Written by Kris Lal, Tāmaki Regeneration Company
The second retreat of the 2023 Leadership NZ programme was an incredibly powerful and rewarding experience for me.
The theme was “power and governance,” and it was apt that we were in Wellington for this retreat. The weather was crisp and, at times, blustery, but there were also bursts of sunshine throughout the three days of the retreat. This reflected the range of emotions that I felt on this retreat.
Something that has stuck with me since the retreat was the challenge laid down by our first guest speaker about building a better tomorrow. He challenged us to not accept issues at face value, but to dig deeper to find out the real problems and solve those. While I didn’t agree with everything expressed in his wero, it made me think about the role that I can play in building a better future for Aotearoa.
One of the most challenging, but rewarding, parts of the retreat was being asked to confront my deepest fear. I was asked to name ‘it’, and work through it with the rest of the cohort. I am still surprised by how deep I was able to go in that moment, and the rawness of my emotions. By stepping forward and speaking up about my greatest fear, I was able to see it for what it is, and see myself for who I am.
I came on this year’s programme hoping to be challenged, stretched, and to ‘leave it all on the field’. In that moment, the easy thing to do would have been to stay still or take a step backwards. But trusting in the process allowed me to ‘reach in’ in a way that I didn’t think I was capable of. The thing is, once you reach in, you realise that there are mountains to climb on the other side—and you can see the paths clearly.
Alongside this, we came together as a cohort, in our ako groups, and in smaller groups to share kai, to dance (like EVERYBODY was watching), and to find the world’s slowest cocktails. These experiences were the perfect way to break up the depth and import of the topics we tackled during this retreat, and I believe are part of the magic of LNZ. I think they were travelling back to the 1930s to get their cocktail ingredients (part of the magic, I presume).
Overall, I feel like this retreat was where I truly arrived on this year’s programme. There is power and strength in vulnerability, and I am grateful for the opportunity to have experienced that. I almost wrote that the eagle has landed, but it feels more appropriate to say that an eagle has taken off. I can’t wait to see where this journey will take me.