Climbing the highest mountain in each of the seven continents – the “Seven Summits” – has become something of a bucket-list adventure for those with the inclination, time and money.

Gavin Bate, a highly accomplished expedition leader and mountain guide, gave a talk on the subject at the Adventure Travel Show in Olympia, London, 26 Jan 14.

Gavin has done a whole load more than “just” the Seven Summits. He has climbed Everest six times, for example. And he runs Adventure Alternative – a company that is seen as an ethical leader in the adventure industry.

The closing slide of his talk was of the view from the summit of Mount Vinson, the highest mountain in Antarctica. The sky was blue and the cold white-scape stretched out to a distant horizon.

“Every time I rest a moment and notice how my body is connected to all that surrounds me; and every time I look out over vistas such as this, I fall in love again.”

For him there is nothing cynical or indulgent about the Seven Summits. The physical and mental effort, the weeks and months spent engaging with the wild outdoors and with their fellow man, and the huge personal learning journeys involved make an endeavour such as this a deeply human one.

One that super-charges the connection between head, heart, body and soul; and opens up the relationships between people and Nature.

Short of investing in a Seven Summits attempt, how do your bring your full self to the people and projects in your life?

Dave Stewart

The Fresh Air Learning Company

The coaching industry worldwide is a big one, with big budgets. And most of these are spent on individuals.

There seems to be an assumption that developing leaders using an individually focussed approach contributes to great leadership. It’s a small hop from there to assume this investment will create great teams and leading organisations.

Is this a logic train you recognise where you work?

Sure, individual coaching is a powerful tool and should continue to attract investment.  And yet, leadership is evidently a relational activity that involves other people and some form of endeavour.

In an ever connected and complex world why is it that so few organisations invest in the stuff that happens ‘between the noses’?

Could it be because some coaching spend comes out of executives’ personal budgets? “I need to spend on me to survive around here.”

Could it be that effective teams are high maintenance and messy places? Does it take too much courage to spend money here? Is it ignorance? How many executives know what an effective team is? Is it a numbed acceptance? That this is as good as it gets?

As Peter Hawkins (2011) puts it, “The major leadership challenges lie not in the parts but in the interconnections.”

Will you spend more between the noses?

Dave Stewart

The Fresh Air Learning Company

Are leaders more important than managers? Nature or nurture? Right or wrong? This one or that one? Good or bad?

Organisational conversations and LinkedIn discussion group topics seem to be increasingly littered with this binary nonsense.

It gives me a splitting headache.

Take the leaders versus managers question.

How about they are both important? How about they are blended roles not different individuals? That individuals are both leaders shaping and energising towards future possibility, and managers implementing stuff right now?

Binary questions may have their place in limited, urgent, over-whelming operational scenarios. “Right here, right now, in this pressing moment, do I choose A or B?”

Psychodynamics people will tell you that “splitting” is innate and allows the underdeveloped personality to simplify complexity by labelling some things “good” and others “bad”.

With development comes a world-view and capacity to create and handle paradox, possibility, off-the-wall ideas, inclusion and connectedness. Maturity. Wisdom. As individuals, teams, organisations.

So, what do you notice about the kinds of questions you ask? In what circumstances? And what kinds of answers can you handle? What of the people in your world?

Dave Stewart

The Fresh Air Learning Company

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