Leadership is as easy as falling off a cliff

There’s nothing like your teacher falling off a cliff to focus the mind. Ironically he was the designated ‘safety officer’ for our bushwalk. As the only adult in the party of 30 he led us in all kinds of ways - making decisions about what route we should take and so on. After he fell it was over to us.

Thankfully he survived. Full of adrenalin we made decisions about getting first aid to him without having someone else fall. Then we had to decide if he could be moved to a safer spot. We pitched tents on the side of the mountain, knowing our failure to reach a designated checkpoint would trigger a search and rescue response.

I’ve often thought back to that night of almost 30 years ago. In the middle of this crisis I saw boys turn to men. In the absence of our leader we were forced to step up and do things we weren’t sure that we could. To read more, click here.