My time (working) in prison

A little over 3 years ago, I had to go to prison for 6 months.

No, not like THAT.

As part of a leadership programme I was on, I had to spend 6 months on a placement which placed me outside of my comfort zone.

Running a team of engineers in a prison certainly did that!

There were 2 main challenges.

Firstly the physical challenge of working in 2 prisons (one of which had its office "behind the wire", next to the actual cells!)

Secondly, running a team of largely cynical tradesmen who I had to win over. I had "no trade" to fall back on so at first they assumed I'd add no value.

In the end I won them over and we delivered some great results.

What did I learn?

1. As my mentor would remind me, you don't have to be an excellent tradesman to be able to lead a team of tradesmen. You just have to be good at providing leadership, direction, common sense and courage to situations.

2. If you remind yourself constantly that you have **tremendous coping skills** (kudos to Marisa Peer ) then it becomes easier to deal with the unknown and the uncomfortable.

What's the worst that can happen if you know you can cope?