XLRI Leadership Expedition

From this year students from XLRI will be embarking on a Leadership Expedition (XLRI Leadership Expedition – XLE) which involves taking students to a distant location and exposing them to hardships and adverse conditions while participating in adventurous activities. The students will also work for a relevant social/environmental cause along with a reputed organization working in that field. It will be an annual event and the place and the mission of the expedition will be unique every year.
What will differentiate a good leader from the average is the ability to influence others even in the face of extreme hardships. This expedition aims at developing leadership traits amongst the participants and helping them realize their true physical and mental potential. At the individual level, the expedition aims to develop the following
1. Determination and Strength of character (by exposing the participants to extreme hardships)
2. Ability of the individual to plan and take decisions in an uncertain environment (Through rotational leadership and experience sharing)
3. Motivate others during crisis and work as a team (Individual success will depend on the team’s success)
The other aspect of developing leadership through this expedition is to influence the society. XLRI has always taken steps to sensitize its students of their responsibility towards society. This year students will go to Mount Everest Base Camp with a cause of spreading AIDS awareness with support from CARE. The expedition has been named XLE2006.

XLE2006 to Mount Everest Base Camp

XLRI has always taken steps to sensitize its students of their responsibility towards society and has thus produced leaders with a difference. This year XLRI Leadership Expedition is working to generate AIDS awareness. This objective is being met through a partnership with CARE. The team aims to spread AIDS awareness in Jamshedpur (India) and 7 villages in Nepal that would fall along the trek. The trek team is working with CARE volunteers on how to make villagers aware about AIDS. The plan is to talk to groups of people, have short street plays and distribute AIDS-related literature and condoms. The trek team has already done field trips to slums in Jamshedpur to make people aware of means of AIDS prevention.

The event has been initiated by XLRI’s Nature Club (www.xlnatureclub.org). The club wants to generate awareness among school and college going students towards AIDS, not for their own welfare but also to encourage them to take initiatives to spread awareness among people in rural and semi-urban areas where the awareness levels are abysmally low. This would strengthen the efforts of organizations like CARE which are working on AIDS prevention.

The twenty member expedition team will leave from Kolkata on the 13th of March and trek upto Mount Everest Base Camp (till Kala Patthar at an altitude of 18,480 feet). It will return back to Jamshedpur by 29th March.

This expedition would be the first of its kind in India. Along with Leadership qualities, the participants will also see the following benefits

• Increase their self awareness and confidence
• Confront their self-imposed limits and overcome them
• Improve teamwork
• Develop compassion and tolerance for others
• Reinforce their sense of responsibility and determination to succeed
• Exercise initiative and resourcefulness
• Acquire new skills
• Enhance self-esteem
• Develop problem-solving abilities
• Integrate diverse group of people
• Develop Strategic thinking
• Effective Communication
• Foster forward thinking, a bias for action, risk awareness, and fast decision making

The idea has been more than welcomed in the corporate world. Many management gurus feel that it is high time that Indian B-schools started looking beyond the traditional pedagogy and move towards experiential learning through outdoor activities where the direct involvement and development of students is much higher. XLRI has taken a commendable step in this direction; we hope that the trend picks up across other B-school as well.
Visit www.xlnatureclub.org for more on this.

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