional boundaries with one another. With all of us transplanted to a completely new place with completely new people, giving each other grace and feeling like we could rely on and trust one another was crucial to the impactfulness of our time in Peru.
In addition to my own learnings about my leadership style when under pressure and in a foreign environment, I also came to recognise the cultural richness that comes from meeting people from different places. To be exposed to so many different perspectives and to have the privilege of exchanging information, knowledge, and enthusiasm was hugely enriching. The LiA has really impressed upon me the importance of interacting with a wide range of people, each with unique experiences and diverse perspectives. I feel like my understanding of the world and the communities we live in has been reshaped and enlarged by my entire Peruvian experience.
It is this newly expanded understanding of the diversity present in the global and local experience that I hope to bring with me to any and all future endeavours. We have so much to learn from one another in ways that we can bring back to our communities, facilitating positive growth and pushing each other to change together for the better. It has been wonderful and inspiring to connect with so many people who care so deeply for those around them and those who they may never meet. This generosity and determination to help others is something I hope to emulate wherever I end up.