WHATTTTT-E-TREKKKKK

Yaari University?is Shipyaari’s flagship training & development initiative. Who says training can be done only in the conference rooms? Our mentor TAMIL RAJAN decided to take the training agenda outdoors and crafted an interesting Outdoor Management Development Program (OMDP) for us recently, Yaari Trek!

He spearheaded the team to Prabalgarh and what a day it was! A true test to the team's perseverance, resilience, solidarity and most importantly stamina! Our strategic intent was to observe the team in a non-office setting for assessing their leadership skills, problem solving abilities and most importantly their training needs. Coming from an advertising & branding background, I love coining names for all our internal initiatives to enhance their stickiness. This one I decided to call KYC - Know Your Colleagues!

KYC was identified as the burning need by Shipyaari 's leadership team since we are on an aggressive growth path and to meet our transformation ambitions, we have been hiring very aggressively this year. Using the unearthed insights about our people, we are drafting our training calendar for 2023. Shipyaari's founding yaars Nayaan Ratandhayara and Vishal Totla strongly believe in growing people who grow the organisation.

This was my second trek in my entire life. But this time apart from being a physically challenging task, it was a mentally tiring task too. My mental alertness was at its peak through out the day because this was an altogether new method for me to mine insights! I found it to be an extremely enriching experience.

Being a big fan of documenting the life learnings, I decided to compile all my observations here under relevant buckets:

Attitude and culture related

1.????Humour is a great way to keep things moving – Never forget to laugh out loud when the going gets tough – Don’t let your smile dry up. No matter what.?

2.????Be relentless – Keep moving, even if you move slowly. Just doesn't matter.

3.????Be fearless – it helps.

4.????Sometimes one just needs to take the leap of faith. For that one needs to have faith. Having faith / trust in between the team members is a must for a team victory.

5.????Every journey is tough alone. However, after a point we all need to come on an autopilot mode – Find our own path – Go wrong and make a comeback.

6.????Learn from mistakes – Every time the luck won’t favour you.?

7.????We become what we choose. Giving up is a choice we all have. Don’t.

Team dynamics related

1.????A shared goal pushes people to help each other – During the Trek it was about making it to the top together and celebrate together – That’s why everyone helped each other to bring out the best.

2.????Clarity of roles is very critical for a team’s victory.

3.????Crisis makes the best friends. Never let it go waste.

4.????Nothing breaks ice better than humour. It’s a highly underrated management tool.

5.????Extending a helping hand is good – But be mindful of not making the other person dependent on you!

6.????Everyone’s basic nature is to help others – For some reason we tend to forget this at work – If we remember this, we would be a far happier and successful lot.

7.????Everyone has a natural tendency to help the weaker ones – At workplace very few of us display this trait.

8.????Become support for others and you too would automatically get a support.

9.????Encouragement is the BEST help one could offer to the team members. Even more than guidance (sometimes).

10.?When we face a hurdle / face a pitfall, our basic nature is to make others aware of that so that the other person doesn’t suffer the same hurdle / pitfall – Funnily again we tend to forget this natural trait of ours when we are at the workplace.

11.?The fear of letting the team slowdown works wonders.

Leadership related

1.????Leading from front helps. Sometimes leading from back helps even more. Don't leave anyone behind. Stay with them to push them ahead.

2.????Leaders are of no good if he / she has no followers. Unless the followers believe in the leader’s vision, success won’t come.

3.????Leadership and designation are mutually exclusive. Having a designation can help but doesn’t guarantee the success. A successful organisation needs a lot of leaders without designations.

4.????Just letting people know that you have their back can do wonders in enhancing their performances.

5.????People have different ways to motivate – Sometimes by saying positive things, sometimes by pushing / encouraging, sometimes by sharing the fear, sometimes by being a silent audience and sometimes by leaving the person behind alone - There’s no perfect means – All strategies work! It’s about what time to deploy which strategy.

Problem solving related

1.????There’s no single perfect way to solve a problem. Do whatever that gets you the desired solution. Just ensure that your one eye is always on the goal. There’s nothing called as unsolvable problem.

2.????Identify your weak links and have a rock-solid plan to cover up for their weaknesses. Ignored weak links would augment the problem.

3.????A gentle positive push / nudge can take people go miles and find solutions independently.

4.????Plan well for 2 kind of people – The stronger ones and the weaker ones – Both need to be managed well to get the right results.

Habit forming related

1.????Plan. Plan. Plan. There is NO shortcut.

2.????Make smaller achievable goals but always keep eye on the main goal.

3.????Manage your energy well to ensure that it lasts till you reach your goal.

4.????Communication is the key to success. So, talk more often. And talk with a lot of clarity.

5.????Whatever you learnt with great difficulty, document it well and share with others to make it easier for them when they tread the difficult paths.

My friends who know me well know how horrible I'm with directions and roads! I was pleasantly surprised to discover my brain's ability to remember trek's tricky patches, loose stepping stones, tough spots and scary edges. While climbing down this was a happy realisation for me personally! I returned home determined to work on my fitness and my direction sense too (backed by a strange confidence). An honest confession to end this piece, on this trek too I lost my way (JUST ONCE though!).

That's it folks! The documentation of my observations / learnings too was tiring like the trek. Hope this compilation helps the readers to trek through their corporate career.