None of Us Is As Strong As All of Us!

None of Us Is As Strong As All of Us!

The cozy story I remember from my childhood is about the adventures of Akka, the leader of the flock of geese, the little boy Nils with the adventures, and the wild geese flock. I am sharing the section from the book description with you.

“An unforgettable classic from Selma Lagerl?f, who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1909…“

Nils Holgersson is a boy who annoys people and tortures animals. One day, a dwarf wizard, a tomte, turns him into a little boy, and Nils goes on a wonderful journey. Joining a flock of wild geese with young male goose Morten from their farm, he flies north and goes on an exciting adventure.

Beginning to understand animals' language when he shrinks, Nils becomes a completely different child who starts to approach them more affectionately. After helping a squirrel family, rescuing Ingrid, the female goose, and freeing Eagle Gorgo, he takes the opportunity to become a real human again.

But this also comes at a price. What will Nils decide on?"

When Nils wants to fly in the story, he becomes a little boy and begins to understand the language of geese. He befriends Morten of the geese flock and then establishes closeness with other geese and animals. The change he has gone through along with all the good he has done is now known by everyone, and he sets out on a journey with wild geese who will migrate north. As the little boy spends eight months with the flock, the leader of the geese flock, Akka, teaches Nils what he needs to know. The geese return home with the winter in Lapland, but after his experiences on that journey, Nils is no longer who he used to be.

This story starts with the change of Nils, who is the main protagonist of this beautiful book children read fondly with pictures inside. It continues with his change as well. I would like for us to examine together how the geese, from the main characters of the book, fly during the migration, but first let's talk about business life.

In business life and career journey, whether we are in the public or the private sector, there is always a goal that needs to be achieved. No matter which institution is involved, that institution has a vision, mission, ethics, and principles. The institution is an identity living with all of its employees.

With its hierarchical structure that exists through its organizational structure, managers, administrative staff, and field operations staff, each unit has its own teams. I don't know your position in this organizational structure, but you are part of a team. Maybe you are a leader, a founder, or a manager; or you are an employee with a responsibility within a team.

Now look at where you work right where you are; that place has a goal, and you have a goal that you want to achieve yourself.

However, there are difficulties you experience, problems you face, and crises that need to be solved. Not only that, you have competitors in your relevant sector. In the workplace environment, there are tensions, rumors, groupings, systematic failures, lack of communication and trust, unnecessary?emails, personal and team indecisions on the areas of responsibility, harmful and ignored behaviors within the organization, and many other situations that affect performance.

Now let's go back to the migrating geese. Scientists who investigated why migrating geese, which were observed to fly in a "V" formation in the air, fly this way and encountered a very interesting result. These results from the research are really intriguing.

In fact, powerful data can be obtained with a real observation of nature. Every time geese flying in a "V" formation flap their wings, they create an air current that lifts the goose flying behind. In this way, they extend their flight range by 70% with the air current from each other's flappings. In a possible case where a goose stays outside the flock would return to the level of the flock by falling outside of the air current created by the geese flying in a "V" formation.

The leader of the flock gets tired faster because he cannot take advantage of any air current. In this case, he goes to the back of the flock to gather strength using the air current, and the goose that follows him becomes the leader. With this constant change, every goose in the flock takes part at every point of the “V“-shaped flight formation. Therefore, they work in cooperation instinctively and collectively.

Another important point is that when their flight speed begin to decelerate, the birds at the back energize those in front, shouting to go faster. It doesn't stop there, if a goose gets shot or sick, two geese leave the flock to help the fallen goose and wait until the goose can fly again or until it dies. They then continue in the direction they are going, joining another flock of migrating geese, and no flock rejects the geese who want to join.

What do you think Nils, the little boy in the story, learned after those eight months with the flock of geese; what kind of change did he experience?

Throughout history, all successful leaders knew the importance of high performance and productivity of individuals who came together for common interests in organizations, along with the importance of administrative structures, teamwork, and moving forward with a common goal. Considering that the needs of these individuals are important as well, this is not as easy as it seems. Determining the right goal, the assigned position of the individuals in the team, determining the right strategy and planning to achieve this goal, increasing the innovation power of the team, being able to see the needs of the team in this process, even the invisible ones, seeing the existing problems, finding permanent solutions, increasing productivity, strengthening communication within the team and the development of skills and abilities, each is a separate subject of study.

In Team Coaching, the Coach, with all his/ her knowledge and management skills, provides successful and targeted team management with a program specific to the vision and mission of the organization along with its ethics and principles. With the program he/ she has created exclusively for that particular workplace, the coach sees the strengths and areas open for improvement, the obstacles in the way of performance and success, makes arrangements with coaching, and focuses the team on the target with its strengths in solidarity.

Here I want to draw your attention to the fact that I mention teamwork in my statement. The group and the team are the two concepts that are most confused with one another. In a team, each individual moves in the same direction towards a single goal, while in a group, each individual has their own goal. Therefore, Team Coaching and Group Coaching are separate areas. I will tell you more in detail in another article.

As the famous philosopher Socrates puts it, “I cannot?teach anybody anything. I can only make them think“ and “let him that would move the world?first?move?himself.”

Now, whatever is your position in your business and career life, start with yourself first and think about it.

How do you move towards your goal with the highest performance that you can potentially discover where you are?

What do you need to do more?

What is keeping you from achieving more success?

How can you provide additional value for the team you are part of?

If you are the person in charge of a team, no matter your job, you should know that it is the emotions that move people. As you see these feelings and demonstrate the right approaches needed, you will also see how problems are solved and how a team works efficiently with the highest motivation. It is crucial to be able to analyze and understand, to set the right goals, increase the effectiveness and performance of the team, ensure that each individual in the team takes responsibility for the right task and competence, as well as to guide this path by determining the way for the team to reach the goal.

First, as the leader of yourself, you, in your current state, whether you are the one left behind or the one who is leading;

You are as strong as the strength of your team, and now it's time to fly to success with them!

NONE OF US ARE AS STRONG AS ALL OF US…