‘What is common between the mountain and leadership’? This was the question that was asked during our leadership session in Disneyland. At that moment, the answer that crossed my mind was simply: it is so hard to claim it, but it is way harder to stay on top. Then as the activities went on the journey passed, I found myself wondering ‘why is this so?’ and what did Zoe mean when she said that ‘a chain is as strong as its weakest link’? Disneyland was not a mere day off for fun. It was the indeed the best opportunity to practice what leadership is all about. When we were taught that a good leader should know when to be a follower, or that s/he must have the ability to keep his/her group together, to work under pressure, to get out of their comfort zone, to persuade rather than force, to take into consideration the circumstances and the time limitations, we all were like; ‘yeah sure! We know all this’. But it was only in DisneyLand that we had to apply all this knowledge and test how much can we actually abide by it.
We had to stay together, we had to get the best of the day, we had to use the available resources when it comes to maps, batteries, food, time, money… and take into consideration the physical limits of one of us who had operations and cannot stand ‘California Scream’ yet is not fair to waste his time while we enjoy it. So we had to agree on a place to meet and for him to try another game then who ever finishes first wait for the other. A bigger challenge expressed itself when we did not all want the same game or the same lunchtime and we had to make up our minds without wasting time and energy.
After such a long day, the challenge was not over. For we had to pack and head to the airport in just few hours with no time to rest nor to sleep. In the plane on our way back, a man sat by my side reading on his eBook Reader where I caught a glance on what he was reading and the only sentence I remember seeing before falling asleep was ‘lead by example’. When I woke up, a new answer to that same question I started with pumped into my head: the similar thing between leadership and mountains is sometimes ‘to find the Courage and Curiosity-2 of the 6 Cs we learned- to claim it, but also to safely get down from the other side as well.’
Our journey to San Diego finally came to an end, which was double emotional, first ‘cause we all enjoyed our staying there, and secondly cause it was a reminder of what we will be experiencing leaving all this behind leaving back to our homes to finish our road of changing the world.
Sleep tight guys and remember: ‘to achieve what no one has… believe what no one does’ 😀
Leadership Activities, Disneyland