When one gains outdoor leadership skills, can it positively affect their mental health? ABSOLUTELY!
How? Think about it. How do you feel when you’ve mastered a skill? Betcha you feel pretty good about yourself.
Now, how might you feel when you’ve mastered it so well, you’re able to lead others and affect their lives in a positive way? Now we’re talking about a feeling of fulfillment and that, my friends, can improve mental health immensely!
We can achieve things all day long but to really improve mental health, we need to have a feeling of fulfillment. While the idea of fulfillment varies from person to person, what it speaks to is a sense of purpose. It’s what drives you to your compelling goals.
Ready to take the reigns and master a few leadership skills? It’ll not only benefit you by giving you a sense of purpose and fulfillment, it will also benefit those who look to you for guidance.
“Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that impact lasts in your absence.” Sheryl Sandberg
Let’s starts with a few tips on how you can begin your path to becoming an outstanding outdoor leader.
Educate yourself and put some adventure skills in your toolbox. Master a few adventure skills and you can help those who are just beginning their outdoor education journey.
Learn about conflict resolution skills. Here’s a short course by Coursera. Anyone can audit the course for FREE. Leaders who know how to resolve conflict effectively have much to gain. Teams can accomplish the goals they set out to do, and team members can develop stronger relationships. On the contrary, when so-called leaders lack conflict resolution skills, relationships can totally breakdown rendering the team ineffective.
Develop your empathy skills. That’s right. Empathy isn’t innate. It’s a skill that you can practice and get better at. Check out this article to dig deeper and flex that empathy muscle.
“The most powerful leadership tool you have is your own personal example.” – John Wooden
There are many mental health advantages that outdoor leadership skills can give you; check out these three.
Your Aptitude Grows
When we continue to grow and learn, our potential to learn a new skill increases. The outcome is that when we begin to learn new concepts and skills more efficiently, this leads to more confidence.
Your Confidence Improves
When we have the skills to lead a group, our confidence gets a bump and can greatly improve our lives. This has many benefits, one being the ability to build healthy interpersonal and intrapersonal relationships. An increased feeling of self-confidence also increases self-worth — we begin to value ourselves and our abilities even more.
Your Empathy Grows
Great leaders care more about those they’re leading than themselves. Great leaders always put others first. When leaders start to flex their empathy muscles, they’re better able to respond and connect with the needs and desires of their team members appropriately.
Learning outdoor leadership skills can be fun and incredibly rewarding. You’ll certainly level-up in life, in general, since outdoor leadership skills transcend the outdoor classroom and the ones we’ve covered here are no exception. Push the envelope. There are many leaders in the world who aren’t necessarily good a leading. Make sure you’re outstanding — follow our tips!
Additional Resources:
Harvard’s First-Year Outdoor Program (FOP) offers leadership development for members of the Harvard community. We LOVE their FOP Leader Handbook! Check it out here ~