There are some moments in life, that can really change you. Leadership summer school was one of them and this is why I wanted to share some of my thoughts from the event I attended in Cluj Napoca, Romania.
First time I heard for LSS was 2 years ago on KOMISP motivational weekend, when I was talking to Luka from EESTEC. At that time, I decided to join team (OC) for LSS 2010, which was held in Ljubljana. Although I helped with organization before the event, I could not attend, because I bought my plane tickets for Malaysia even before Luka told me for LSS. This year I finally wrote motivational letter for participating and went to Cluj. There were 200 applicants, only 65 were accepted. I was lucky.
9 days in Cluj were one of the best days in my life, specially looking from self-development angle. The whole event was inspiring, motivational, fun, intense.. it was awesome. It is actually hard to describe it with words, but the energy and the relations between organizers, trainers and participant were amazing.
So, what did we actually do? We spent 9 days with people all over Europe, who are all active members of international student organizations, such as Best, Aegee, Eestec. We’ve had different trainings, provided by the best trainers from different organizations. Trainings were regarding skills, that are needed for leadership: emotional intelligence, public speaking, change management, conflict management, facilitation, group dynamics, personality types, motivation, coaching.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgyW-Q1yrnY&feature=player_embedded#at=223 (watch the video to see the craziness of people from LSS!!)
What did I learn in these 9 days? First of all, nobody’s perfect, although we all want to be. This is why we have different leadership styles, and even introverted people can be good leaders. Second, you develop by accepting challenges and not by staying in your comfort zone all the time. If you fail, you try again. Not my usual way – if I fail, I give up, and go away. As one of the trainers (Dan) said in his talk on LSS inspire: Edison invented lightball, because he tried 10.000 times. Can you imagine? LSS mentality is preety much about being able of doing everything.
Third thing; receiving and giving feedback is important. When you get a negative feedback, you accept it, you thank for it and use it to develop your weakness. It is sometimes hard to react is this way, but it definitely is emotionally intelligent way. When you get positive feedback, you build on your strength. And it definitely feels good to hear something nice, or say something nice. You need to ask for feedback. If you don’t, you never know. Isn’t it weird to just ask someone what he/she thinks of you?
Our housemaster Dan told us, that on one event for trainers they were locked in a room for 9 hours, giving negative feedback to each other. Half people couldn’t handle it. The other half accepted feedback and developed afterwards. Well, it definitely sounds crazy, because most of the people in your life never tell you all the shitty things they think about you. I guess you should just ask them. And when you are really sad after hearing all the awful things about you, watch this video, because it will make you smile: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cbk980jV7Ao
Next, I want to become a trainer. First opportunity I have, I drop everything and go. Trainers are simply awesome. Delivering trainings is the best school there is. They really know a lot about people, and from each training, they learn something about themselves. Yes, self development again. The whole point of LSS.
At this moment, am so grateful for being hyperactive enough to join student PR organization ŠS PRSS already in first year of my studies, which lead me to KOMISP, which lead me to LSS in 2011. If you have the time, right energy and willingness to learn: apply to LSS! If you think you don’t have much chance for being accepted – change your attitude, accept the challenge, apply to next Leadership summer school. And the link for everybody who I convinced: http://www.leadershipsummerschool.org.
And if you maybe got the feeling, that this event is very serious, you should look at this video (start watching at 0.50), flashmob in the middle of Cluj Napoca: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIYjxGMbnho. We had fun. Looooooots of fun.
