Real Consequences

Survivor has started again! The thrill of making decisions under the stress of dire consequences is a scenario that rivets millions of us. This vicarious experience shines a light on our internal competitor. It gets us asking the questions, am I tough enough? Am I flexible and clever enough?In a month, these people encounter more challenges which require more nimbleness of mind than most of us experience in a year. As business professionals, we can learn from these people; not their back-biting strategies, but their reactions to difficulty and stress.

Deal with Life’s Challenges

Watch how people naturally react to these challenges and how, over time, they learn to react better or be voted off. Watch how those who become positive, perseverant and optimistic eventually win. After the competition is done, these people will deal with life's challenges in a more effective way. Experience does that.As I've written about Army Rangers in my book, “No Excuse Leadership,” challenges provide a perspective on difficult that most people don't have. Difficulties will come. However, people who have learned to operate effectively under stressful circumstances will overcome.These participants will be much more proactive versus reactive. They’ll have a confidence and level of self-esteem derived from truly learning about themselves that will allow them to rise above the current moment and see the bigger picture. No, not all of them are overnight successes after the competition, but we, like them have the choice of maintaining positive habits or letting them go. The fact remains that an event like Survivor allows for significant personal introspection and learning,

Get Out of Your Natural Environment

Unfortunately, Survivor is not going to call us and give us this wonderful learning opportunity. Fortunately, the market for this type of experience has produce events like the Ranger Experience. Though it's only four days, and meant to build people, not break them down, it is an intense personal and team learning experience. Like Survivor, this course, developed by former US Army Rangers, takes professionals out of their normal environment and focuses on teamwork, leadership and communication. Four days without a cell phone, laptop and PDA's. Tough to survive?! Quite the opposite. An event like the Ranger course allows people to reconnect with the survivor inside themselves and realize again that they are tougher than they thought. It puts them in a relatively uncomfortable, though safe environment that they would not otherwise find themselves. They then live out a real-time challenge that requires their innovation, perseverance, and optimism. Just what they were hoping would be expected.

Our Inner Competitor Needs to be Challenged

Survivor taps our inner, dormant competitor. Courses like the Ranger Experience allow us to learn about ourselves and become better at succeeding under difficult circumstances.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Brace E. Barber works extensively with Leading Concepts, Inc. (http://www.leadingconcepts.com) in the field of immersion soft-skill training with a focus is on how to develop leaders, who are prepared for and can succeed under stressful circumstances. He is the author of the book No Excuse Leadership. (http://www.noexcuseleadership.com)