[email protected] T: +27 (21) 686 3987 F: +27 (21) 689 9726 Rondebosch Boys’ High School Headmaster: S Simpson BA, HDE (Wits), B Ed (Hons) (UCT) Canigou Avenue, Rondebosch, Cape Town, 7700 www.rondebosch.com Rondebosch Boys’ High School Headmaster: S Simpson BA, HDE (Wits), B Ed (Hons) (UCT) Canigou Avenue, Rondebosch, Cape Town, 7700 www.rondebosch.com #12 | Term 2 |2019 Welcome to our bi-annual Leadership and Pastoral newsletter - Potentialem. In this edition we interview Roger Deane (E2001). Roger is part of the international team of scientists which made worldwide news recently by unveiling the first-ever image of a black hole. In our newsletters we wish to focus on certain important leadership virtues - this quarter we explore Unselfishness. Article guide: HEART – Leadership development through sport by Clinton van Rensburg Discussions over coffee – with Austin Smith (Clinical Psychologist). - ‘Why is Grade 8 so hard?’ - ‘What is going on with my son?’ Articles in the spotlight: - What to do (and not do) when children are anxious – Clark Goldstein PhD - An update on the Guardian Anonymous Reporting App Events of the 1st Quarter 2019 - Mentorship workshop - Grade 8 Leadership Day with Lead4Life - Prefect camp to Greyton Upcoming events - Grade 10 Leadership Day – Newlands Cricket Ground - Seventh Journey preparations - Transkei Isolomzi Outreach Project – June/July 2019 - White Rhino to Wilderness Leadership School Interesting leadership/pastoral reading material in the RBHS Library Neil Teubes Deputy Headmaster - Pastoral / Leadership Rondebosch Boys’ High School Headmaster: S Simpson BA, HDE (Wits), B Ed (Hons) (UCT) Canigou Avenue, Rondebosch, Cape Town, 7700 www.rondebosch.com 15 Leadership traits in every Bosch boy The fifteen leadership traits that make up the DNA of a Bosch boy are listed below. We have explored the first eleven of these traits in our previous publications, in this our twelfth edition we feature ‘Unselfishness’. Integrity Courage Respect Knowledge Noun. 1. unselfishness - the quality of not Decisiveness putting yourself first but being willing to give Dependability your time or money or effort etc. for others. Tact Awareness WIKEPEDIA Justice Enthusiasm Bearing Endurance Unselfishness– featured article Loyalty Judgment Good leaders live up to the standards exemplified by these traits. Rondebosch Boys’ High School Headmaster: S Simpson BA, HDE (Wits), B Ed (Hons) (UCT) Canigou Avenue, Rondebosch, Cape Town, 7700 www.rondebosch.com Leadership Trait #13: Unselfishness Unselfishness is a key leadership trait that is both noticed and valued by others. A leader whose personal climb is widely seen as coming at the expense of others will eventually stall and lose altitude. Conversely, a competent leader who is unselfish, who has the best interests of the organization at heart, and whose employees duly recognize such, will have a level of support that could provide a significant advantage in difficult times. The unselfish leader’s chances of maintaining altitude and eventually resuming the climb are considerably higher given the strong support of others. An unselfish leader whose openness and generosity is seen by those with whom that leader comes into contact will very likely accrue significant benefits in both a personal and professional sense. A selfish leader who grabs all the credit and deflects all the blame will at some point find the world a very lonely place. Unselfishness is not an outdated concept in today’s hyper-competitive, self-absorbed society. Rondebosch Boys’ High School Headmaster: S Simpson BA, HDE (Wits), B Ed (Hons) (UCT) Canigou Avenue, Rondebosch, Cape Town, 7700 www.rondebosch.com What is it, then, that unselfishness accomplishes and how does an unselfish leader behave? The following provides a guideline. An unselfish leader…: • Shares the credit. Employees, who are recognized for their winning efforts, whether in the foreground or background, feel a sense of pride in and loyalty to their company and their leader. Since everyone wants to work for such a leader, a deep pool of talent very often ensues. • Takes the time to teach. Teaching is a critical role for a leader. The unselfish leader makes time to teach employees not only about business processes and results, company goals and objectives, but also about ethical and behavioural standards that are important to the organization and the leader. Rondebosch Boys’ High School Headmaster: S Simpson BA, HDE (Wits), B Ed (Hons) (UCT) Canigou Avenue, Rondebosch, Cape Town, 7700 www.rondebosch.com • Accepts responsibility for employees’ shortcomings. An unselfish leader is not quick to blame others or make excuses when employees inevitably mess up. The leader first finds the fix to the problem, followed with coaching and counselling, and then looks for ways to improve the process and the training. Learning from mistakes is critical to continuous improvement. Giving employees room to make mistakes and then gaining learning and confidence as a result, is an unselfish and courageous act for a leader. • Accepts and shares the ideas and input of others. An unselfish leader is open to new ideas and concepts, and from a variety of sources. So very often, the employees actually doing the work have the best ideas on how a particular process can be improved. Let others be the experts. Build the bench strength by developing technical and leadership skills in employees. Help others to succeed and reinforce the unselfish trait. *Adapted from various internet resources Rondebosch Boys’ High School Headmaster: S Simpson BA, HDE (Wits), B Ed (Hons) (UCT) Canigou Avenue, Rondebosch, Cape Town, 7700 www.rondebosch.com Rondebosch Boys’ High School Headmaster: S Simpson BA, HDE (Wits), B Ed (Hons) (UCT) Canigou Avenue, Rondebosch, Cape Town, 7700 www.rondebosch.com Old Boy Excellence Roger Deane (E2001) is part of the international team of scientists which made worldwide news this week by unveiling the first-ever image of a black hole. The image showed the edges of the black hole, or ‘event horizon’. The supermassive black hole is 55 million light years from Earth and has a mass 6.5 billion times that of the Sun. The image is an important step towards confirming Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity. Roger is a member of the team on the Event Horizon Telescope, which he and his team at the University of Pretoria used to develop simulations which mimic the data coming from antennae across the world. Simulations would consider other aspects, such as the thermal dynamics around the black hole, the physics of every antenna used to capture the images and empirical data on how the telescopes wobble. These simulations were then used to create the image which was unveiled in Brussels on Wednesday. Rondebosch Boys’ High School Headmaster: S Simpson BA, HDE (Wits), B Ed (Hons) (UCT) Canigou Avenue, Rondebosch, Cape Town, 7700 www.rondebosch.com After matriculating at Rondebosch, Roger studied at UCT where he obtained his Master’s degree followed by his DPhil at the University of Oxford. He is now an associate professor at the University of Pretoria. What are your best memories of Bosch? So many, but a specific memory is that buzz and excitement in the air the week of the Bosch-Bishops Derby. In these I played hockey and cricket against my now brother-in-law, George Eadie, and the two of us often reflect on the hugely positive impact this great rivalry had on us. Rondebosch Boys’ High School Headmaster: S Simpson BA, HDE (Wits), B Ed (Hons) (UCT) Canigou Avenue, Rondebosch, Cape Town, 7700 www.rondebosch.com What did Bosch offer you in terms of the success that you have achieved today? A supportive environment filled with camaraderie and a broad range of opportunities. To be honest, I did not fully appreciate the extent of the latter at the time and take maximum advantage of those opportunities which is something I regret. On your path to success, what obstacles did you face and how did you overcome them? Self-belief was a challenge in the early part of my career, particularly during my DPhil at Oxford amongst intellectual giants. I always seek that balance of backing myself but not blindly or arrogantly so. I also remind myself that every great scientist has had a journey and not risen there overnight. This helps in taking the small incremental steps each day to move forward. Rondebosch Boys’ High School Headmaster: S Simpson BA, HDE (Wits), B Ed (Hons) (UCT) Canigou Avenue, Rondebosch, Cape Town, 7700 www.rondebosch.com What motivates you? Two things: 1. Discovery: I have the privilege of a profession where I could find out something new about the Universe on any given day (with a bit of luck). I enjoy that immensely and it provides endless inspiration to work harder. 2. Developing young scientists. I had an incredible PDPhil supervisor and mentor, who taught me many of the key philosophical, political, and scientific lessons required to be a successful astronomer on an international stage. I am very much still aspiring to this, but in that process I have a strong desire to share those lessons with young South African astronomers as we build a globally competitive community here at home. Rondebosch Boys’ High School Headmaster: S Simpson BA, HDE (Wits), B Ed (Hons) (UCT) Canigou Avenue, Rondebosch, Cape Town, 7700 www.rondebosch.com Where to from here? Well I am really just getting started - I am very young for an academic. I have just established a new astronomy research group at the University of Pretoria and I have some ambitious growth goals I would like to hit in the next few years. This is not just growth for growth’s sake, but building a team with the sort of technical and scientific expertise required to tackle the research questions I am most interested in, including the nature of black holes and growth of galaxies.