I have always wondered what must go into an Everest expedition and the mindset of a person making the climb. The idea to use parts of the climb as a leadership exercise is truly innovative and hands on. In an article written for the Harvard Business Review, Michael Useem and Edwin Bernbaum started a program for MBA graduates to take on portions of Mount Everest and learn leadership lessons along the way. The article cites four main lessons that apply to situational leadership.
Lesson 1
Leaders Should Be Led by the Group’s Needs
All the four lessons provide clear insight into what makes a good leader starting with the concept that a leader must serve their people. In defining the first lesson, the team encountered a monastery on the way towards basecamp were where they met with the High monk who told them, “First, leadership is built by serving. Second, when leaders truly serve and subordinate their private welfare to that of all others, their authority often becomes unquestionable” (Useem, 2014). One of my first duties to my team is to make sure they have what the need to be successful. I also need to make sure they are happy with the job they do and have a path for growth. A leader is defined by how they “interact with followers’ needs and the nature of the task” (Northouse, 2016, p135). This is a Tennent of the path-goal theory and in a situation like climbing Everest, it is important to understand how intertwined the needs of the group and all individual’s needs are related to the task at hand. In such a difficult journey all must work seamlessly together
Lesson 2
Inaction Can Sometimes Be the Most Difficult—But Wisest—Action
The example from this lesson in the article was of a climber that fell ill with altitude sickness, but insisted on moving along. To do nothing and allow him to continue versus having him head back was really a risk versus reward for not only the individual, but also the entire group. For Useem “it reinforced the idea that although leaders need to help people go for the highest achievement of which they are capable, they must also be keenly aware of the hazards ahead and take the necessary—and sometimes unappealing—steps to avert too grave a risk” (Useem, 2014). We often find ourselves in situations that start to go south and it takes a strong leader to recognize and make the right decisions to keep everything on track
Lesson 3
If Your Words Don’t Stick, You Haven’t Spoken
The next lesson I likes involved communication and how if people don’t hear the message correctly, then a leader cannot assume the task will get done correctly. In this instance, there was an example how the leader told one group one thing that delayed their arrival back to camp which was not clearly communicated to others (Useem, 2014). While the leader was sure he mentioned something, his words were not received by the group in the same way. This caused those that were not clear to waste effort and energy searching for the group that was not in peril, but late for their arrival. It is important to communicate to a team so that everyone knows what is expected and has a clear path. Poor communication is as bad as not communicating in the first place and “poor communication is one reason why many companies that have devised brilliant strategies fail miserably in executing them” (Useem, 2014).
Lesson 4
Leading Upwards Can Feel Wrong When It’s Right
The final lesson takeaway from the article is “leading upwards can feel wrong when it’s right” (Useem, 2014). I have some personal experience from a normal work week where I do have to communicate and provide feedback to upper management. In our various projects, it is vital to sit down with someone at the top and manage expectations and to also keep them knowledgeable so there are no surprises or obstacles along the way. Most leaders appreciate the feedback and this helps to keep thing on track. Difficult conversations are needed and while they can be uncomfortable, they help us grow as leaders.
The situational leadership theory matches most of the lessons from the Everest article as while working with a team in a harsh and ever changing environment requires leaders to make good decisions based on the situation at that moment. Specifically, for the climbers that were coming down the mountain with altitude sickness and the decision to keep them in camp rather than risk a dangerous decent in the dark (Useem, 2014). Situational leadership highlights that “the leader’s function is to continually evaluate and adapt his or her behavior to each follower’s task maturity (i.e., ability) and psychological maturity (i.e., willingness) to complete the task at hand” (Seyranian, 2012). This is one of the styles I am constantly developing as the work environment has many opportunities to make the right and wrong decisions. My future strategy is to make more good decisions based on understanding the situation better. The path-goal theory is another way for me to develop in to a better leader versus a manager. With this theory, a leader may use supportive, directive, achievement, or participative behaviors to motivate and assist a follower (Seyranian, 2012). In the Everest expedition, leaders took turn in leading the group and would have had to use many of these behaviors to make sure the group stayed engaged and were all on board to reach the daily goal. A manager may focus on the directive behavior to make sure tasks are complete, but a lead understands their followers and modifies their behavior to match the situation. Both of these contingency models will help us become and grow as successful leaders
References:
Useem, M. (2014, July 31). The Leadership Lessons of Mount Everest. Retrieved September 29, 2017, from https://hbr.org/2001/10/the-leadership-lessons-of-mount-everest
Northouse, Peter G. 2016. Leadership: Theory and Practice. SAGE Publications. Kindle Edition.
Seyranian, Viviane. “Contingency Theories of Leadership.” Encyclopedia of Group Processes & Intergroup Relations. Ed. John M. Levine and Michael A. Hogg. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2009. 152-56. SAGE Reference Online. Web. 30 Jan. 2012. Retrieved Sep 29, 2017, from https://studysites.sagepub.com/northouse6e/study/materials/reference/reference6.1.pdf
I enjoyed your blog on the Everest learnings. It is a subject I have studied before and I came away with some of the same thoughts. I will add here some of my key take-aways as I read through the Mt. Everest lessons.
1. Communication: As you have articulated, the Mt. Everest study is profound because everything in such a dangerous mission is magnified; the consequences of poor communications, the inability to recover from bad decisions, and the effect your actions can have on others. I too was struck by the facet of communications that if you have not been received and understood, it is your fault.
To share a personal experience, after every project we complete, I insist on holding post-partem (hopefully not post-mortem) “lessons learned” sessions with the project team. Issues come up for the team to discuss and document in our best practices logs. One thing that comes up, without exception, is communications and instances are raised in which communications, or lack thereof, caused significant issues that had to be resolved.
2. Courage to lead upwards: It may be fear, intimidation, or perhaps an avoidance of confrontation that drives the behavior. I work for a manager who knows little about the technical aspects of my job. He is highly supportive but will sometimes take a stand on something way outside his expertise. It is a constant challenge for me to be willing to take the time to be deliberate enough in my approach to avoid offending him or calling him out in front of others. If I can pull it off, my favorite tactic is to “lead” him to a place where he can begin to recover with his position and stand intact.
3. The situational awareness you describe is on point. Knowing what is going on around you and reacting to it is the salient issue. In an experience such as scaling Mt. Everest, there is no room for silent objection or injured feelings. The huge gap in experience and knowledge precludes democracy or decisions by consensus. Life or death situations are not the place for a maverick gunslinger to embark on a hero journey. I posit here the “Into Thin Air” tragedy is a clear example where leaders’ knowledge was overruled and a sense of “we shall overcome” heroism ill served the group. I sense that the leaders tried to adapt their leadership style to match the bravado and resolve of those who felt themselves better than the accepted wisdom of the 2pm rule. In my mind, this is Situational Leadership gone amok. As I mentioned in point 1, an ascent up the face of Everest isn’t the place for a leader to be touchy-feely about making sure climbers’ feelings were preserved. If ever there existed a situation for dictatorial management, that was it.
Useem, M. (2001). The Leadership Lessons of Mount Everest. Retrieved October 1, 2017, from https://hbr.org/2001/10/the-leadership-lessons-of-mount-everest