In our previous vacation, our family hiked France Alps, next to breathtaking beautiful scenes, the hiking was quite an adventure for us and our kids, It also reminded me of the way it can work in building High performance Agile team & Developing new leaders...

Around 18pm we were still on our way to the waterfall, the road was very small and slippy after the rain of the day before, there was only huge trees around us, and little to none sign boards around. At the time we used our GPS on the phones, it worked quite well...

So with our GPS we checked the direction and asked our Kids to lead the way, since they are much more flexible and can easily find a safer way to walk through tiny small slippy path, once they took steps - we just followed their footprints. My oldest one led us and took the responsibility to watch over me, and the younger took the responsibility to watch over my husband....

(As parents, it is quite extraordinary feeling to see how your kids taking responsibility & devide the task between them in looking after you ,at their age)

At 18h30pm, we could see /feel that we were heading down the mountain and started to hear water sounds, we knew we were somewhere in the neighbour of waterfall, the sun is heading down, there were yet not signs/boards which indicated if we were on the righ track... our GPS didnt work anymore..there were no signal on the phones, we basically didnt know how long it would take stills to the waterfall and back to the house....

So we got a brief conversation together & Decided Our goal together was Now Getting back to the house before dark - leave the Waterfall for next time, we also decided to stay on the path that we were going - untill we see a sign boards, if after awhile no sign board & if it is too dangerous and late - we head back the same path to the big road.

About 15'' later, our oldest son discovered a sign board from distance, as he was learning French, he could read from distance that it was closed as Dangerous path, since we also noticed that the path got very narrow along the edge mountain... We had a brief conversation and together decided to head back, this time our youngest volenteer to lead our family, he said: I knew the way back, I remember the route we took and I knew how to hike up...

If you have been hiking, you probably know: hiking downward the mountain is one thing, hiking upward is another thing...

The clock was ticking...as sunset was on the horizon....we need to together get back to the car road before the dark...

Suddenly we saw a man running -head downward to the same direction & path we just left. We decided to ask him for help. It turned out, he was a local French - who regularlly run in the forest & through this mountain.

We told him that there was warning sign board said the path was close. He decided to help us, he took our advise of not heading for the same path we did, and together we hiked up - at a cross road, we took another path - this time heading downward. But at the time, we knew- we are now on the right way with the guidance of a local.

At the end- we reached the ground, expressed our gratitude and said goodbye to the kind local man, and yes - we reached our goal, arrived safely at the house before dark. At dinner we had a conversation about what we learnt that day for our next hiking...

Morel of the story?

My observations throughout +15years in developing high performance (leadership) teams and their growing process:

+ In high performance team, the whole team together is responsible & accountable to reach Team's Goal

+ Trusting Each other is essential for the Surviving & Growth of ANY Team

+ Appreciate & Explore the Power of The differences (regardless of the ages), Everyone strengths can be needed

+ In Journey of reaching Team Goal and become High Performance Team, allow Leading to be role that everyone can take

+ Acknowledge & Pivot with the idea that Everyone in the Team CAN Lead the team in certain circumstance -where/when their strengths are in favor

+ Be humble to ask for help within & outside Your team

+ Sharing knowledge is the path to Win-Win situation

+ Learn & Enjoy ON the way, the Joy is not just the destination - it's the process of reaching there

+ Whatever transformation/path you intend to go, Find a ''Local'' (Mentor/coach) who has been there, and ask for their guidance

+ Tools are just tools, sometime Tools will not work => trust the Guts, observations of your team

+ Focus on your goals, and be flexible to change your path when necessary

+ Checking in regularly together, to see where you are as Team & what''re next steps

+ Remember to Reflect as Team & Learn from your experience

Question:

What did you learn from Your Last Team''s assignment?