Leadership Camp

I’ve just come back from Leadership Camp where I spent 4 amazing days on the Morning Star with a great team. It was a wonderful experience of parea (fellowship), laughter and adventure – in my opinion the best combination :o) There were 16 people onboard including Alex our skipper, so it should have been quite close quarters but it didn’t feel like it. It felt like we all had the personal space that we needed, which is good I guess, since everybody was really tired. We left Porto Astro on Friday morning at 6:30 to be in Pefki by that evening. Pefki is a small port on the northern part of Evia, which is the closest island to mainland Greece – it is actually connected by a bridge. On the way there we stopped by another port called Limni, which too is situated on Evia, due to paperwork as well as for the most important part of the day… breakfast! En route we also stopped by a beautiful beach for a swim. We spent the night in Pefki and then sailed on to Skiathos where we spent the remaining two days. During our stay there we had sessions where we spoke about leadership and what that means. I guess the main thing that I learned during this camp is that anybody that influences somebody else is a leader. I have never viewed influence as leadership before and that was an interesting revelation. Once we start influencing somebody we are leading them down a specific path, which is our path and hence we become leaders as the path if familiar to us. So potentially we are all leaders as everybody influences somebody at some level. We can influence people by words or by actions. One of my favorite quotes is by St. Francis of Assisi, “Preach the gospel, if necessary use words.” Here he is talking about leading by actions. I believe that as Christians we need to be extra careful because people are watching us all the time. Our every word and action is being analyzed by people around us because they hold us to a higher standard. I can give an example that happened to me recently during Teen Camp. I wasn’t really part of that camp as I was on the Morning Star working. Every day after breakfast and siesta I would gather my stuff, go onboard and paint the deck. I didn’t think much of it because for me that is part of what I do… I paint the boat. After the camp, as we were ferrying people across to the cars, a guy told me that I had challenged him in his walk during that week. I was very surprised as this was a guy I had joked around with but we had never had the time to sit down and talk… so my first thought was how on earth did I challenge this guy? He kept on going and said that the way I would go to the Morning Star and work in the sun all day and come back to do the slideshows with a smile and in good humor really impressed him. It challenged him in the sense that I was a hard worker and that he needed to become more like that. All this to say that just by being who you are, living and breathing can influence somebody. So my challenge to you, dear reader, is to be careful because in your day to day lives you are influencing people around you, knowingly or unknowingly, and hence you are being a leader whether you want to or not. It’s an interesting way to look at it and a different perspective on leadership but that was the thing that stood out the most to me. By being who I am, I am leading people which is cool and scary all at the same time.

Just to end on a fun note… as we were sailing back towards the property on Sunday I was on the wheel steering. Here I am sitting on the helm seat, on this beautiful and peaceful day, keeping the boat on its course when all of a sudden I see Alex, with an intense look on his face, booking it towards the wheel. He grabs it out of my hands and steers the boat HARD to starboard. My heart almost stopped. My first thought was “Oh my goodness we’re about to hit another boat!” I am like “Alex! What’s happening?! Are we on collision course with another boat?!” He looks up at me and gets this sheepish look on his face and says “My hat!” He hands me the wheel back and tells me to keep turning. Meanwhile he’s got everybody else on lookout trying to find his hat. All of a sudden somebody yells out “I see it Alex! I see it!” Alex lunges into the sea and starts swimming towards his hat with the guys directing him to it. Meanwhile, I snap out of the shock and the realization hits me… my captain just jumped off board… for his HAT…. there is no captain on this ship right now and I’m at that helm… this is NOT ok! So I just start steering towards him. He finds his hat, puts it on and starts swimming back – guys I wish I could show you a video of this… it was hilarious! He gets to the poop deck of the boat and climbs up. As he’s climbing and I’m looking at him with a look exhibiting a mixture of shock, disbelief and amusement, he looks up at me and says, “It’s my favorite hat man! My favorite hat.” Oh Alex! I turn to my fiend Georgos and say “Well that was our excitement for the day.” LOL!!!!

Never a dull moment in Greece, never a dull moment…

Alex climbing the poop deck with his hat... :o)