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Published: January 23rd 2011
Yesterday I graduated from the Cimba LIFE program. It was an intense 3 day leadership boot camp. I found it very enlightening and stressful. I'll start off by describing what I did and then give analysis.
We started off in a classroom learning about neuroscience and how the brain treats stress. Then we ate dinner and met the instructors. They dressed in black suits and were very loud and showed no emotions except frowns. Quotes include: "You may move quickly," "Last one in closes the door," and many more which are yelled. People now finished with the program joke about them and have the accents of the trainers who originally said them down, which is very comedic. The trainers were extremely intimidating. We started the official program in a formal ballroom sort of deal, which is the best way I can describe it. We sat in two different horseshoes. We started by presenting a 3 minute speech about readiness. Yes I said readiness. Basically everyone got in front of their horseshoe and rambled about being ready and prepared. It was difficult, we all had watches on and belts around our chests keeping track of our heart-rate and how our stress levels were affecting our brains. We had a monitor in the front showing us what the heart-rate was and where our stress level was regarding our seat number. Red was the worst, and when someone finished their speech the whole monitor turned to red. When someone was giving a speech that person's box would show red and an extreme heart-rate. This was pretty entertaining to watch and it just shows how we react with stress. We proceeded to give speeches on a person we just met and try to sell them to the team(horseshoe). This took us all the way to 1:30Am and they gave us homework and told us to be at breakfast at 7AM. After about 3 hours of sleep, I made it to breakfast. At this point everyone wished they hadn't done this program because it was mentally exhausting, very intense, and extremely embarrassing. Day two started off by one person acting like they just won 100 Million dollars from the lottery. This opened myself up to the group because we all were going nuts in front of each other. The rest of the day involved staring into partners eyes for 1 minute three different times, tennis ball juggling, and many other fun little activities that taught us something about ourselves, the way our brains affect us, and many other leadership skills, such as focus and compassion. I learned a lot about myself and what I need to do as a person to become what I want to become. Friday night and all of saturday will remain between myself and the other 47 people in the program. It was a remarkable experience of emotion, passion, and teamwork.
This leadership program is known all around the US. College basketball coaches come to Italy to go through this leadership program. Big name executives at fortune 500 companies also come out for it. It is pretty life changing and intense. I think I slept for a total of 15 hours since I have graduated from it yesterday. The graduation ceremony involved the trainers telling us about themselves and finally show emotion, which was very enjoyable for all of us. After tears of joy, humiliation and passion, all 48 people in the program received The certificate of LIFE Breakthrough. We all carry that bond of friendship that is strong. This leadership program was very intense and demanding, but it was worth it. I very much enjoyed the satisfaction of succeeding in this program.
The program uses a new form of leadership, which is called a NeuroLeader. It is based on the science of our brain. Neuroscience research is showing us that we must move away from the old command and control Aristotelian model of leadership and towards more productive Socratic model. I could go on and on about this but I will save your time as well as mine. As simple as I can make it, it is about pushing others to succeed, not telling others how to succeed. It is more about teamwork than stepping out and being better than everyone else in your team, that is how you become an effective leader. It involves self-assessment rather than assessment from others. You find your weaknesses rather than have someone tell you. It really enlightened me to a whole different and real way of leading, it wasn't what I expected.
I have been studying all day preparing for my classes this week and enjoying my day off. The sun is shining in Paderno and it is roughly 4 degrees Celsius. The snow has melted off the mountains from a small storm a few nights ago. The idea of a storm here is a light drizzle. There are few thunderstorms. The storms just sit here, which sometimes causes a storm to last about a week or more. I appreciate everyone's comments and feel free to continue with them. Feel free to ask any questions that you might have and I will try to answer them the best I can in a future blog.
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Sally
non-member comment
Thanks
Hi Sean! We are reading your blogs to my mom and she appreciates that, along with your kind thoughts and words! Thanks! It sounds like you are off on an amazing adventure...enjoy it to the fullest! Sally