Just come and give a little presentation to the director of the school – that was my task. I got everything ready, I made a lovely presentation with colour print-outs, a schedule and subtitled films. I was very proud of myself and I was 100% prepared to tell the head of the school about expeditions and the benefits taking part in them can have for high school students.
I was ushered into his room with another man and got going with my presentation. He seemed impressed but I was aware that he kept looking at his watch and seemed pushed for time. He said there wasn’t much time and so I begged him to watch my last 5 mon minute before he rushed off to what was clearly an important meeting.
“We should go” he said and I assumed he meant he and his colleague. I was packing up my laptop and getting ready to leave the school and find a taxi back to the station when I was stopped in my tracks by his next sentence. “The students are waiting for you.”
Me! waiting for me?
It became immediately apparent that my job at the school entailed more than a chat with the director. There was a lecture theatre full of children looking forward to a talk on the theme of leadership. Panicked, I started going over in my mind what I had got on my laptop which I could show them. I had some videos and some PPTs I guess and some pictures of my when I was young!
But oh no – life is never that simple – it was an integrated system and I could not just plug my laptop into the projector – I had to use there computer. I loaded a few files onto a USB stick and followed the men into the lecture theatre to the sight and sound of around 100 students and a handful of teachers clapping. They were so excited about the talk they were about to hear from the esteemed expedition leader who had come all the way from Shanghai for this lecture.
I managed to get through 15 minutes showing some films and then as I was fumbling around for something else to tell them, I whispered to a Chinese woman near the stage “How much longer do I have to speak for?”. She then informed me that it was a 50 minute talk. I heard fifty but I had to make sure “15?” I asked in hope more than expectation. “No – 50” she repeated and smiled at me clearly sensing my horror.
Suffice to say it wasn’t a presentation which I shall be reliving with any sense of pride. Leadership – it’s all about being an example, showing others how to cope in difficult situations and how not to panic when things go wrong. In fact, in life things will always go wrong and that’s when leadership skills come in – people remember the things which go wrong but the memory of what was done to cope with it, is much stronger.
So in a way I suppose I gave not just a lecture on leadership, I hope I demonstrated with a real life example, how to deal with adversity and come through smiling. And the upshot was that they thought it was great and will probably take their students on an expedition to Australia next summer.