Observing the way young students tackle physical challenges reminds us about the conditions leaders must create for their teams to succeed.
Last week I volunteered to be a parent help on the first day of my daughters' Education Outside The Classroom (EOTC) week. At 9am I found myself on a packed bus with forty Year 7s heading to Tree Adventures at Woodhill Forest.
Wearing helmets and harnesses with carabiners, the kids listened carefully to the safety briefing with a mix of excitement and nerves.
A few hours later, I paused high up on a platform to look back at the children making their way across the ropes and wires high above the ground between the large pine trees. From time to time the muted stillness under the pines was pierced by another joyous shriek as a student set off down the zip line at the end of each course.
Individual students had their own way of tackling the course. Some chatted constantly to each other. Some sang to quell their nerves. Others remained utterly silent as they made their way methodically across the high wires. Many worked in teams of three or four. Others in pairs. Some alone.
In spite of these differences in styles, speeds and confidence, what struck me was that everyone wanted everyone else to have a go, no matter their initial apprehension.
As a group, there was constant vocal encouragement of anyone getting up on the courses, whether they attempted the easiest or the most demanding one.
It was heartening to hear those words of encouragement come unprompted from the students rather than just from the teachers and the helpers (though we were always ready to help and encourage).
Time and again children managed to get further across the course than they had thought possible; or higher up than they thought they could cope with.
In a moment, you could see in their faces the fear give way to relief and satisfaction as they proved to themselves how far the'd come.
For me it was a potent reminder of how as humans we can push through self-limiting beliefs.
Inside, we're all Years Sevens
In the adult workplace glued to our screens, working to deadlines, and hurrying from meeting to meeting, we so easily forget that we're still wired the same way as our Year 7 selves.
As leaders it's our prime responsibility to set the conditions for our teams to do what those students did that day, and no doubt for the rest of their EOTC week.
It seems that we're wired to operate at our best when we're:
able to manage our self-consciousness, anxiety or fear.
faced with a healthy challenge in a context where our fundamental safety is assured.
encouraged to graduate through the challenge in smaller steps.
sharing the challenge as a collective undertaking.
Those Year 7 students came away feeling proud of themselves and so chuffed about what they'd been able to accomplish. Notwithstanding suffering from vertigo, with the right conditions created by those leading them they could do so much more than they thought possible.
The energy generated was powerful and it returned with us on the bus to school that afternoon setting up the students for a great week of activities in the last days of Term 1.
As a leader you must keep asking yourself whether you are doing everything to help your teams overcome their fears? Or are you just leaving them 'hanging in the trees'?
If it's the latter, it's time to swing into action.
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