Brush-Up leadership skills : Go Trek

Human behavior including Leadership is one of the most studied yet least understood field of inquiry. One cannot predict the behavior that a personnel is supposed to display at a definite period of time. Leadership development in not an overnight process, nor is it totally academically inclined. An individual must accumulate an array of experiences to enrich leadership acumen in him. However such experiences are of varied nature and may encompass myriad of different culture, context and situations. Among such different activities and circumstances, current leaders often refer to trekking as a unique experience to boost their leadership potentiality.

I would like to call trek as  a  first instinct of leadership. Most of the time trekking is fun, a refreshing one. Usually trekking may span for couple of hours to days long, difficulty ranging according to geography, location, temperature and so on.

During Hike to Chisapani, about 20 km from Kathmandu

While most of the people take days off from offices/colleges and take rest at home, I prefer trekking. In contrast to our common belief, we get much exhilarating experience of feeling refreshed and relaxed as a result of trekking. As such, whenever I get chance to have couple of free friends and a combination of good weather and happy pockets, we mark into it, to enjoy the beauty of life, to embrace the touch of nature, love of friends and learning many things while having endless fun.

In Kalinchowk(3700 m) after trek of 6 hours( 20 km)

So far I encounter following memories of trekking:

1.       Sundarijal-Chisapani-Sundarijal

2.       Sundarijal-Chisapani-Nagarkot

3.       White Gumba

4.       Balthali-Namobuddha

5.       Charikot-Kalinchowk and many small routes

I began to ponder of about trekking when I came to know that Cornell MBA alumni come to trekking to our country Nepal so as to boost leadership traits(Nepal Leadership Trek) . Saving a day off from your business in a hectic schedule in a rustic city not only provides you with lungful of fresh oxygen but many other added advantages. I have listed some of them:

1.       Plan, Plan and Plan:

Where do you want to go, what is the time schedule, who are going together with you, what is the estimated cost, what is the route, where are you staying at the end of the day? etc and so many questions to ponder about !

2.       Organize:

Manage for the optimum time which is suitable to all ( at-least the majority), and Just do it. If you are the leader you have to take the lead: in showing the route, manage of refreshments and breaks in between and so on.

3.       Know and interact with different situations:

Be prepared for the worst thing to happen but don’t expect them. If possible take a first-aid kits with you.  Some friends may not be able to walk so take rest in regular interval. Interact with people of the surroundings.

4.       Rejuvenate yourself:

Going for a hike is letting yourself go beyond and above your comfort zone.  Entertain yourself by playing with the nature, interacting with the people, enjoy the touch of the fresh air, embrace the beautiful environment  and foremost enjoy your companion.

5.       Strengthen relationship with co-workers and friends:

Taking time free from your friend will enable you to enhance and strengthen relationship with your friends and family. While on hike you get a chance to interact with your co-workers. The interactions may be about your official works seeking some suggestion with friends, taking about personal life with close friends, sharing of success and failures, remembering some golden past days  and about future plans. All these will help you rejuvenate relationship with your friends.

6.       Preparing for future/strategic planning:

When people feel exhausted in a daily official work and are head-out of fresh ideas, they mark for a hiking. Hiking not only provides them with free time from the usual setting but also encourages them to think beyond a box. It is often said that creativity is fostered in a new and different circumstances. Hiking will also enhance you to see of the problems in a new way as you free yourself from usual circumstances and surroundings. As such if you are in between horns of dilemma about future course of actions, go for a hike with your companions.

7.       Get plenty of golden memories for future refreshment:

Most of the time you may not get plentiful of time to take yourself off from work and entertain hiking. In such a situation, memories of the previous wonderful time can be enthralling. By going for a hike you can collect some wonderful memories to cherish for a lifetime. In a exhausted daily life of future, you can add energy to self by collecting memories of the hike that you enjoyed with your loved ones.

On the way to Charikot from Kalinchowk

Other benefits might be:

8.       Increased productivity in official work

9.       Increased performance in an individual basis

10.   Abundance of new ideas and opinions

11.   Enhanced team work

12.   Strengthen family relationships

13.   Sharpened leadership skills

Formal vs Informal Authority

Recently in a seminar about Youth and Ethics, Christoph Glaser (trainer) began with a pragmatic example illustrating the significance of formal vs informal authority in a leadership position. He stood tall enough in a confident posture to drag attention of about 60 youths from different walks of life. He accompanied there as a formal authority to conduct the session. However he tried to achieve informal bonding with participants before he could start the session effectively. His conclusion was that in order to be successful in a leadership position, a person should not only possess a formal legitimate authority but more importantly a respectful informal authority.

By formal authority we mean duties and responsibilities that a person in a status accompanies as a result of being in a position. Formal authority provides the person with a limited jurisdiction under his/her arena. Whereby by informal authority we mean a informal respect and recognition that a person gains by the virtue of his/her personality and the long term practices. Such authority is bestowed upon person if only the ideal and principles followed by him compliment with that of vast majority of people.

Well that was some sort of analysis. I was pondering about these things and recently got confronted with a heated dilemmas in Nepalese medical sector. The background is that most of the public institution in Nepal face political appointment of the head of such organization. Under political influence most of incompetent and less competent make it into the helm of those organization. Similarly Dr. Sashi Sharma was appointed as Dean of Institute of Medicine (Tribhuwan University) by the Vice-chancellor of the university. Nepalese medical sector at present is going through different malpractices. It is often said that there is mafias of people who lobby for such political appointment to get their vested interest executed. Providing legality to Proposed Medical college without appropriate infrastructures, appointment of incompetent people in top portfolios, using undue pressures in selection of medical students etc is common. Having a strong opposition to these malpractices, Dr. Govinda KC launched a sit-in protest of fast-unto-death in-front of IOM demanding the immediate removal of Dr. Sharma who is said to have been no. 38th in the merit list for the position of Dean. The cause of Dr. KC was fair enough: to free medical sector from political interventions. After some days of protest, the public support engulfed in such a way that the case become a heated one in Nepalese socio-Political arena. After facing lot of pressure from different sectors and public, the government finally decided to nullify the decision of the TU board to appoint Dr. Sharma as a Dean. (Read here about the case)

My conclusion here is, Dr. Kc advocated for a ethical practice: to free IOM from political intervention. He had a clean image of helping people in need, regardless of country, be it in Uttrakhand natural calamity (India), or in devastating earthquake in Bhuj(India), Burma after cyclone Nargis in 2008, earthquake in 2008 in Haiti and so on, all of which were self-sponsored trips. Over the time period Dr. KC had gained so much of respect and recognition in his profession because of which his informal authority had elevated. And finally he was able to prove it, even if you have informal authority and are supporting something ethical, the chances are high to be in your favor even if the formal authority is against you.

iNSPIRE the Youths: WYFEB

Ethics is often referred to as a grey area, especially when we talk about it in correlation with business. However in interaction with about 60 dynamic youths representing various walks of life it was put forth that ethics though is an abstract concept, should be put forth as Blank and White area.

Though it is often said that ethics is ingrained in DNA of we Nepalese, business fraternity of our country is still progressing in terms of ethics practices and beliefs. We still encounter many cases in which many business organizations follow unethical means to attain their business goals. In such a scenario, World Forum for Ethics in Business satellite conference was organized here in Nepal, and as a part of the same, World Youth Forum for Ethics in Business was also organized on Jan 15 and 16, in Hotel Annapurna. During the event trainer from WFEB instilled on the dynamic participants, the values of ethical leadership and ethical practices in business . It was promising two days with renowned ethical business proponent and trainer Mr. Christoph Glaser and Mrs. Ranjita Kulkarni.

After two days of intensive workshop from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm, I came to summarize following learning and highlights from the conference.

World Youth Forum for Business Ethics in Nepal -Nepal Chapter

1)      Formal and Informal authority

So as to convince bunch of followers, a leader should not only be convinced about formal roles and responsibility but also emphasize in strengthening informal authority. While most of the hard core skills are needed to be successful in getting the job done, soft skills on the contrary will enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the task being done under your domain. With informal authority comes relevance to trustworthiness, dependability etc. Imaging the status of some politically appointed chairs of institution that have fallen down in informal authority. As such the means to gain respectful informal authority is to act ethical.

2)      Lead with smile :) 

Smile is as natural gift to human beings. It is the most influential way of communicating with others. Most people find it difficult to smile because they are never relaxed and are often haunted by dogma of fear, frustration and restlessness. Be ethical and fair enough in your practices and then you unravel the illustrious origination of smile.

3)      The dynamics of teamwork

Being a team player is not as easy as it seems. In a team there are people from different walks of life who have many learning and experiences. As such when we develop a bonding within a team we come to realize: differences in opinion, differences in learning and so on. People’s level of patience, confidence, trust-worthiness etc varies. Moreover when most of the member in the team is enthusiast and dynamic, getting convinced with a team leader can be difficulty. However if a team player is visually ethical and fair enough in his profession, his/her teamwork will easily accept this/her supremacy in the team.

4)      Ethics as a concrete concept

Throughout the two days conference I was pondering about why they people were talking about a concept which is so abstract and vague to describe.  Your perception of ethics has high chance to be in conflict with that of mine. What might be ethical to you might seem apparently unethical to me. Let’s come to a case: say that a business is operating in a society following all the legal criteria, but still some of the negative repercussions of the business are not guided by the law. As such in such case the debate of ethics can be really conflicting.

However the concluding answer to ethical dilemma was put forth by chairman of WFEB-Nepal chapter, TirthaMan Shakya. He opined of ethics as something which regardless of the legal conditions, when acceptable by the society, will be ethical and promising.

5)      Nepal as origination of Ethical values

Down the lane of thousands of years, Nepal has been origination of ethical beliefs and practices that has been advocated by Hindu saints and yogis, Buddhism preaching’s and practices. This mountain country is the origination of Hinduism and Buddhism principles which advocates for ethics in not only business practices but overall in Human values and principles.

6)      Downside of being unethical

We forge to practice unethically in want of being too rich in a short period of time. But in contrary we don’t notice that along with the pleasures coming from unethical practices, we keep on being victim of different miseries that become fatal in days to come. Tension of being interrogated by police, loosing friends, high blood pressure, frustration etc come as a gift to unethical practices. So the result is you lose your smile and pleasure and thus become poorer than before. Ponder about the importance of wealth that makes you socially out-casted.

7)      Mantra for Sustainable business: Be ethical

With the advancement of the management thoughts and practices, business started to identify the presence of the society in which they were operating. Of late the concept of giving back to the society i.e Corporate Social Responsibility has started being relevant and thus prevalent. The concept of CSR is one way or another, a reflection of the companies to start to adhere to ethical practices. For those companies that tend to curve the rules and want to be successful overnight should understand that being unethical is a momentary business and a way forward to dig your own grave. Think of these businesses: Enron, Union Carbide Corporation (Bhopal disaster) etc

8)      Zero tolerance to unethical practices

The best thing to start to adhere to ethical practices: start to talk.  Talk about what is ethics to you, why the concept of ethics in you is different that of your friends, how we can promote ethical practices and beliefs in us, and so on. It may be difficult to convince those old people about ethical values and beliefs but we can of course try it convincing to Youths. Convince the youth of your age the power of ethical values and practices and by doing so we ensure a path to regain the prosperity and fame of our country very soon.

9)      Foundation of ethical practices: Yoga and Spiritualism

Positivity fosters when we are relaxed. The roots to relaxation are yoga and spiritualism. When soul becomes full of positive vibes, we drift apart from unethical practices. As such all the ill-byproducts coming out from unethical practices disappear and you enjoy the beauty of life.

Way forward:

The most basic thing is keep the ball rolling. WYFEB will keep talking about the ethical practices in the country and how can we strengthen it in days to come. We have realized that not only the future of the country rests on our hand but also we are a driving force of present. As such in days to come we will be strengthening the network of youths who believe that ethical practices can be realized in our lifetime and our beautiful country can attain the status of Peaceful-Prosperous Nepal.  Fate and prosperity of Nepal rests in the hand of us Nepalese.