Leadership Challenge in Medan

Have been very lazy the last two days. Actually, must admit there's no real reason for not updating my blog. So... I'll admit, I've just been super-slacking. :P

Last Thursday, I set off to Medan, Indonesia. It's my second trip to Indonesia. The last one was more than 10 years ago when I brought students to Jakarta. This time round, I was invited to go to Medan in Indonesia to conduct The Leadership Challenge Workshop for teachers in a school there. Although it was quite exciting to get the opportunity, it was also quite scary. Quite a few firsts:
1. It's the first time I'm conducting TLC for more than 70 participants! previously, only had to handle no more than 40 people. So this was quite a challenge - to capture the attention of so many participants!
2. It's the first time I'm conducting TLC for a diverse group of people from different countries. There were Indonesians, Singaporeans, Australians, Filipinos, Americans, Chinese...
3. It's the first time I'm conducting an actual TLC for adults. Previously, when I trained teachers, it was more about how they could use it to mentor student leaders. This time, it was about the teachers' personal leadership development.
4. It's the first time I'm working since I resigned! haha.. didn't expect to work until next year, but hey, when opportunity knocks, open the door, right?

So, with apprehension & excitement, I prepared my materials, reviewed my workshop, packed up and left for Medan.

The workshop was help on 7 Oct in Brastagi (up in some mountain), about 1.5 hours away from Medan itself. On the whole, I think the workshop went quite well, considering it was my first time. It definitely wasn't perfect. I think if I'm seriously going to do more of this, I'm gonna need to really go more in depth and do more reading/research. The participants were a very enthusiastic lot and I might add that they were pretty forgiving too. heh. At the beginning, I was kinda overwhelmed, coz it was really difficult to connect with such a big group. But the eagerness and warmth of the participants really helped. At the end, I think that majority of the participants were able to pick up some tips on how to apply TLC for their own leadership development. The feedback was quite positive. Still, at the end of it all, I wonder if this is something I really want to do in the long term. Something to think about in the next few months.