Course Reflection on “Resilient Leadership: Overcoming Setbacks and Helping Your Team Thrive”
I participated in the “Resilient Leadership: Overcoming Setbacks and Helping Your Team Thrive” course. The course was a really timely reflection on my leadership journey, in particular during this COVID-19 pandemic period, where there is pressure in adjusting our daily life but also a need to sustain my energy as a human rights defender. The key element that has really changed my life is the Value Profile session. This session helped me to understand and realize which values are important and have meaning to me. Through the course, I have become more focused on the values that need my attention and help to define my role in society. One such role is my passion to protect and promote disability rights as a commissioner for the Malawi Human Rights Commission.
As a person with albinism, through my work with Standing Voice, an NGO defending the human rights of persons with albinism, I am satisfied that my activism aligns with my life goals and connects deeply with my values. I am able to set up boundaries within my personal life and my work that are acceptable and gives meaning to those lives around me. Thus, the course has given me power and commitment to anchor the fact that I am a resilient leader.
Written by Bonface Massah, 2018 Fellowship Alumnus from Malawi. Edited by Chris McKeown and Meredith Lopez.
The Mandela Washington Fellowship is a program of the U.S. Department of State with funding provided by the U.S. Government and administered by IREX. The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Government.
Fellowship Alumni and selected candidates for 2021 who are interested in learning more about this topic are encouraged to take the Resilient Leadership course through the Fellowship Portal. Learn more about the course.
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2019 Fellowship Alumnus, Mozambique