“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other “
Learning is a lifetime task for humans. But when someone aspires for more, dreams more and has the thirst for a wholesome development and betterment, this task becomes a duty. Leaders are those who wish to consider learning as their duty and who put their maximum potential to accomplish it and who create ripples around them in the process. As a part of our learning process, we the super60ians had the opportunity to broaden our views and experiment new things through the Out Bound Training Program at Leap academy. The two day program here was completely based on the cycle of ” Experiment. Reflect. Learn. Apply. “
Every single aspect of becoming a productive enthusiastic and energetic human was dealt with deeper understanding. A journey of the best two days…
Day 1 : High ropes course – “If it scares you, it means that it has something very important to teach you”
Fear has been the important reason why people skipped success and it is of many types and it naturally varies from person to person. Whatever scares us, we don’t usually take a step to give it a try. The tall pole with rope paths that were perfect enough to scare any normal person, was an adventurous, positive risk – taking activity with which we were welcomed. It was right after stepping on the rope, we were able to understand the importance of gaining self confidence to overcome anything that we consider to be our fear. It also helped in exploring the fundamentals of trust and coaching.
Standing high that feels close to the sky is when we learnt what taking a courageous leap means!
Day 1 and 2: Team Activities – ” Success always depends on how empathetic and mindful is a leader and his team mates”
With more than five team activities that were held, we were exposed to the underlying qualities that constitute and build a leader.
Starting from one simplest practise of having the habit of taking notes in a meeting, so that nothing is left out in conveying the message to having a hold on everyone’s perceptions and ideas, the outcome of each activity gave a deeper understanding of leadership and team work. We also experienced that behind every obstacle and hardship there is an opportunity and a way out to sort it.
i. Communication and Conveying: “The challenge of leadership is communicating the right thing at the right time with the right intensity ” Conversations that are productive and precise with the correct person leading and the others having the enough patience to understand that person’s view can simplify even the most complicated task. All these happened to be an experimental learning through activities.
Conveying a message is an art, truly an art
ii. Planning and prototyping: The world has gone way beyond planning and it now requires micro level planning that will address each and every possible pros and cons of a project. Starting from having a micro level understanding of the problem to micro level planning and execution, everything needs a deeper vision and clarity. Experimenting your ideas before getting into the field work is one best way to reduce the flaws in execution.
Planning and micro planning makes the difference
3. Day 2 : Blindfolded Trekking – ” You may not be willing to take the lead, but when situations require your leadership to be expressed, make sure you are ready”
Situational leadership is magic in action
Unlike the ordinary trekking, this blindfolded trekking was completely a new experience that brought much more learning to our hands. In the midway of trekking, few of us were blindfolded and those who were able to see were not permitted to talk. The students who were able to see, took the lead and used signs to communicate among them, and started guiding people who were blindfolded. This is how situational leadership comes out. Yet another outcome of this whole new trekking experience was the trust and responsibility, that every one had on each other. When it is one common goal and hands work together to reach it, records break and everyone owns the success.
Nature always succeeds in keeping human minds in a calm, stable, fresh and happy state. When this happens, learning increases exponentially. With the kind breeze of mother earth in the foothills, positivity, curiosity and overwhelming joy strengthened the souls.
