Good to Great – and Climbing

I just read an interview with “management guru” Jim Collins (who wrote Built to Last and Good to Great) where he compares management and leadership of companies to climbing.   Jim has his own 30-year amazing record of rock climbing some of the most famous and hardest places of the world and he often writes about and compares climbing and leadership.

Since I have my own (Whitney in winter) climb coming up in about a week, it was interesting to read some of his comments in this most recent article:

As a … climber, the one thing you learn is that those who panic, die on the mountain. You don’t just sit on the mountain. You either go up or go down, but don’t just sit and wait to get clobbered. If you go down and survive, you can come back another day.

We see this now from companies but the ones whose leaders stay calm, focused and disciplined are those that not only survive, but thrive.

And I loved these quotes also:

The right people don’t need to be managed. The moment you feel the need to tightly manage someone, you’ve made a hiring mistake.

The right people don’t think they have a job: They have responsibilities. If I’m a climber, my job is not [just] to belay. My responsibility is that if we get in trouble, I don’t let my partner down.

The right people do what they say they will do, which means being really careful about what they say they will do. It’s key in difficult times. In difficult environments our results are our responsibility.

I really like the theme around personal responsibility as well as team and partnership.  On the mountain, where a wrong move can get you killed as well as your ropemates, calmness and accountability matter.

Details matter. Leadership matters.  People matter.