What the Himalayas taught me about teamwork and being vulnerable
On a trek in Nepal two years ago, I learned a powerful lesson about teamwork — through my own body.
With my two guides, we embarked on the Annapurna circuit which would take 14 days to accomplish. Our goal was to reach Thorong La pass at 5400m in 12 days.
After driving with various vehicles for 2 days we finally got into the trekking. But as we started walking I was constantly falling behind as my guides were in much better shape than I was. They offered to take some of my stuff, but my pride did not allow me to give them anything.
Instead, I pushed myself to stay at their pace but constantly found myself exhausted from forcing myself beyond my limits.
On day 3, feeling completely battered, my ego was finally willing to accept the truth. I was holding the whole team back with my stubbornness, and we were not going to achieve our target if I did not accept their help.
When handing over some of my stuff, the pride that I had experienced showed its real face: shame. I felt ashamed that I was weak and needed their help.
But accepting their help was finally what made our team functional again. Our pace went up and our trek was soon back on schedule.
So the mountain finally taught me what I needed to learn. Or actually, that’s when my mind was finally willing to accept what it had to teach… 😅
We all are weak at times, and that is just the way human life is. As I acknowledged my weakness and pushed through the shame to finally accept help I took our whole team to the next level.
Of course, teamwork in other settings is usually more abstract than this, but the principles are the same. We all have weak moments and that’s why we need to be able to communicate how we feel. This is when team members can support, which will lead to a better experience and better results.
In knowledge work, “falling behind” looks different: irritability, cynicism, and exhaustion… And it’s much less visible than a heavy backpack. That’s why we need to ask sincerely “How are you?” to see how much stuff our colleague is carrying. And when we are asked that same question, we should try to answer it as honestly as possible.
Sincere questions and honest answers allow us to support one another.
The weight we carry isn’t just work itself, but life’s burdens too. Hard times outside of work reflect on us at work and the other way around, of course.
So when we know our colleague carries too much we can happily take some of their things to carry. And equally, when our colleagues know how we are doing they can offer us a helping hand.
Even just sharing how we feel usually eases the burden. And when another shares how they truly are, it feels meaningful to us. Also, we are usually happy to help when someone asks us. Being trusted and needed feels good.
So let’s start asking each other how we feel and answering each other honestly — so that we can start enjoying our trek and achieve whatever we are aiming for! At least I started enjoying my trek from day three.
