In May/ June 2014 I was lucky enough to be invited to participate in a Rotary International Group Study Exchange Program visiting Germany. I won’t bore you with the details of the program (you can find out more information here and I encourage any young professional aged 25-40 to enquire of their local club whether the program exists in your district and then you should apply. The chance to take a 4 week paid vacation in Germany notwithstanding (it wasn’t really a vacation but we got to see a lot of the sites) the educational and networking opportunities were phenomenal.
Everyone must have leadership skills – The GSE Program I participated in in had a Team Leader appointed. He was older than the rest of us, a Rotarian and he spoke German. But as can happen on a tiring and taxing month away from home, especially when you have responsibilities back home, there were some days that he wasn’t at peak performance. On these days one of us (not always me) had to sometimes take up the slack and help get the team through whatever tasks were to be ahead of us that day. Everyone on the team had leadership skills – that’s why they were chosen – and developing these leadership skills is vital for anyone to be successful.
Leadership skills are important to develop. These are skills that I like to think that I already have but they are certainly ones that I am continuing to work on.
The importance of the team – This point goes hand in hand with the first point. Success doesn’t happen in isolation (but failure can.) The success of the GSE program was due mostly to the fact that we were part of a team. A great, and challenging, program was organised and each member of the team had an important role to fulfil that ensured that the program was a success for everyone. As mentioned above, these team roles changed on a daily basis – yes we had a “Team Leader” Rotarian with us on our trip (he was great and you should totally check out and support his Charity) but we were all leaders in some way.
The importance of maintaining your health and fitness – I am not the healthiest bloke but I am working to fix that. I am not unhealthy generally but I am certainly unfit. Hanging out with fit and active people has certainly given me a different perspective and has certainly encouraged me to get on the fitness bandwagon. I have registered for two different fun runs and am looking forward to seeing my fitness improve over the next 6 months. I am aiming high too. From a foundation of zero I am looking to compete in a 10km fun run by October. I’ll keep you all updated and let you know how I go.
The importance of effective communication and constantly working on it – Before travelling to Germany I didn’t speak a word of German. Now that I am back I probably speak about 3 words of German. But this did not detract from my trip and the value that I received whilst travelling. It only more effectively reinforced something I have always believed in – the value of effective communication. As a global traveller I have consistently found that in other parts of the world languages are taught much more vigourously than in Australia. I think that there are probably two reasons for this. 1. Australia is particularly isolated from the rest of the world whereas a country like Germany (and much of Europe for that matter) is landlocked so they are more likely to deal with other countries, but also 2. we are lucky in the sense that our official language is probably the world language. Having said that, Australians can get pretty lazy with their language and speaking to someone for whom English is a second language
The importance of being grateful – Whilst in Germany our accommodation was with host families. Now each host family was excited to have us and each host family “wanted a piece of us.” When you are travelling for a month doing 12 hour days “German time” and then trying to run a business Australian time, this can be quite consuming. It could have been pretty easy to snap. What was important was to ensure that I constantly remembered to be grateful. These Rotarians had given up part of their homes for us. They were feeding us, they were changing their own lifestyle for us. Many of these Rotarians had their own jobs to attend and many took leave to play host. When you remembered how much these Rotarians had given us it was easier to be grateful for their own sacrifices. It made those conversations with family at the end of the day much more palatable and much more enjoyable.
The value of meticulous record keeping and filing – My own record keeping have oftentimes be somewhat lacking (but like other aspects of my life I am making constant 10% improvements and seeing exponential results.) the value of meticulous record keeping and filing was brought home to me in a most unusual way in a house where we were being hosted in Saarlouis Germany. These Rotarians regularly hosted Rotary GSE teams from different countries so could have been forgiven for lacking a remembrance of some of the teams that had stayed with them. Not so. Each team that stayed with this family was treated to to a night out at the local Go Kart track for racing. Michael kept meticulous records of each year’s results and referred back to them. He knew exactly where to look. Now, I didn’t particularly care for the results of other GSE teams or where we ranked really in the grand scheme of things but I knew that if his record keeping were so meticulous in this aspect of his life it would likely be so in other areas of his life. It would allow Michael to remember important information and effectively manage relationships. The better the records you keep the more likely it is that you will be able to access the information you need at a moments notice and the more effective you will be in your business and with your relationships.
Don’t pack so much stuff when you travel – To be honest, I probably did use everything this time when I travelled but that was more because of the fact that I had the stuff there – not because I needed to use it. Trekking the Kokoda Track and reading this post by TIm Ferriss taught me the benefits of travelling light. Whilst I haven’t quite got to the Tim Ferriss levels of berevity I am certainly trying to head in that direction. It’s time to be brutal. 1. do you really need so much carry on? 2. Conversely, do you really need to check luggage? Waiting for checked luggage is painful.