Mountains are my leadership classrooms: But the ability is sharpened through a sense of purpose.

Yes, I’m sure you’ve heard all the metaphors and parallels of mountaineering/hill walking with leadership, but I can definitely say without a doubt that I can attribute my leadership ability from my love of climbing big mountains or hills. The ability has been strengthened by improved self confidence and belief in a cause, not in mountaineering alone.
I founded the trekking expedition last year as motivating way to raise urgent funds for a school in rural Tanzania, it so happened that the cause, the construction of a science laboratory, was in line with my organisation’s core value of science popularisation. In effect I sold the scheme as a corporate social responsibility project where members would get a subsidised trip to Africa to climb one of the world’s most magnificent peaks whilst raising the funds on behalf of the charity I was supporting. I was always afraid during the year and half of organising the expedition, that the charitable purpose would be lost in the jumble of excitement, training, "holiday preparations", and I battled endlessly to maintain the purpose- in short, recruiting was the problem, people often joined the trip for the wrong reasons and made no concerted effort to raise money for the cause- instead revelling in endless training weekends, forming little cliques and couples- of course people should have fun and get the added benefit of valuable relationships, networking, team-working and leadership experience (an expedition selling point) etc… however, the original purpose could have easily been lost. To me the key success criteria of the expedition was raising enough money for the cause- we raised over £10,000 which was slightly short of the target, but thanks to the spot £/$ exchange rate, and the enlisted additional fundraising efforts of a local English school near work, we actually achieved our target. I spent this last weekend with my organisation Himalayan Expedition team in North Wales on training; the initiative is the follow-on expedition to the Kilimanjaro Expedition last year. This year’s team is 28 strong, retaining about 5 of the original team members (losing myself after discovering I was heading for Stanford). Being around them over the weekend confirmed what I had sensed already was a very different feel and purpose of this Expedition to the first. Marketed as "Everest 2005, committed to social responsibility, developing team-working & leadership skills", I meant it to mean; Yes, you climb a mountain to develop team-working and leadership ability, but motivated by the social cause. The expedition is full of climbing and walking enthusiasts, and a clique has already formed among the leadership four, including the Expedition leader, finance and team-working (who are very close). There is no fundraising plan in sight, and the social cause, raising money for a Nepalese school, seems to be slipping out of the agenda of recent meetings and making matters worse, Don, responsible for charity affairs, has also left the expedition, losing the link with Edward Hillary Trust charity. All in all, the team is slowly but surely detracting from the initial purpose and becoming a mere company mountaineering club. It’s shame, as I was hoping what I started out would become a group within the organisation which made far reaching contributions to society, helping the poorest and underprivileged, stemming not only from the enjoyment of trekking but maybe even using the company's science capabilities to serve communities through genuine corporate social responsibility. Not to be so.
"So Mbwana, what do you do about it?", is what an business school professor might ask. But I’m no longer the leader, nor am I around to do the marketing role, subsequently quitting last week. I do wish I was around to address the problems, but I have to let it go like everything else, plus, it’s probably too late at this point anyway. I think it was bound to happen; luring people to a trekking expedition in the hope of motivating them to fundraise is harder than one may expect. I had an obligation to my charity and was genuinely motivated by the cause, there is no such motivation in the Everest Expedition. A few days previously, the thank you letters from the Britain-Tanzania Society finally arrived thanking the original Kilimanjaro team for their fundraising efforts, I hope this will make those on the Everest Expedition think about why they were originally climbing last year’s mountain and carry that forward. My mantra was always, Climbing mountains is fun, but much more enjoyable and rewarding when there is clear and worthwhile purpose behind it all.
Aside, I had a good weekend in Wales, the strenuous 10 hour walk on Saturday over 10 miles, with shifting weather conditions and across some incredibly diverse terrain. One peak, the Trafan, resembled Mordor from the Lord of the Rings, not the clear blue skies, icy peaks, gentle slopes and faunas of Kilimanjaro that I’m used to. In fact, I’m normally in front, leading the pack, but lagged all day and some of the new "keen and professional" campers must have been wondering how I managed to lead the previous expedition - the months sacrifice for MBA admissions were showing in my clear lack of fitness. I have to contemplate visiting the gym. Tennis and the occasional tough walk may not be enough to save my health and fitness this time. Nevertherless, the walking gave me a lot of time to reflect on issues, and hence started this week with renewed motivation and clearer thinking. I need more of these.