Get Adventurous with Your Leadership Training
by Abdul Aziz Mondal Business Published on: 14 April 2021 Last Updated on: 21 October 2024
For a long time, organizations in Singapore and across the world focused on finding the best talent. However, the focus has changed, and instead, the best companies are now molding future leaders from among their ranks. Leadership training is no longer an afterthought in board meetings but one of the major discussion points.
There’s every reason to invest heavily in leadership development. It can define the leadership goals of your company, boost employee retention, improve productivity, nurture future organization leaders, increase employee engagement, and build corporate culture, improve skills across the board and so much more.
However, most leadership development programs lack creativity with the same activities every year.
This post explores a new way of leadership training through integrating adventure for better outcomes. Read on to discover more information on leadership training and how to make it more exciting for your team.
Adventure Leadership Training:
Remember the last leadership alignment workshop you attended? Most likely, it happened at your workplace during or after work. Some organizations pay for employees to attend in-class leadership courses but most programs lack creativity.
When you instill some adventure into a leadership course, you get more out of the trainees. For instance, taking employees for a wilderness expedition has become a popular way of integrating some adventure into employee training.
How does this help? Consider some of the most popular reality shows on TV today. Most of these are about survival and the winners are always the people who use resources creatively to solve problems. All competitors face similar challenges but some can overcome these challenges to progress to the final rounds.
This is the same concept used for adventurous leadership courses. Employees go to the wild and face challenges which they have to overcome with the minimal resources available. If you ever wanted to discover potential leaders in your team, there’s no better way to do this than in the wild.
The team faces physical and interpersonal challenges which they have to work around either individually or through teamwork. These adventurous courses force people within an organization to work together towards a common goal. It is the ultimate strategy to build cohesion in your team while also building leadership qualities.
The challenges faced in the outdoor setting bring out new characters among your employees. You observe new qualities in the team which you had never observed before. The best professionals leverage these outings to explore innovation training.
As participants struggle to come up with solutions, this is the best time to exhort the need for creativity and innovation in life. Another crucial benefit of these outdoor training activities is the opportunity for employees to learn more about each other.
Within the workplace setting, there are stringent boundaries set by the organization but for a team-building activity, employees can drop their guard and discover each other’s strengths. You go back to the workplace with a more cohesive team that appreciates the importance of harmony and teamwork.
Within the setting of outdoor expeditions, you have the best opportunity to mold attributes that the modern organization leader requires. From people management skills, time management, teamwork, delegating, good communication skills, innovation, problem-solving, organizational skills to working with goals, an adventure training program offers myriad benefits.
Overcoming the Challenges of Adventurous Leadership Training-
While these innovative outdoor leadership training programs are highly beneficial, organizations can face multiple challenges making them a reality. Your organization needs more financial resources, logistical planning, and time to pull such a training course.
Here are some effective solutions to overcome these challenges and make your leadership training more adventurous:
Use a Flexible Leadership Trainer:
If you want to leverage the full range of benefits with leadership training, go for a flexible trainer. Such a professional is ready to build a tailored training program that suits your organization. They don’t have a one-fits-all training schedule but instead work with the client to develop high-performance teams.
Plan Purposefully:
If you decide on a wilderness expedition as part of your leadership training program, start the plans early and with a purpose. You have to identify the goals of the expedition, do your research, and collaborate with your training provider at every juncture.
You have to assess your employees and determine if they are suitable for an expedition. This also helps you with the logistics to ensure you have the necessary resources needed by the team.
Pick Unfamiliar Territory:
To get the best out of an adventurous leadership training course, choose a location where your employees have not visited before. The more complex the terrain, the better. Such a landscape allows people to interact and collaborate to solve challenges along the way. It’s the perfect way to unlock the creativity in your team.
Give feedback and Track Performance:
When planning the expedition, make sure you identify feedback channels and set out evaluation structures. The trainer should provide such feedback while you should have ways to monitor the progress of your team.
Final Thoughts:
If you want to unlock the leadership potential in your organization, it’s time to think outside the box. An adventurous leadership training program helps your team develop leadership skills by solving challenges in a new setting.