Egos left at base camp
Helping leaders to hit their peak
A CHANCE meeting in a small Indian village almost two decades ago has Aireys Inlet man Jem Switajewski on top of the world.
Or on the world’s highest mountain range, at least.
The founder of Leaders in Life leadership courses is the commanding officer on ecotreks in the Himalayan mountains.
By his side is Neeraj Acharya, a man from Kullu Valley in north west India he met on a traveller’s tip 17 years ago.
Switajewski went to say a quick G’Day to the Archarya family, who had taken in other travellers, but stayed for six months.
The family lives in the village of Naggar, half an hour walk up a mountain. They get snowed in three months of the year.
Despite the culture clash, Switajewski said the Acharyas reminded him of his own family.
“It is hard to explain,” he said. “Sometimes you connect with people and it is hard to pin down exactly why.”
Switajewski developed the idea of leading Himalayan treks on his first visit.
He was going to show people the “magical place” and forest preservationist Acharya would have new people to pick rubbish off the mountains.
But the idea was parked when Switajewski’s wife, kids and a new career at Flight Centre came calling.
Filming a leadership seminar in 2013, everything fell into place.
“I had a light blub moment where I just downloaded all this information in a few minutes,” Switajewski said.
“I knew the name of the company, Leaders in Life, and I knew what we were going to do. I was going to take leaders over there, we’d get them up into the Himalayas and they could pick up the rubbish on these life-defining programs.”
Leaders in Life ran its first trek in October last year with five business owners.
They are purposely made uncomfortable and taught to lead “with a servant’s heart” — one that puts the business and those around them above ego and self interest.
They don’t have their smart phones and can’t contact work or their families.
The first of two treks this year will head off in May.
“These mountains are so big that it is a good place to remember we are a tiny part of a bigger system,” Switajewski said.
“When you remember that, the size of your problems diminishes and you remember what’s important.”