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PRIMAL LEADERSHIP
Learning life lessons while on safari
By Kathy Hagood
Suzie DeBusk trained technology managers all over the world, but ironically found her best leadership training while on safaris in Kenya.
For ten summers the Rockledge, Fla., business owner spent two-week vacations visiting national parks, including Maasi Mara and Lake Nakuru, and riding horseback over Kenya's plains.
Her sense of wonder was ignited when she saw sights like a million flamingos fringing Lake Nakuru, the wildebeest running during their mass migration from the Serengeti and the birth of an impala at Sosian Ranch.
Her self-confidence increased each year as she took on the physical challenges Kenya has to offer.
"Kenya has an austere beauty. Everything has thorns," DeBusk said. "But spending time there makes you realize you're capable of so much more than you thought you were."
To share her passion for the country and its lessons, DeBusk kicked off her own training company, Leadership Safaris, in the summer of 2005. She now takes groups of four to eight business professionals, ranging from real estate sales people to chief executive officers, to Kenya several times a year for a tax-deductible immersive leadership training experience.
"Kenya is a great place to get out of your comfort zone and re-evaluate how you are doing as a leader," she told participants during her March training program.
During the Leadership Safaris training participants try their hands at tracking animals, driving a Land Rover, riding camels, jumping off waterfalls, spending time alone in the wilderness, throwing a Maasi warrior's tribal spear, riding a horse, shooting a rifle and skeet shooting.
But the training isn't just physical. The group gathers daily to discuss lessons learned on safari and in real life as it relates to leadership attributes of self-awareness, accountability, fortitude, adaptability, respect and integrity. Helpful exercises, including analyzing a professional assessment made anonymously by coworkers just before the trip, allow participants to get a clearer picture of them selves.
Publisher Brad Bentley of Anniston, Ala.-based American Graphics Group, who went on DeBusk's March expedition, came back from his adventure with plenty of stories and a new sense of himself as a leader.
"The experience helped me learn more about my strengths and areas upon which I need to improve," said Bentley who successfully dodged an elephant stampede while at the wheel of a Land Rover. "It was the trip of a lifetime."
Here's a look at how his group's 10-day March training program proceeded:
Day one:
After a daylong flight to Nairobi the group had breakfast at the Fairview, a family-run four-star hotel, and then flew to Lake Nakuru National Park. The flight, via small aircraft, offered a bird's-eye view of Nairobi's downtown cluster of skyscrapers surrounded by wide suburbs, home to three million. Along the way are the Abedare Mountains, the green rolling hills of coffee plantations, the Great Rift Valley, and the majestic forested crater of Longonot, an extinct volcano.
Just before the aircraft landed lions were spotted next to the Lake Nakuru airstrip. The group boarded a Land Rover, which drove a short distance to the next stop where the lions are stationed. As the game ride proceeds the group sees and photographs baboons, zebras, white and black rhinos, giraffes, Cape buffalo and more.
The Range Rover continues to Lake Nakuru, which is inhabited by one million plus flamingos. The leadership group stops to take in the mind-boggling numbers of the gorgeous pink birds. A hearty picnic lunch follows, with offerings from Caesar salad to pizza, the first of many ample and tasty meals served outdoors throughout the trip.
A short flight and drive later DeBusk's group arrives at Sosian Ranch in the Laikipia district of Kenya north of Nairobi and settles into exquisite quarters decorated with antique furniture and Argentine wool blankets. Sosian was built in the 1940s by Italian artisans and now is a 24,000-acre working ranch as well as guest lodge.
Before dinner DeBusk discusses the next day's agenda and what they can expect to gain from the program. She hands out course materials to each participant, including a leather-bound experience diary for recording daily notes and personal reflections and a leather pouch she affectionately calls "a mojo bag" for storing small mementos collected along the safari.
Days two through five:
Guests wake each day to a gentle knock and the Swahili greeting of "Jambo." The greeting comes with a tray of hot coffee and tea. The service is just one of a hundred ways the ranch staff, most Kenyan natives, spoil guests.
Typically the day's activities begin with a game ride and/or walk in a Land Rover with the group's Zimbabwe-born safari guide, Squack Evans, and his assistants. Along the game ride giraffes, zebra, elephants and other wildlife are frequently sighted. During walks, team members learn how to identify various dung and print types to track Kenya's large mammals. A lion's paw print and leopard's dung are among the multitude of animal signs discovered during several game walks.
On one morning the group visits a Samburu village, tours a dung hut and learns from guide, Joseph Lamart, a Kenyan of the Turkana pastoralist tribe, about the Samburu's pastoralist culture. For the brightly garbed Samburu and other pastoralists, success is measured in the amount of cattle owned.
After a huge breakfast back at the ranch DeBusk leads interactive leadership discussions and members exercise or work on their professional assessment action plans. Following lunch the group tries out various physical challenges such as skeet shooting. Late afternoons are sometimes spent on game rides and additional physical challenges.
Dinner, typically served late, offers group members the chance to unwind by socializing with other safari guides and visitors from adjacent ranches. The foods, including chicken, beef and lamb entrees, are familiar to American tastes, but sundry condiments like hot mint jelly versus sweet give the meals a flavorful twist. A game room with pool table and dartboard and living room with a roaring fire are perfect after dinner retreats for conversation about the day's events.
Days six and seven
After goodbyes to the Sosian staff the group heads, via airplane, to the Masaai Mara National Park. Following arrival on a Mara airstrip they take a game ride to their accommodations at the Offbeat Mara Camp. While the group already has seen an enormous amount of wildlife, the abundance of animals on the Mara is a new thrill. On the way to camp the group sees not only lions but also a group of three cheetahs.
The camp features luxury tents, each with two full beds and a private shower and toilet. The camp staff members replenish each tent?s hot water supply in the early evening so guests can wash off the day?s grime before dinner. The camp's three-course meals are prepared with all the trimmings.
During their stay the group takes several game walks and rides, visits a Maasi village and sees Maasi warriors dance. Their guide Squack, who speaks Swahili and several other languages, helps group members negotiate a good price on handmade souvenirs they purchase off the blankets laying on the ground at the Maasi village.
Day eight:
After a final outdoors breakfast, the group flies to Nairobi, checks into a day room at the Fairview and heads for lunch, shopping and a visit to the Karen Blixen house. The group learns about the life of the Out of Africa author before heading back to the hotel to clean up, have dinner and prepare for the overnight and day flight home.
For saleswoman Kim Thompson of Charleston, S.C., Leadership Safari's March training trip offered a springboard to what she believes will be greater success in her career.
"It was like nothing I'd ever experienced before and has made me re-evaluate my goals, Thompson said. "I now believe I'm capable of going farther faster."
Fortunately for future participants of Leadership Safari, a third day at the Maasi Mara camp has been added, extending the 10-day trip to 11 days.
The next training session is set for June 22 to July 3.
For more information :
Leadership Safaris
Telephone: 1-877-532-5257
www.leadershipsafari.com
Kathy Hagood is a freelance photographer based on the Space Coast of Florida. She can be contacted at 321-795-4153.
April/May issue 2006
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