Hello from Nosy Komba, Madagascar!
So begins my first of six weekly entries documenting my Leadership in Action project, assisting the Madagascar Research and Conservation Institute in their wildlife survey and conservation efforts, focusing on the coral reefs on Nosy Komba and the surrounding islands. It’s been a year since I last uploaded here for my research summer, so I’m afraid I am quite out of practice writing these things. Bearing this in mind, dear reader, I hope that you will forgive me if my writing is a little stilted to begin with. With any luck, by the end of six weeks I will be a regular Michael Palin!
At time of writing, I have been in away from home for nine days, and on Nosy Komba for seven. While it feels there is so much to tell of the past week, I think it best suits my purpose to begin several weeks before, with the packing and preparations. Between the risk assessments, vaccinations, and hours of PADI e-learning detailing all the ways I could meet a watery end, my main feeling surrounding the trip was apprehension, of an imminent peril. I fancied myself an astronaut, or a transatlantic yachtsman, my survival guaranteed only by steely, self-contained self-sufficiency.
That reptilian self-interest stayed with me on the journey to Madagascar. Throughout my three-hour layover in Addis Ababa, I spoke to nobody and fought the urge to sleep, jealously guarding my belongings as I might a clutch of eggs. The lizard skin began to shed, however, as I arrived on Nosy Komba and, realised I was not alone on the far side of the world, but part of an interdependent village. I hadn’t anticipated how much of a relief it would be to be able to lean on my fellow volunteers, and how light and easy it would feel to allow them to lean on me in return. This shared sense of community is not a luxury, however, but critical to the safety and wellbeing of everyone in the camp, from helping each other set up mosquito nets, to sharing air with my dive buddy while three storeys underwater, even to keeping each other calm while our boat ran out of fuel two miles from shore. I take heart in thinking that through this shared responsibility, we will be able to support not only each other but the flourishing of the island as a whole, with echoes that sound long after I am home once again.
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Dear Cameron,
Thank you for sharing your first Leadership in Action reflection. It is wonderfully written and immediately draws the reader into your experience. Your descriptions of the journey, your initial apprehensions, and your arrival on Nosy Komba are vivid and engaging, and I particularly enjoyed the contrast between the self-sufficient 'astronaut' mindset and the realisation that meaningful work in Madagascar depends upon community, trust, and interdependence.
One of the strongest aspects of this reflection is your growing appreciation of collective responsibility. The examples you provide, from helping one another with mosquito nets to supporting dive buddies underwater, demonstrate that leadership can often be about creating environments of mutual support. This is a valuable insight, particularly within a conservation setting where individual success is often dependent upon teamwork and shared accountability.
As you continue these reflections, I would encourage you to connect your experiences even more explicitly to your own development as a leader. Your journal entry provides an excellent account of what you have observed and learned about community, but I would also be interested to hear more about your own leadership journey. For example, how has this shift from self-reliance to interdependence changed the way you think about leadership? Have there been moments where you have stepped forward to support others, made decisions under pressure, or adapted your behaviour to meet the needs of the group? Equally, have there been occasions where you have consciously chosen to follow rather than lead, and what did you learn from that?
The strongest Leadership in Action reflections often examine how those experiences are influencing one's values, behaviours, and understanding of leadership. You have already begun this process through your reflections on community and shared responsibility; I would encourage you to build on this by explicitly considering what kind of leader you are becoming and how these experiences may shape the way you approach leadership in the future.
Overall, this is an engaging and thoughtful start to your LiA journey. I look forward to reading how your perspectives evolve over the coming weeks and how your work with the Madagascar Research and Conservation Institute continues to challenge and develop your understanding of leadership in practice.
Best wishes,
Ben