One of the most important skills (skill = can be developed) of leadership is creating the conditions for belonging and connection. At summer camp we lived in cabins with a dozen or so other boys, we had to learn to live together and create a cabin culture.
Each cabin was a community within the broader communities of the camp units, defined by age groups, and the camp as a whole.
The best counselors and unit leaders created that feeling of belonging and connection–which is why I wanted to return to camp so many summers in a row, why I ran up my parents’ phone bills (in olden days, long distance calls cost money) calling my friends all over the Midwest and Ontario, why I cried harder than I’ve ever cried in my life that first summer (1986) on the last night of camp.
Belonging. Connection. Two currencies of culture that the best leaders learn how to invest for incredible returns.
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