High Altitude Leadership

The Idea in Brief

Leadership is a challenging task. Overcoming fears makes a better leader. Leaders need the help of others in order to succeed. A leader pushes himself and the company out of their comfort zone to achieve the great heights. High Altitude leaders succeed despite extra ordinary challenges.

Contd.
Leaders and Managers must overcome eight grave dangers in order to be High Altitude Leaders:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Fear of Death Selfishness Tool seduction Arrogance Lone Heroism Cowardice Comfort Gravity

Fear of Death
Fear of death plays against leadership both incase of an mountain expedition as well as managing and organization. Executives rarely face life-and-death situations, but metaphorical death can be an equally powerful experience.

Growth isnt possible if a leader does not venture into the unknown comfort their fears and accept the possibility of failure.

Selfishness
A selfish leader who puts his or her career ahead of the team can jeopardize the success of the entire team. Selfishness in organization manifests itself as dangerous, unproductive, dysfunctional behavior. Selfishness is biological not cultural. To Combat selfishness, a leader should create a Compelling Saga. A cause or mission that inspires others to join forces for the greater good.

Tool Seduction
The best leaders are not always the ones with best skills. Often leaders with the best knowledge fail to succeed in leadership roles. High Altitude leadership requires a leader to be adaptive, professional, and with the right behavior.

Best leadership skills wont help if the leader doesn't act properly.

Arrogance
Leaders who refuse to identify trends, face reality, or believe they know everything are courting disasters. Egotism and Arrogance has bought many companies down. Leaders might focus in their good performance but the organizations performance should come first.

A leader should set good examples by talking about their own challenges first.

Lone Heroism
Leaders who think they can overcome a obstacle by themselves are the ones who never succeed with their task. Lone Heroism may be popular in books and movies, but in real world they lower the teams morale. Leaders with this attitude may seek glory, but often simply believe that no one else is capable of achieving the goal. The perfect antidote for this attitude is Partnerships.

Cowardice
Leaders and employees often hesitate to admit that they have made mistakes or to raise questions when they suspect something is wrong. The company suffers when the leaders and employees are to cowardly to speak up when things go wrong. Secrecy and cowardice are part of corporate culture. Rooting out cowardice requires unflinching honesty.

Comfort
Change is painful to most people hence they prefer the familiarity of the status quo. Significant and lasting change requires letting go of ones comfort zone. A leader must face challenges head on and willing to be uncomfortable to be a High Altitude Leader.

While overcoming this danger the leader should remember that Perseverance is admirable but not when it flies in the face of logic and common sense.

Gravity
A High Altitude Leader can do everything right but still come up short. A Leader in such situations should not get discouraged. He should consider LUCK as a counter to such situations.

A leader should do all that he can to position himself to succeed rest is not in his hands.

Analysis
A High Altitude Leader is expected to lead from the front. If a leader falls into the clamp of any one of the danger discussed in the case, it is nearly impossible for a team to succeed. A leader should understand that it is he who finally influences the team, hence his behavior affects the behavior of the subordinates in the team. A wrong attitude of the leader can have impending results on an organization.

How To Pick a Good Fight

The Idea In Brief

Conflicts can shake things up and boost the staffs energy and creativity. Not everything is worth fighting over, before girding for a battle, make sure it involves an issue that effects the future and has game changing potential. A peaceful and harmonious workplace can be the worst possible thing for a business. Many companies are known for their stressful work environment.

Contd.
Before taking up a fight, the following questions should be asked
Does the fight result in gaining something material? Does it focus on the future? Does it pursue a Nobel cause?

Make It Material
If you are WILLING TO DO RIGHT, heres where YOU PICK A FIGHT A fight is said to be meaningful when it brings about a positive change in the organization. A fight is material if it creates a lasting value, leads to a noticeable and a sustainable improvement, and address a complex challenge that has no easy answers.

Focus On The Future

A fight should be taken on if it is w.r.t the future not because of something that had happened earlier. A fight should be concerning the future of the organization. A good future-facing fight has three qualities, it speaks about:
What is possible? Shifting the debate of what happened to what could have happened. It is compelling.

Pursue A Noble Cause

The right fight connects people with a sense of purpose that hoes beyond their own self interest, unleashing profound collective imagination and abilities. A good fight isnt just about money or profits.