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Young leaders: what do you learn on a leader's retreat?


Written by Daniel, EY Foundation Youth Advisory Board Chair and Young Trustee

Over the course of three days, I lodged at a resort camp in London with the Future Leader's Network (FLN) to attend a residential summer retreat alongside 16 other young future leaders.

We made introductions and started getting to know one another more - I was lucky enough to have Oliva, a fellow member of the Youth Advisory Board, on this programme as well. Upon arrival, we settled in to our rooms after which we had dinner and a rundown of events for the next few days.

Day One

On day one, we learnt about Personal Power so we could understand the importance of self-mastery and how to influence our own emotions and behaviours.

We had a session on imposter syndrome and negative self-talk and how this can affect our abilities to perform as leaders, during which we looked at personality traits and were asked to identify the ones that resonated most. We had another session on mindfulness and taking care of your mental health. Lastly, we had a final activity, wall climbing, where we put all the skills learnt to the test and pushed ourselves to climb as far as possible. I managed to get to the top twice after almost giving up the first time, proving to myself you can achieve things if you believe and try again. 

Day Two

On day two,  we learnt about Team Power to understand how to influence others, in our team or our community, through body language and verbal communication. The session on communicating with confidence was run by an actor and a singer; we used warm-up techniques and tricks to increase our confidence through body language, dictation and vocal presence.

Day Three

On the final day, we learnt about Systems Power: recognising that real-world, positive change requires a systems-thinking approach. 

A panel of three guest speakers came to talk about system thinking and why, as the future generation, we should adopt a similar approach so that our thinking and actions are led by a system which works, not just who dictates who's in control.