Leadership Lessons from Mark Jenkins
For the last few years I’ve been part of a group called WiseWomen that joined the Colorado Thought Leaders Forum (CTLF) about 2 years ago. Through this membership, I had the experience to attend the CTLF Fall Keynote with Mark Jenkins. See, for example this article he wrote for National Geographic or this one for Outside Magazine. This is a man that simply has to climb the mountain, pretty much every big mountain. But he has survived, while his close friends have died, on these expeditions.
He used the story related to his need to conquer Hkakabo Razi (in Burma/Myanmar) as an allegory for six key leadership lessons which he framed as the triumph of reason over passion. He shared these in reverse order from least to most important from his vantage point, which is often at about 20,000 feet without extra oxygen.
#6 – Know when to quit – and be unemotional to make this decision.
#5 – Study Success, Not failure – Lots of people recommend studying failure, and it’s a great way to learn what NOT to do. But if you want to succeed, study winners. How did they do it?
#4 – Don’t Fight the Facts. This one is not new. Jim Collins nailed this in Good to Great. You must accept the brutal truths. Always.
#3 – Choose the Right Team. Mark Pointed us to video called Down to Nothing related to this Hkakabo Razi expedition. Each member of the team needs the same goal and to have the same level of commitment to guarantee success. This team did not.
#2 – Practice Calmness – this is where yoga breathing kicks in – truly. The breath calms the mind and body, and allows better decision making. Calming your breath will allow you to make good decisions in stressful situations.
#1 – Intellectual Flexibility – in Mark’s opinion this is the most important trait of a good leader. Good leadership is the opposite of passion. You must be able to see all of the options, learn from mistakes, and pick the best course forward.
The mountain is a metaphor for any life challenge.
What mountains in your life are you facing? Will these tools help?
Awesome thoughts on leadership. #1 and #6 I’ve used during most of my leadership career. Didn’t always go down well when I’ve bosses (particularly military ones) who were too gung-ho. I’ve always been a big fan of #5, as my judo said to me once, “don’t worry about failure. Failure will take care of itself.” I’ve not always been good at #3 hence why I tend to go lone wolf on most things. I know the power of a team – if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go with the right team. Definitely guilty of violating #4. I spend a lot of time with me head in the clouds and over optimistic when faced with the facts. #2 always, but it has been a bane throughout out my career. My calmness gets mistaken for not caring enough which is the furthest from the truth.
The mountain I’m facing right now is what to do now that i’m firmly in my 50s. Do I push the boundaries, do something remarkably different or do I rehash the same stuff I’ve been doing for years?
Thanks for sharing.
C
I was relieved to learn I was already doing or thinking about some of these things on a regular basis. It was a nice reality check vs. all of the find your passion happy talk that abounds these days. As always, appreciate the feedback Clay. 🙂