Having climbed with some very good and very poor mountain guides, I’ve learned that the best guides are great leaders. That means they don’t just know mountains, they know people.
Over the next few weeks I’ll touch on how the best guides inspire both confidence and performance.
Masters of Psychology. Skilled guides know when to encourage, when to challenge and when to pressure. They are constantly reading their team, evaluating both performance and morale. And they regularly check in with individual team members. They are acutely aware that individual traits and experiences vary, and they know how to best adapt their approach for each person.
If a guide isn’t actively managing performance and morale, the team isn’t likely to achieve their goal. That’s a failure of leadership.
Application: Be a psychologist. Regularly monitor performance and morale, and adapt your approach to the team and the individuals.
Your thoughts?
Michael
