Well we’re back from Mount Snowdon and we are all still alive. That’s the good news.
The bad news is that we didn’t make it to the top, not that getting to the top was our original intention anyway. Excuses, excuses…
The lesson learnt is that sometimes your day job gets in the way of your personal goals. In our case this was no bad thing as our day job involved making a film about leadership and we succeeded in that area, probably even better than we could have hoped for as we had such great weather for this time of year, making photographing a beautiful landscape all the more simple. Sadly climbing to the top of our personal mountain will have to wait for another time.
Needless to say the point at which we all realised we needed to turn back was a gutting moment, to the extent of us probably not fully understanding the reasons why but like any good team we respected the opinion of our leader Clay Lowe and got the hell out of dodge before the weather turned too bad.
Upon reaching base the reality of our journey hit home – our walk started at 9am and ended at 5:15 pm, the turning point was half the way up Snowdon and if we had continued there would have been no way of us making it back before dark. This is a journey that Clay has made before in the record time of 1 hour 20 mins one way.
That darned film making thing just got in the way and took too much time. Lucky then that we love it so much.
The big learn from the day is that we should all trust our leaders, no matter how despondent we get when we can’t reach our goals. A good leader will still get you home no matter what. The mountain can be conquered tomorrow after all.
A big thanks to Clay Lowe and his Ascent leadership course.
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March 6, 2008 at 9:02 pm
Clay Lowe
Hi Guys,
It was a fantastic day! We accomplished our primary mission, which was to come back off the mountain safely. We accomplished our secondary mission, which was to make a short film on leadership. Don’t sell yourselves short. I think you put in a tremendous effort lugging all that equipment around in addition to your kit for the mountain. And you all did it without an ounce of complaint. You would’ve made some good soldiers! And as far as I know, Mount Snowdon will still be around so we can do the summit another day.
Hooah,
Clay
March 7, 2008 at 12:12 pm
caron
Wello done team on your efforts – i’d say getting the film in the can was the success of the day – the photos look great and i’m just going to write a little news story on it now. Never mind that the summit eluded you – i think this is a classic example of the journey being the all important element and not the final destination. We get too caught up in our lives about achieving this, passing that, reaching the other…….when really the most important is enjoying, embracing and experiencing all those things around us on our daily journey – however small and insignificant they may seem at the time.
I’m not sure about Shaune’s comment about “we should all trust our leaders” – maybe wise in this case of course as Clay is obviously an experienced climber and leader but are all leaders this good…………….
March 7, 2008 at 12:20 pm
Shaune
Some leaders may not be as good as Clay, fact. If however we don’t give them a chance to lead us in the first place then that trust can never be established.
As a team member you can only get this trust of a new leader from established facts that they bring with them.
If a leader has led us before and failed how many times do you allow them to continue to fail before a new leader is required?
MUTINY!
March 8, 2008 at 3:00 pm
Clay Lowe
I think there is a difference between trust and blind trust. Trust is absolutely essential between the leader and those being led. The relationship doesn’t work without trust. Those being led must trust that their leader is capable of leading them in the right direction to achieve the vision, or goal.
Blind trust is a different matter. Those being led can never forgo their own judgment. When they do, that’s when bad things happen. History is full of examples where people have blindly followed their leaders against their better judgment.
The guys had to trust me to lead them safely up the mountain. Otherwise we would have never left the carpark! I suspect if I had done something to break that trust, then our team would have broken down and mayhem would have ensured.
The larger question to leaders is how do you establish trust with the people you lead?
March 10, 2008 at 3:57 pm
caron
i’m hoping that very question will be answered in the next Platform module.
March 11, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Nick
Welcome back guys from another part of a field – not as exotic or exciting as Snowdon, but ‘the field’ all the same.
This topic could run and run and look forward to seeing the outputs with the Platform.
Good work!
June 26, 2009 at 10:41 am
View From the Top (of a mountain) « The Learning Journey
[...] is difficult in mountaineering as every journey has a beginning and an end. When we went up the mountain with Clay we didn’t make it to the top, a crushing blow for us but did the experience bring [...]