Aspiring Leaders’ Forum ~ Day 1

22 July 2010

Wow.. the 1st day of forum and what a day. From the start it was a dynamic jam packed filled group of people that define the diversity that defines leadership. But despite all the differences there are commonality that kept coming up. Strength to not compromise on your underlying core values and beliefs and many more. But what really striked me was what was said by Phil Goff, leader of the opposition team. A leader is not the person who thinks he is in a leadership position but someone who people sees as a leader because of the actions that he has done. Another thing about being in small groups is you get to share with all the people that were in your groups your personal stories. It reminds you about humility in your life when you listen to all the trials and tribulations that other people have gone through that shape the faith and values that they have.

There were many MPs and each with their own points on leadership but what was really good was the fact that we got a chance to listen to it outside of the media’s interpretation. Which was also a big learning experience for the MPs themselves as they got the opportunity to listen to their fellow opposition party members and realise that they have the same values and experience.
Bill English – institutional power is when you serve the people, there are expectations that has to be met.

Doctors compromise on the hippocratic oath, because of the universal right to health care but limited resources. Most of the MP was really big on standing up for what you believe in.
Also its about doing the right thing for the right reasons.

Another quote about inspirational leaders was that most people “look at things that are ask why? Versus people that look at things that were not ask why not?”

The break down of what happened today:
We split up into the small groups that we were going to stay in for the rest of the forum

There was the powhiri a maori welcome when we got to the beehive

Then there was a welcome speech from both bill English and phil goff

Then the YAD got to see question time where the MPs were at work.

Next we had a panel discussion with 3 MPs that were very frank and funny about their thoughts on leadership

Each group then split off to meet their own MP and one of us met with Phil Goff.

We then went to dinner where one of the speakers was the governor general, who gave examples of inspirational people who have gone to countries that are still developing and makes you remember how lucky and rich new Zealand is as a country.
 
Jeremy
I was inspired by all the members of parliament due to the great amount of respect they had for one another. Although they disagree with other parties’ policies during the debating chamber, the MPs still respected each other outside the debating chamber and still treated them as ordinary people with equal rights and values.

Respect is something I lack of at times especially when my feelings and emotions are in control. The MPs has great amount of tolerance meaning they are able to respect one another easily without having to go trough a hard process. This is something I was inspired by and something that I need to learn in order to improve my qualities as a leader.