To be honest, I was not particularly enthusiastic about the leadership camp. Why do I need this camp after all I thought? I am a consultant with several years of work experience and have already worked on various and diversified projects with some of the best companies across the world.
So, my expectations were quite low from the very beginning. But one thing I can tell you right away and that I was totally wrong about it. I am really glad that I participated in it and it really helped me a lot in terms of giving me a different outlook and taking things from a different perspective.
The camp took place on the Lufthansa Seeheim-Jungenheim Business hotel. The Lufthansa-hotel has around 800 rooms and is situated on top of a hill. The small village Seeheim-Jungenheim is only 40 minutes away from our campus. Unlike my fellow students, I already knew about this area and about its sumptuous and breathtaking surroundings. All of us enjoyed the calm a peaceful location away from the hustle and bustle of the city. Enough of that, as the Leadership camp was our main objective here, hence I won’t bore you with my travel recommendations.
View of one of the lawn area, where one activity was planned
After the initial introduction and some small sessions on leadership qualities, the students were divided into small groups to solve various tricky tasks within a certain time frame. Fortunately, some tasks were also done outside in the fresh air. Of course, I won’t tell you the individual tasks to preserve the excitement. However here a few keywords to stimulate your brain:
After the completion of each task, we had the opportunity to talk about what went well and where we could have improved.
By doing so, we were better prepared for further tasks and could eliminate prior mistakes in the upcoming tasks. All tasks had certain motives and a hidden message to it and there was a healthy competition between the teams to win it. Of course, it’s very challenging to work in an international team with people from all over the world. German standards differ a lot from that of American, Indian or Chinese and vice versa. To sum it up the main motive of the camp was to gain leadership skills and to how to work in a team in the competitive world such as setting expectations, delegating tasks, fixing deadlines and evaluating alternatives. Besides that, we recognized many factors such as respect, being open-minded and to think before we act which were truly necessary for a positive and successful working environment.
Brainstorming
This is the key to success or at least it’s the key to a successful teamwork. Moreover, we did so many cool stuff over the weekend that if I start writing down everything, then this blog would go on forever.
All things apart, it was a fun weekend with kind colleagues and a tremendous experience.
Many thanks to the commitment of the Frankfurt school and, above all, Prof. Dr Horst Löchel.
“Like all good things it must come to an end eventually, but then there’s the next experience which awaits.”
Auf Wiedersehen
Süleyman O. & Bishesh N.
Full-Time MBA Class of 2018