What went well?

The progress I made; what was achieved and done

This week, I travelled around Toronto and Ontario supporting Urban Minds, as well as working on different documents for internal learning.

• On the 7th of August, I visited the offices of architects-Alliance as a chaperone for the 1UP City Builders programme. 
• I reviewed the new Ontario Grade 9 geography curriculum, helping to formulate and pitch new ideas for us to organise workshops around.
• I created an internal report on the efficacy of running a pop-up booth last week at Waterloo Square, with recommendations on how to make future pop-up booths more effective.
• On Saturday, the 9th of August, I ran another pop-up booth at Waterloo Park in order to try to attract more high schoolers from the Kitchener-Waterloo region to sign up for our email newsletter.

What could have been done differently?

Things that did not get done and/or could be changed

I was particularly dissatisfied about the low returns we had on Saturday. We went to Waterloo Park to take advantage of the City of Waterloo's "Day of Play", which is a city event that aims to attract  young children to play by taking part in pop-up booths and other activities. While I was reluctant to travel to Waterloo (a 3 hours commute away from Toronto) as the target audience that day would be much older than the present audience, we travelled to Waterloo regardless to try our strategy of pop-up booths more. This was low-yield because we ended up getting two sign ups for our email newsletter only, although we had a lot of foot traffic and showed that the effort we were putting in was not proportional to our rewards. As a result, I was disappointed from visiting Waterloo on Saturday.

What did I learn about myself when working with others?

Contributions, behaviours and values I exhibited

While working at the pop-up booth, I learnt that communication was a great asset that I had and could continue to use during these pop-up booths. It's important that I should learn to continue how to convey complex ideas in simple terms to engage and educate high school students, and also learn about my ability to listen actively and address questions or concerns. In addition, I found that interacting with smaller children who weren't high school students needed more patience and empathy than I expected, as they were more interested in getting chocolate instead of listening to our pitch. 

What did I learn about leadership?

Leadership attributes and insights I developed

On one hand while I learnt the importance of being an empathetic communicator who could identify with the audience at land, I learnt that it's also important to make sure that everybody under my charge is taken care of. For instance, it was my responsibility not only to make sure everybody on the tour at architects-Alliance was taken into attendance, but also make sure that everybody felt comfortable throughout the office tour and in a good environment to ask questions in order for them to benefit themselves and their curiosity. During the tour, I made sure to ask meaningful questions that could act as an opportunity for other students to lead by example and ask follow-up questions. 

What do I want to develop or focus on next?

What I still need to develop

Next week, I will be working on several final reports to finalise before it's time for us to focus on our Leaders' Lab conference, happening on the 17th and 18th of August. However, in terms of character I still look forward to increasing my contributions to the team and learning more about leadership by doing!