One of my staff remarked when they learned of our Class 54 International Seminar in Africa, “that sounds amazing. I look forward to meeting you when you return”. A simple gesture that signified I would be a different person upon my return home. It’s accurate to say that I am changed. I feel we all are after this experience in sustained cultural discomfort and this extended time in the stretch zone. It has taught us all more about ourselves being far from home and immersed in a new culture. It is difficult to condense such an immersive 15-day cultural experience into 500 words, especially for one of the more verbose of class 54 fellows. What can I share about this metamorphosis-like journey that isn’t already expressed in the blog posts? Perhaps some nuance of our experiences and the development of our own individual leadership postures.
It was truly humbling to experience the community, resilience, and leadership from the people we met in Africa and the places we visited. Each country and place held it’s own cultural and leadership lessons. From the proud, humble, wounded and healing South Africa, to the intentionality of community resilience of Zimbabwe, the abundance of opportunity in the wilds of Botswana, and the youthful promise of Zambia’s future. It was refreshing to see how generosity and hospitality show up differently in the countries and communities that we visited and how much we can learn about postures of leadership related to hosting and expressing gratitude from countries and people that possess so much less material wealth than our own. That has helped us reflect on our own leadership. Some of the simple interactions offered the most profound understanding. Handshakes for example go beyond the formality of a hello, to a three-part connection that acknowledges hello, how are you, I see you, with smiles that will light you up when you are down and missing home!
It was heartening to see the cultural vibrance in the people and populations that have so much less yet are seemingly contented by the simplicity of life in rural sub-Saharan Africa. Don’t get it twisted. People there are hustling and scrapping for work and the employment rates in the formal economy were as low as 10% for some countries. Commodity distribution systems in Zambia look more like long distance bike trekkers, with singles or groups of men along the roads of Zambia carrying 150 kilos of corn, sorghum, or other commodities piled on, and they take it in stride. They know no different and in most places are immune to the material consumption and dopaminergic looping that pervades our western societies. It was nice to know that my phone didn’t work well there and had spotty coverage and internet access at best. This liberated us to connect on a more human level wherever we went.
Leadership postures have become a pillar and very tacit component of our curricula, serving to commit concepts to memory and artfully developed by our director of education. They are the topic of discussion at home and work after each seminar. These postures are demonstrative of how a person carries themself and how we show up. The leadership postures represent schema that help fellows connect mindset to action, habits, and expression. The Stretch zone for example represents embracing discomfort and working outside of one’s comfort zone, which is instrumental to growth. During final synthesis before our departure home we challenged ourselves to develop our own individual leadership posture. My leadership posture is the funnel with a diamond at the bottom. A lot goes into a funnel and the funnel may filter and concentrate the outflow into something more refined. The diamond is a symbol of the foundation, imperfect, and formed under heat (the African sun), pressure (sustained cultural discomfort), and time. The same can be said about our experience. We have absorbed so much and it is our obligation to bring what we have learned home and to refine ourselves as leaders. From messages and ideas to action.
There are two notable messages I bring home with me that have been indelibly inked on my heart. The first stretches our definition of impact or success and our understanding of progress and was given to us by the people we engaged with along our journey. This was made visible to us through their risks, sacrifices, grit and determination in countries with adolescent democracies and a lack of social and agricultural infrastructure. True leadership begins and ends within our own communities and leadership exists between and amongst us in a community. It’s relational.
The second message was shared with us by our guides in understanding elephant ecology. The number, size and indentation created by footprints tells us a lot about how many there are, as well as age for each member of the troop. Young and adolescent members’ footsteps are pronounced, and as they age and become elderly their footsteps grow softer and more faint. The lesson here from the elephants is to tread lighter as we grow in our leadership, experience and wisdom. I arrive home awakened by these new experiences and lessons alongside my brothers and sisters of class 54 and with a focus on refining the quality of coherence in my life towards the leader I wish to become.
Without any doubt this has been one of the most transformative experiences of my life, which I will revere as a foundation to my storytelling and my hero’s journey towards greater self-discovery and leadership. It has informed and helped distill in each of us what our life and leadership intentions are moving forward and how we show up as leaders. I know I speak for every one of my class 54 fellows in thanking the foundation, the ed team, the staff, and donors for this experience, and for the investment that has been made in each of us. I am also grateful to those that encouraged me to re-apply to this program 9 years after I had originally applied. That has made all the difference. This program, like the leadership posture of the funnel has helped all of class 54 to recognize ourselves as leaders and realize the diamonds we all are, imperfect, reflective, and refined.
With love and gratitude, we see you.
Andrew Smith and Class 54
