Strategic Masterclass with Alicia McKay

Eloise Angus is our Digital Communications Specialist at ACE New Zealand. She attended the one-day Strategic Leaders Masterclass with Alicia McKay. 

Watch the video for an overview, get the full story below.

Last Friday I attended the Strategic Leaders Masterclass with Alicia McKay. Surrounded by 14 other people sitting two metres apart in the Crowne Plaza in Auckland, it felt a little weird, to be honest. Pre-COVID-19 Alert Level 4, we were all a little tentative about speaking too closely to one another and used the hand sanitiser religiously. 

Five people chose to 'attend' the course from their living rooms (or bedrooms for all I know). We beamed the entire day to their computers where they could comment and ask questions via live chat, and get the almost-full experience. 

It got us all thinking, could attending conferences in a big room with a lot of other people be a thing of the past? In five...10 years time will we be saying ''remember when we used to go to conferences and hundreds of us would sit in a room, alllll day''? 

It has certainly got me thinking what my new 'normal' is, and what I certainly took for granted pre-Alert Level 4. 

Alicia did a bloody good job of handling the situation. She's a real hoot to listen to - the odd (ok a lot) f-bomb, real-life examples and some tangible skills-based training, I left the masterclass feeling hopeful and more confident in my ability to lead strategically.

Being a strategic leader takes real courage. Courage to ask questions a lot of us are thinking, but are too scared to ask. I've been there. I've been in a room wanting to ask the question but not having the guts to ask it. The thing I learnt is you've got to be ok with peeving people off to get to the best decision for your project. And the ability to be flexible is paramount - humans don't mind change - we don't like uncertainty. If we can plan and be flexible, everybody wins...in the long run. 

My key take out? The three Ps - having perspective, following a process and you always gotta prioritise.

What's next?

We've moved a lot of our events online. See our events page