Collaborative Leadership Program Now Open to All Working Professionals!

After running a wonderfully successful collaborative leadership programme for working professionals last year (read the report here), we have opened up another such programme this year. 

It’s one of the best certificate courses working professionals can do, with practical learnings in teamwork, communication, and collaborative leadership. 

“It was a perfect blend of trekking and collaborative leadership development activities. It helped us understand the core principles of leadership,” says Kedar Bhusanikar, a 29-year-old software engineer who was part of the team last year.

If you don’t know, the Collaborative Leadership Programme is an outdoor experiential learning programme we have been running for the students of a few of the Indian Institutes of Management for the past 12 years. Participants engage in a 4-day programme in the Himalayas that is designed to foster collaborative leadership skills.  

The Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) of Indore, Lucknow, and Bangalore have found it so useful that they offer it as a credit course to their students.

But we see collaborative leadership as more than a skill management students need.

Most modern workplaces require you to have collaborative leadership. 

Top professionals are expected to collaborate, work across teams, gain trust with mutual respect among team members and collaborate with other stakeholders as well. Emotional intelligence and relationship-building skills have become central to a professional’s growth. 

We’re sure you may have already noticed this at your workplace.

The interesting thing is that the world’s biggest organisations and leaders are veering towards collaborative leadership. It is critical to an individual’s growth, and consequently, the organisation’s growth. Earlier, collaborative leadership was expected only of the senior management. In the modern workforce, it is expected even at an entry-level. 

Unfortunately, the formal education systems in our country do not lend themselves to students developing Collaborative Leadership skills. The focus is still on individual development driven by a highly competitive environment. 

This is where our Collaborative Leadership Program comes in. 

A trek in the Himalayas, which is specifically designed for learning collaborative leadership skills, is an ideal setting for this program. In a short intense span of 4 days, participants take away lessons of collaborative leadership that they can fall back on throughout their professional lives. 

We’ve seen participants take away key attitudes of collaborative leadership: 

• Investing time to build relationships with teammates
• Building trust through honest and transparent communication
• Handling conflicts in a constructive manner
• Being empathetic and inclusive
• Sharing control and avoiding power struggles
• Creating an environment that enables others to lead in their area of responsibility
• Building connections with other teams and stakeholders
• Being able to leverage the diversity in a team and tap its collective intelligence

These are behaviours that usually come with years of practice while working with a team. With the Collaborative Leadership Program the learning is condensed quickly. The impact is immediate and long-lasting. 

This is because of the way the program is designed and facilitated. 

What happens on the Collaborative Leadership Program

In this specifically designed experiential learning program, competing teams have to plan and execute their own trekking expedition in a remote part of the Himalayas. 

The trekking expedition, under our supervision, requires them to reach a high point, usually a summit, and return down to the base camp safely. Most participants have never trekked in their lives. 

In this trekking expedition, participants are completely out of their comfort zones. They are forced to confront situations and overcome challenges that they have never encountered before. Each day is designed to inculcate collaborative leadership skills in a progressive intense way. 

Overcoming these challenges tests and develops participants’ skills of collaborative leadership.

When and where is the programme happening? 

We have opened up only one date, April 14th–19th, 2023, for the Dayara Bugyal trek. 

Program fees

The fee for the programme is Rs 12,850 + 5% GST. 

It includes the programme fee and all expenses for the stay and food for the 4 days of the programme.

At the end of the programme, all participants will receive a certificate of collaborative leadership. 

Who can join the Collaborative Leadership Programme? 

This programme is open to anyone between the ages of 20 and 35. It is open to university students, students of professional courses, and young working professionals.

If you are a manager and would like to organise a special programme for your team, please email Ms Izzat Yaganagi, the head of our experiential learning team, at izzat@indiahikes.com. 

How to register for the Collaborative Leadership Programme: 

Here is the link to register for the Collaborative Leadership Program - https://indiahikes.com/registration?batchId=9152

We have a limit of only 18 members and will not be opening any more groups. So register soon. 

Please contact me if you have any questions about the collaborative leadership programme.