Climbing Mt. Everest

I've been fascinated by the leadership lessons, at times contrarian, in the book "On the Edge" by Allison Levine. I recently had a chance to spend an hour with Allison in a virtual setting, getting a chance to hear her amazing story and to personally ask her some questions. What an honor.

For those of you who don't know Allison Levine, she's an incredible woman who has summited multiple 8000+ meter mountains all over the world, including Mt. Everest. She served as Team Captain of the first American Women's Everest Expedition and she's climbed some of the world's tallest peaks with a medical condition that makes her more susceptible to frostbite.

Now get that for a minute. A woman whose body is more prone to the negative effects of cold scaling some of the tallest, most challenging mountains on this planet, facing temperatures below zero, climbing sheer walls of ice, and enduring biting wind gusts of more than 50-70 miles an hour.

There are a LOT of leadership lessons here any Black Belt Leader who want to learn.

Let me touch on one.

When you're climbing Mt. Everest, the initial ascent to Camp One takes you through the Khumbu Icefall, located at the head of the Khumbu Glacier. Massive chunks of ice 65 feet or more in size, moving at a rate of three to four feet a day, make this one of the most dangerous parts of the climb. Crevices are common, and given the fact the landscape is constantly moving and changing, it is an unstable place no one wants to be in for any longer than possible.

Experienced climbers can navigate the Khumba Icefall in a few hours. Inexperienced or non-altitude acclimatized climbers can take 10-12 hours or more to navigate the Icefall and make it to Camp One. Remember, they are climbing at 17,999 feet.

Aluminum ladders are used to help climbers cross crevices they can't leap across, but they are often unstable due to the shifting landscape. Falling ice chunks can crush a climber, or trigger an avalanche that buries climbers in snow and ice. It's an inhospitable place to be, and most climbers seek to traverse this dangerous section of the climb before sunfall in hopes the freezing temperatures will slow the progression of the ice as the glacier relentlessly pushes these massive bus-sized chunks of ice down the side of Everest.

Ok, John, that's an interesting story, but where's the leadership lesson?

Preparation.

Upon arrival at Base Camp, prudent climbers begin training with their Team to both acclimate to the altitude as well as rehearse the all-important climbing, avalanche and crevasse-fall survival, and practice navigating the aluminum ladders spanning the ever-changing crevices so they aren't injured (or die) from a fall.

Prior to coming to Everest, climbers have trained often for months (or years) in preparation for arriving at Base Camp ready to take on Mt. Everest. Equipment has to be purchased, supplies have to be acquired, and the climbers have physically, mentally, and emotionally prepared themselves for the rigors of climbing the world's tallest mountain.

Basketball great, John Wooden, said, "When opportunity knocks, it's too late to prepare." Ask any world-class athlete and they will tell you that unspectacular preparation always precedes a spectacular, gold medal performance. The same is true for anyone in a leadership position.

You never know when you will be called upon to rise to a level of greatness and to summit your own Mt. Everest. It's why DAILY preparation, daily focusing on becoming a better version of yourself than you were the day before, is SO essential to you being able to rise to the challenge and summit your mountain.

That means you not only work on what you're good at, but you also work on improving the other necessary skills needed to not only get to world-class status but to stay there.

Just as a climber must have a versatile skillset to respond, adapt, and rise to the challenges he or she will face on the mountain, you too must continually cultivate and hone a versatile skillset of your own so you're prepared to keep moving, even in the midst of your own Icefall.

It also means you never settle for "good enough". Allison says in her book that complacency can kill you on the mountain, and backs that claim up with stories of experienced climbers who settled for good enough only to lose their life on the mountain.

When we get too comfortable doing things the same way we've always done them, we tend to stop pursuing excellence and decide good enough is good enough. On the mountain, this is deadly. In business, it's deadly as well. Stop serving your clients at the highest level, fail to create an exceptional experience that keeps them coming back, and you've killed your business' future income.

Stop innovating, creating, and improving your product or your service, and you stop climbing the mountain. You're now exposed to the elements of increased competition and reduced market share, and you begin to experience frostbite in your business. Remember, you're climbing at altitude and if you don't keep moving, you'll freeze to death.

The height of the mountains you will summit in life is predicated on the amount of time you've put in training, preparing, and getting ready.

How high do you want to climb?