The Essence of Leadership

By Noa Schachtel

One of the core themes for this year’s startup camps is emotional and social intelligence. By having the opportunity to generate their own teams, founders were able to experience first-hand the significance of team roles and dynamics. By understanding the various strengths within themselves and their teammates, founders were able to build innovative enterprises through the combination of their skills. 

On day seven of the 2019 Hawai’i startup camp, founders were joined by Sydney Wiecking, Leadership Development Facilitator at Adobe. Sydney also works as an Executive and Personal Coach at Live by Design, where she coaches individuals to connect their values and purpose to their professional and personal goals. Through this interactive workshop, teams were introduced to the five-dimensional leadership model. “Everyone can be a leader and not just the people who are leading from the front, but everyone can really find their role on a team through a different leadership position” said Amanda Schiff (Nalukai ’19). Founders were encouraged to embrace their inner leader and not conform to fixed roles, but instead pave their own path built on values they find meaningful to themselves.

By creating real-world solutions, through entrepreneurship, to problems that affect the local and global community, our youth are not only developing skills essential in the business world, but also skills helpful in life as well. “When we live aligned with our purpose and our values and create from that, then people live a much more fulfilling, resonant life”.