Book Review: High Altitude Leadership
by Miki SaxonAnother day, another leadership book. I sometimes wonder how far around the earth they would stretch if laid end to end. Most have viable lessons, useable by everyone, not just the person running the show.
Many of the attitudes, actions and lessons learned and offered are similar, but each seeks a teaching mechanism that will catch and hold your interest.
Not an easy task in a time of information abundance.
Chris Warner and Don Schmincke manage to do it in High Altitude Leadership.
It’s not that their leadership guidance is new, but the presentation is riveting.
I like it because it directly addresses MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™) and offers examples from a world where screwing up easily results in death—real death as in gone from the world, not the company.
Amazing how different the advice feels when viewed through the lens of the “death zone,” i.e., the top altitude of the planet’s tallest mountains where mistakes are usually fatal.
“In achieving peak performance as a high-altitude leader, you also risk death. It could be the death of a career, project, team or company, or in extreme situations, someone’s physical death. Learning the best way to succeed comes from studying the death zone.”
Chris Warner is founder of Earth Treks (indoor climbing centers) and has led more than 150 international expeditions.
Don Schmincke started as a scientist and engineer who became a management consultant after realizing that most management theories fail to work.
There are eight dangers in the death zone and, although the authors stress that it’s the high altitude leaders that face the same eight dangers, I think that everybody faces them every day and in all facets of their lives.
The dangers are
- Fear of Death
- Selfishness
- Tool Seduction
- Arrogance
- Lone Heroism
- Cowardice
- Comfort
- Gravity
Not really new information, but when seen in the light of the death zone they have a very different impact.
High Altitude Leadership is an exciting, sometimes hair-raising read (even when the transference to business doesn’t work well) that will get you thinking whether you’re heading a Fortune 50 or trying to raise your kids. It’s a book that helps you see the problems in your own MAP.
What the book doesn’t offer are easy, paste on solutions—changing how you think means changing your MAP which is doable, but not easy.
Your comments—priceless
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Image credit: Jane Wesman PR
January 30th, 2009 at 9:05 am
Thank you for reviewing this and bringing it to my attention. Considering I love the outdoor adventure along with fact that I will start work as an engineer fresh out of college come June, this book sounds like it will be perfect for me.
January 30th, 2009 at 9:59 am
My pleasure, Andrew, I think you’ll enjoy it. Just remember that leadership is NOT positional and is something that everyone should practice every day. It’s not about bossing, it’s about initiative.
January 31st, 2009 at 9:41 am
Thanks for the book recommendation, Miki. It’s on my list to pick up this weekend.
February 1st, 2009 at 10:41 am
I hope you enjoy it. I’d love to hear your opinion after you read it.