James Pridgeon first heard about Leadership Fiji through close friends and family who also knew others who had participated in the program, learnt of their experiences and shared this with him.
In 2015, he applied for the Leadership Fiji 2016 (LF2016) program when he was the general manager of Uprising Beach Resort and was fortunate to have been accepted.
The Leadership Fiji 2016 program journey started within a month after Severe Tropical Cyclone Winston, and as we all know it was labelled as one of the most intense tropical cyclones in the southern hemisphere on record when it ravaged.
For Mr Pridgeon, he was more inspired than ever to make 2016 his year for change and to broaden his perspective on leadership. He knew that the Leadership Fiji program would provide him such a diverse experience that would take him out of his comfort zone and knowing that he would be surrounded by leaders from different backgrounds that he could also learn from was enough motivation to invest in himself that year.
He said “I am thankful for the experiences and enrichment I got from the program. Prior to joining, I had worked with a lot of tourism and hospitality professionals. Through Leadership Fiji, I was surrounded by such a diverse group of leaders who were bankers, firemen, teachers, mothers, fathers and I learnt from them through sharing many stories and situations throughout the year. I enjoyed the topics that we covered which provided a deeper and diverse understanding of our country. Through these experiences I gained a greater appreciation for the hard work that has gone into making our country what it is today, as well as an understanding of the challenges that remain for our small island home”.
When you step out of your comfort zone, you are giving yourself an opportunity to grow.
Leadership Fiji was certainly that opportunity for Mr Pridgeon. One thing he certainly took away from the experience was being accountable, not just to everyone in his personal and professional life, but to himself. As the saying goes, “be the change you want to see”.
Mr Pridgeon was inspired to further his education and since then, has completed his Master’s in Business Administration, and also successfully completed three additional postgraduate diplomas from the University of the South Pacific which has given him the confidence to take on new and exciting challenges, such as his present role as chief operations officer with our national tourism office, Tourism Fiji.
Mr Pridgeon’s view on leadership
He says “we will be challenged and have to make decisions that not everyone is on board with, and that is OK. However, we must listen, be ethical, fair and just in our decision-making. We must always remember that we are in our positions to serve as leaders, and to never take advantage of our positions to influence or lead others astray. Regardless of our personal opinions, decisions should always be made for the greater good of those we have been fortunate enough to serve.”
Finally, having strong values such as integrity and humility goes a long way in leadership and he recently read a quote that reminded him of his leadership journey so far –– “being humble means recognising that we are not on earth to see how important we can become, but to see how much difference we can make in the lives of others”.
Leadership Fiji’s 2016 vision for Fiji and Fellows project
Leadership Fiji 2016’s vision that was developed at their opening retreat is: “By 2036, Fiji will be transparent and accountable, with equality and justice for all.
Our people will enjoy innovative education, health and infrastructure systems that will drive economic growth in a sustainable environment”.
The Fellows project initially planned to be undertaken in 2017 was to develop a children’s book in partnership with a writer out of New Zealand, targeting young children of Pacific island descent. The objective was to create a book that the children could easily identify with through our Pacific islanders love for rugby.
With the year being 2016, the focus of the content was on the Fijian Rugby 7’s team heroes, who also won Fiji’s first Olympics gold medal in rugby at the Rio Olympics. Unfortunately, LF2016 were unable to go ahead with the project without the final approvals from the main stakeholder, and sadly this did not eventuate. After spending a couple of months on this initial Fellows project, they decided to refocus their efforts and adapt to look at an environmental and social initiative to continue their Fellows project goals which was still aligned to their vision for Fiji.
The LF2016 Fellows initiative led them to doing the Malake Island mangrove restoration project which would contribute towards Malake’s environment rehabilitation process post STC Winston. They partnered with Mangroves for Fiji, a small volunteer-based program in Pacific Harbour who had arguably the largest mangrove nursery in Fiji at the time. They also had direct assistance from Volivoli Beach Resort with accessing Malake Island.
Since 2016 was a challenging year as a direct result of STC Winston, they wanted to raise awareness of the importance of mangroves not only as a food source, but as natural protection from large ocean surges for coastal communities. During one of their trips while doing their Leadership Fiji program they travelled along the Ra coastline and witnessed firsthand the damages caused within these communities as a result of the large waves and coastal flooding from STC Winston. For LF2016, it was really heartbreaking to see and hear stories from these communities describing the impact the cyclone had on their daily lives.
Climate change is very real for our coastal communities, and they wanted to try to mitigate the future risks such as coastal flooding and surges. At Malake Island the team planted a record of 6085 mangrove seedlings and raised awareness of the importance of protecting and sustaining mangrove forests. As a result of their efforts that day, they are proud to have seen Volivoli Beach Resort adopt mangrove planting as an experience for its guests and visitors which they continue to do to this day.
For Mr Pridgeon personally, and in his capacity as general manager of the Uprising Beach Resort at the time, he took a lot of inspiration from the experience and he also introduced mangrove planting as a corporate social responsibility program for the resort. Their goal was to offset their carbon emissions through mangrove planting and the goal was 15 hectares spread across various communities in Fiji. He was very proud of the team in late 2018 when Uprising Beach Resort finally achieved its goal and became a carbon neutral resort.
The other social initiative undertaken by the LF2016 team was with Homes of Hope where they worked with the home to assess how they could assist with some of the challenges they were experiencing. One was a shortage of bedding and mattresses as well as lack of shelter around their kindergarten building which resulted in the residents having to work around nature’s elements whenever it rained or experiencing a typical hot day in Suva. LF2016 gifted 10 mattresses, completed a book drive for their library as well as gave $5000 for the construction of a gazebo around the building to assist with their needs. The team also partnered with ANZ and ran a financial literacy workshop called “Money Minded for Individuals” for the Homes of Hope community.
Apart from Homes of Hope, the LF2016 team also sponsored two children through the Foundation for the Education of Needy Children (FENC) in Fiji. This included providing school sandals, stationery, uniforms, task and project materials as well as technical requirements.
Mr Pridgeon added “in reflecting on these projects, one of the biggest learning I have taken away is before starting any project where you want to make a difference, first and foremost it is about those who you are helping. It doesn’t matter what we think our communities need, but instead we should ask questions and understand the situation from those on the ground and who are doing the actual day to day work. They know best and will also guide you in order to allow you to make the best possible impact based on what they need v what you think they need”.
Mr Pridgeon is forever grateful and proud of their LF2016 Fellows and when looking back at the impact they made, albeit small, but meaningful, it has now inspired him to re-engage with his group and refocus his energy on making more meaningful impact in our community. He added “after all, this is what the Leadership Fiji program is all about and our leadership journey does not end at the completion of the program –– it is only just the beginning”.
We are aware that some of our LF2016 Fellows are presently in the process of planning a fundraising drive to assist some of the western communities that have been directly impacted as a result of COVID-19 and we look forward to them reigniting the drive through our Leadership Fiji philosophy that “Anyone can lead, and leadership is action!”.
- Sharyne Fong is the CEO of Leadership Fiji.
