A couple of months ago I was fortunate to spend a week hiking and 
white water rafting in the beautiful Mitchell River National Park, in Gippsland, Victoria. The week was part of my daughter’s Exeat Week for Year 9, where the challenge is for the students to explore and embrace living out of their comfort zones. Spending a week with 13 students aged between 13 & 15, camping in tents in the middle of nowhere, having to carry our food and water, and with no access to toilets and showers, was certainly going to test the boundaries of our comfort zones!
The excitement started on Day 2 when all of us, along with large backpacks and other supplies, had to fit into 2 medium sized rafts for the 3 hour white water adventure downstream. This was the first glimpse I had of the undertones of resilience being developed by the individuals within the group, and the first signs of emerging leaders bubbling to the surface. The logistics of the adventure meant that the students had to work together to ensure that all equipment was loaded onto the rafts in the correct sequence, as well as ensuring that the correct mix of people were positioned at different points of the raft to ensure even weight distribution. The 3 hour downstream adventure resulted in a number of students breaking through their existing ‘terror barriers’, especially when they fell out of the raft amongst the rapids, and realising they were capable of achieving an outcome they originally felt they couldn’t. The looks on the students faces at the end of the rafting was priceless – I could almost see the levels of confidence of the students rise right in front of me.
The real test though was presented on Wednesday, along with an awesome lesson in leadership and resilience. Wednesday was hike day! Setting off at 8.30 in the morning, we looked forward to a ‘leisurely’ hike of approx. 5 hours to our next camp site. An hour and a half into the hike, one of the girls slipped on some rocks and badly twisted her ankle – made even worse by the 45kg backpack she was carrying. As we strapped her ankle up to provide support, the tour guide asked her whether she would like to be carried back to camp and receive medical treatment. ‘No thanks’ she said, ‘I’m determined to complete this hike – I’ll be right to keep going’. At that moment a couple of the other students started to remove items from her backpack, including her tent, sleeping bag and some of the food she had been carrying, and distributed them across the rest of the group. No questions asked, no instructions given, just action – leadership in action.
We continued on for another 2 hours, hiking up and down steep rocky inclines, before another student lost his footing stepping down from a rock, almost doing the ‘splits’, and twisting his ankle. Again, a similar pattern played out – strapping of the ankle, lightening the load of his backpack and distributing some of the heavier items to other members of the group. And again, no questions asked, no instructions given, just action.
At 3pm we finally arrived at our campsite after 6 1/2 hours of hiking, only to find that another school had already set up camp – this campsite was a public area and unfortunately there was not enough room for 2 groups to set up camp. So the only option open to us was to hike another 2-2 1/2 hours to the campsite we were to stay at the following night. After carrying 45kg-50kg backpacks up and down steep hills for over 6 hours, it would have been easy to complain and try to work out a solution that would allow us to share the campsite with the other school. I was exhausted as well and really did not want to walk another 2 hours. However, each and every student unanimously decided to keep going, and so we hiked on and arrived at the next campsite at 6pm, totally exhausted but exhilarated on what was achieved during the day.
Prior to hiking back to our pick up point on Friday morning, we spent some time reflecting as a group on some of the challenges faced during the week, along with achievements and key learnings. It was fascinating to hear every single student articulate that the Wednesday hike was by far the most challenging for them, that they wanted to give up, but didn’t because they did not want to let their other team members down. Not once had any student complained during the walk – they were focussed on completing the task and helping other students do the same. Through this experience, they learned first hand what it means to be resilient, to face a challenge, seek a solution and achieve an outcome. As they walked away from the campsite that Friday morning, the students realised that they had the capacity to achieve outcomes they never dreamed were possible, that when a challenge is presented, it is an opportunity to find a solution and learn from the experience, and lead.
And so it is in business – when presented with a challenge, we have a choice ; to develop and demonstrate resilience and breakthrough the challenges, thereby further building our resilience and leadership muscle, or do nothing. And doing nothing builds no muscle – in fact it starts the process of muscle decay!!
What an awesome leadership lesson I learned from a group of teenagers – thank you team!
To your leadership success.
Darren