Here's a piece by Eileen McDargh republished with her permission. Learn more about Eileen below.
One hour north
of Ely, MN, off a gravel road called Echo Trail, Little Indian Sioux River
meanders through lily-pad waters and past beaver houses to meet Loon Lake. It’s but a tiny part of the Boundary Waters
Canoe Area Wilderness, a vast chain of lakes and rivers that divide Canada and
the United States.
It was our
fourth season to canoe for a week, testing our ability to paddle against wind
gusts of 35-mph, fight mosquitoes and stinging flies, drag our boat over beaver
dams, portage up and down slippery trails and sleep most nights under the
stars.
A prior trip
resulted in a leadership article. Seems
nature can offer insights on many aspects of life that pertain to leadeship.
This trip was no exception:
*Necessity IS the mother of creativity. A small piece of yellow rubber tubing from an
exercise band replaced the lost showerhead on our solar shower water bag. I
teased our friend, Tom, when he threw the band into his Duluth pack. Boy, was I wrong. What can you look at—with different eyes—that
might solve a problem?
*If the wind is at your back, make the most
of it. On the few occasions the
fierce wind shifted, I discovered that a raised paddle blade, turned to catch
wind, acted as a mini sail, driving us more quickly across the open water. Yes,
it was also necessity! If you have
momentum, how can you make more of it?
*Expended energy demands refueling to keep
going. Ziploc bags of nuts, fruit
and M&Ms became essential when we’d slow down. Even the birds in these waters are constantly
looking to refuel. During breeding
season, a pair of loons can consume 2,000 pounds of fish. That might also
explain why I never caught any! Do you
stop and refuel when your body needs it?
*Everything works better when the team is
in synch. Our friends in the other canoe often seemed to
move more quickly then we did. Then I
realized: their paddle strokes were in synch.
Plus, Tom sat in the bow and his stronger paddling made up for the times
when Pam stopped paddling to steer the boat. That’s not only synchronization of action but
also a synchronization of talent. Are
you in synch with your team and playing to your strengths?
*You can only leave “home” if a champion
stays behind. This trip would not have happened without my
sister Susan, a champion of great ability and strength. She moved into our house to oversee the care
of my elderly mother, thus allowing us to journey into the wilderness. Who tends your home or workplace so you can
venture forth into new territory?
© 2011, McDargh
Communications. Publication rights
granted to all venues so long as article and by-line are reprinted intact and
all links are made live.
Keynote speaker
and leadership expert Eileen McDargh, CSP, CPAE, is an award-winning business
author and a consultant to national and international organizations. Eileen offers a free quarterly e-zine and a
frequently updated blog. Visit
http://www.eileenmcdargh.com/books/ to learn more about books by Eileen
including My Get Up and Go... Got Up and Went, Gifts from the Mountain - Simple
Truths for Life's Complexities, Talk Ain't Cheap... It's Priceless - Connecting
in a Disconnected World, The Resilient Spirit - Staying Right Side Up in an
Upside Down World and Work for a Living & Still Be Free to Live.
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