Emotionally Intelligent You and Us – Leveraging Awareness of Self and Others for Inclusive Leadership

Session Submission Type: Workshop

Short Description

Effective, ethical leaders for positive social impact must have a healthy self-awareness (internal-facing emotional intelligence) and a sound understanding and empathy for others including those they work with and for (external-facing emotional intelligence). Modeled on the African Leadership Academy’s Values Quest, this workshop will incorporate a series of experiential exercises and reflective debriefings to help participants: think critically about the opportunities and privileges of their lives; reflect on the implications of wealth and privilege; and appreciate and leverage diversity. Come heighten your appreciation for the richness that comes from inclusion, cooperation, genuine consultation, and shared ownership of initiatives.

Detailed Abstract

Learning Objectives:
*To encourage participants to think critically about the opportunities and privileges of their lives.
*To begin to reflect on the implications of our wealth and privilege, in terms of our lives and impact
*To appreciate and leverage diversity

The workshop is modelled around the African Leadership Academy’s Values Quest, which is a full year programme for the Academy’s second year students in their Entrepreneurial Leadership course. Over approximatel 50 hours, students simultaneously engage in
1. An inner journey of exploration, tapping the wisdom of self, others, experiences, and ideas to gain insights into their own values.
2. An outer journey of exploration, engaging in experiential activities, readings, and thoughtful discussion around the Academy’s values of compassion, curiosity, diversity, humility, excellence, and integrity; and also additional topics of corruption, courage, power, and Fears & Shadows.

The workshop will sample some of these experiences and cover 3 topics:
Empathy exercise and discussion (30 minutes)
Self-Awareness exercise and discussion (30 minutes)
Sample Privilege exercise
Experiential (10 Minutes)

Run the “What is Privilege?” experiential.

If you would like, you can read out some of the privilege prompts from the video:

• If your parents worked nights and weekends to support your family, take one step back.
• If you are able to move without fear of sexual assault, take one step forward.
• If you came from a supportive family environment, take one step forward.
• If you were embarrassed about your clothes or house while growing up, take one step back.
• If you can legally marry the person you love, take one step forward.
• If you can see a doctor whenever you feel the need, take one step forward.
• If you feel confident that your parents would be able to financially help/support you if you were going through a financial hardship, take one step forward.
• If there were more than 50 books in your house growing up, take one step forward.
• If your parents or guardians attended college, take one step forward.
• If you ever went on a family vacation, take one step forward.

Show the Privilege video

Ask participants to take ten minutes for a ‘mind-map sketch’ - what are some of the areas in their lives in which they have been privileged?

Discussion (20 Minutes):
After the writing period, ask a few students to share out their reflections. Let it transition into a discussion about privileges and opportunities in our lives:

• In what ways are people in this room privileged or ‘wealthy?’ In what ways are we not?
• What are the implications of our wealth or privilege? Does it come with a call to action? (The idea of, “To whom much is given, much is expected?”)
• African Leadership Academy’s definition of ‘humility’ begins with, “We are thankful for our opportunities.” What opportunities in your life are you most thankful for?

Sub Unit

• Leadership Development

Presenter

• Segun Olagunju, African Leadership Academy