a leadership learning experience · everest base camp route my trip to mount everest across four...

advancing business through people

An Expedition to Mount EverestA Leadership Learning Experience

Introduction

a leadership learning experience

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Photo of Ben

before training

Map of the

journey

Everest base camp route

My trip to Mount Everest across four high passes over 5,000m was, as you would imagine,

exhilarating, exhausting, inspirational and challenging; all of these I expected. What

blindsided me, was the motivation driven by a fear of failure, not just for the charities that I

was supporting, but from the persistent thought of “was I capable of making it?” I also

hadn’t anticipated how closely the challenge correlated to the experiences I have the

privilege to observe in my professional life. Far removed from my normal working life in an

office, I was well and truly out of my comfort zone.

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Goal settingDeveloping readiness; self-reliance & autonomy; the importance

of a guide and achieving your goals.


In March of 2019 I set off on a 21 day

high altitude expedition in the Nepalese

Himalayas. The route took me to the top

of Gokyo Ri at 5,300m, over the Cho La

Pass at 5,400m, across the biggest

glacier in Nepal to Everest Base Camp

and finally, to the highest point - the

summit of Kala Patar at 5,545m. The 12

months preceding the trek and the trek

itself taught me some valuable lessons;

setting ambitious but achievable goals,

building capability, the importance of

having a guide or a mentor and

ultimately what happens when you reach

your destination and achieve the thing

that you set out to do.

For me, it took quite a long time to decide and commit to doing the trek. I have two young

children, zero high altitude experience and, at the time, I wasn’t exactly the fittest person in the

world. As I toyed with the idea, I started looking for support from friends ideally, for someone to

say to me, ‘yep, that’s a good idea’. I was also searching for someone to join me on my

adventure.

I had some random conversations with

friends and tried to persuade a few of

them to join me, but after about a year or

so, I gave up trying to convince people to

come with me. Instead, I realised I had to

do it alone it was my idea, my goal and I

had to commit myself to it. I knew that if I

waited or relied on someone else to hold

my hand it may never happen. This was

the first valuable lesson I learnt: be

committed and accountable for your

own goals and aspirations.

Once the decision was made, things became easier. I’ve come to believe that no matter

if the goal you set is personal or business, once it becomes public, something changes.

You are suddenly confronted with a different degree of pressure as you are now having

to deal with other people's expectations. You naturally get a spectrum of commentary

from others. Mine ranged from people saying that what I was doing would be easy and

being quite negative, through to intense encouragement. Some people were jealous,

some said they would never entertain the idea and some people said it would be the

experience of a lifetime, although most likely the hardest thing I’d ever do. Despite the

range of opinion, the thing that was consistent was my own sense of ‘purpose’ and

ultimately, knowing ‘why’ I was doing it namely, to get fit, live longer and to raise money

for a deserving charity.

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Goal settingDeveloping readiness; self-reliance & autonomy; the importance of

a guide and achieving your goals.


All of these meant something to me

personally. They resonated with me and

had benefits for both myself and my

family. The same is true in business.

When you are navigating your way

through your career goals, you need to

have a clear understanding of ‘why’ you

are setting out on that course. A

compensation package is great but it’s

not what gets you out of bed in the

morning and if it is, then the job will wear

thin quickly. It’s well documented that the

things that are important to people in

their professional lives are autonomy,

mastery and purpose.

It is purpose that is important to define with purpose you gain direction and if you know

where you’re going, you can work out how to get there. It’s those incremental steps that take

you from point A to point B; clear, definable, achievable and measurable steps that take

people to their objective.

The business world can be conquered one step at a time so long as you are fully committed

and do not deviate from the path. Not too different to climbing a mountain – or in my case,

two medium sized mountains that took me to the bottom of the biggest one looking up.

.

Once you’ve clearly defined your objective and

have a solid sense of purpose, getting yourself

ready becomes easier. The ownership and

accountability for getting ready for the Everest

trek was squarely on my shoulders and I knew

building fitness and mental resilience would be

two things critical to my success.

Altitude sickness is pretty much indiscriminate;

you could be a tri-athlete or a 40-a-day smoker

and could still suffer from altitude sickness. So

for me, getting ready was about enjoying the

experience when I got there. Over the course of

12 months I gradually built up cardio, core

strength and resilience by completing 18 mile

treks carrying a 22kg pack. I would also do one

hour treadmill sessions on 15% gradient with

the same weight pack in the gym; people must

have thought I was either insane or just a show

off!

The build-up wasn’t haphazard though, it was

structured, considered, slow and incremental. I

took guidance on what I needed to do and over

time I noticed real improvements. These small

but incremental achievements really helped

build my self-confidence, eventually developing

into a self-sustaining belief that I could achieve

my goal.

Developing readiness and building capability


In Holmes Noble we have found that it is critical for both individuals and organisations to

formalise their approaches to improving capability and building an individual’s experience

for future business needs. Very few executives and HR leaders I speak to say that their

companies do this as well as they could do. Almost all companies encourage their

employees to develop their skills but very few HR functions and business units seem to co-

own learning. This mutual ownership reinforces the importance of skill development and

aligns individual learning objectives with overall business needs; the best businesses

recognise individual strengths and tailor capability, and consequently build accordingly.

To be effective and sustainable, capability building cannot happen in a vacuum. Learning

objectives need to align with strategic business interests and ideally, capability building itself

should be a strategic priority for both individuals and businesses. Making HR functions and

individual business units co-owners of skill-building responsibilities and then integrating

learning results into performance management are effective steps toward achieving this

alignment. These actions will also ensure broad buy-in for learning success, at both

organisational and individual levels.

As a consequence, executives and individuals at all levels of an organisation will feel well

equipped with the tools and well supported to achieve their business goals.

You wouldn’t set out for a high-altitude trek of 5,500m without physically and mentally

preparing and meticulously planning what kit you will need for the duration of the journey

and the same is true in developing your career. Ensure you are structured in learning

and gaining experience and of equal importance, make sure the business you work

for is equally committed to your development to support your aspirations.

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advancing business through people

The importance of a guide

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There was a point in the trek that really crystallised for me the importance of having a

guide.

At the bottom of the Cho La Pass, which was

the second highest point we would cross, we

were all resting and mentally preparing to climb

up to the pass to come; we had already walked

for six hours in -18c. As we were resting, a

random, really dishevelled guy came over a

ridge and explained to us that he was lost and

trying to get to Jonglei, the town we had left six

hours ago. Basically, he’d come the other way

across the pass with no guide, descended too

late, darkness had fallen and he had lost his

way. He ended up camping alone at 5100m

with no idea which direction to head.

He asked us which way to go and our lead Sherpa Kami pointed him in the right direction.

The guy went off on his way and Kami said that he was so lucky to be alive, as where he

had camped regularly gets 8ft of snowfall and he could have been trapped in his tent and

perished. If there was no one else on the trail, he would have been lost in a sea of possible

directions and no one would have ever found him.

Our main guide Nirmal and the head Sherpa

Kami were both veterans of the

environment. They had over 600 base camp

treks between them, summits of Island and

Mera Peak and both aspiring to summit

Everest at some point in the future.

The value they added was not just around

keeping us on the right track and keeping us

alive; they inspired, they motivated, they

shared knowledge and made sure cohesive

relationships were formed. They gave

objective advice. At points they would tell us

to go as fast as the slowest team member,

whilst at other times they would push us

harder than we ever thought we could go.

It’s surprising how fast you can move across a glacier when boulders are flying down the

side of a mountain!

For Senior Executives, it can often be quite a lonely place in business - particularly at the

top. They have their inherent knowledge to rely upon and often as the ultimate decision

maker in a business, it is difficult to seek guidance. Now, it’s always possible to give

ownership to subsidiary teams but in some instances, like determining strategic direction;

moral or ethical quandaries they might encounter; or coping with mis-alignment between

their personal values and business requirements. External guidance and coaching is often

the only way to go to get unbiased opinion and clarity. A mentor or an executive coach in

these instances is essential - mentors help executives cross that bridge between knowing

and doing. They pass on their skills and knowledge, acquired over the years, and will give

mentees insights into various situations and scenarios that sit outside of their experience.

Mentors pass on what they have learned, and in turn, mentees can learn from their

mistakes.

The importance of a guide

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Holmes Noble are increasingly being

asked by clients to provide executive

coaching in combination with the search

assignments we execute. This might

range from on boarding, coaching,

executive development, the design of

high performing teams or indeed,

supporting cultural transformation.


What is undeniable though, is that

executives wish to improve –

coming back to the reasons why

people are driven, autonomy,

mastery and purpose. The

importance of a guide, either a

mentor or a coach is a definite way

to contribute toward accelerating

mastery.

They may also help prevent you from falling down a metaphorical crevasse!!

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Reaching a goalWhat do you do once you achieve your goal? It can be a problem if you spend all your

time and energy trying to reach a specific place and then when you get there, the only way

you can go is down. It happens to athletes, celebrities and even in our professional lives.

The problem is either maintaining the position or deciding where to go next. From a

professional perspective, if you achieve your biggest goals and then lie back, put your feet

up, and stop pushing yourself, you can easily become lost and directionless.

So where to go next? It seems that there are a many options available, ranging from

setting bigger goals to being comfortable not being at the top. You may choose to

disseminate knowledge and help others achieve their goals, you may decide to quit, start

again and do something different or you may choose to simply reflect on the journey

rather than the outcome.

For me, my next goal is to work on my negotiation skills – It’s likely I’ll get some guidance

from a mentor because the objective is to persuade my wife to let me go and climb

another mountain. This may well be my hardest negotiation and test to date – clearly I

love a challenge.

Ben Gilbert | Board Member and Partner

Ben has over 14 years of experience in recruitment which includes working for a global

blue-chip firm based in both Australia and the UK, as well as in a boutique consultancy

specialising in Engineering and Manufacturing. He has worked across multiple sectors with

an emphasis on placing executives across Europe and Asia Pacific for SME businesses

through to major blue chip organisations. Alongside his executive search remit, he is

responsible for the strategic direction, quality and delivery of Holmes Nobles Industrial

Practice. Ben holds a BSc in Production and Cultural Studies from the University of

Sunderland.

[email protected]

+44 (0) 121 779 0864

TS2 Building, Pinewood Business Park,

Coleshill Road, Birmingham B37 7HG

About Holmes NobleHolmes Noble is an executive search and consulting firm that prides itself on being

different, thereby standing out from the ‘herd’. Founded in 2005 by the Chief Executive,

Michelle Carson-Williams, because she wanted to provide a more strategic and

partnership based service to her clients, where the industry had been known to be very

transactional in nature. To this day the DNA of the firm is permeated with this desire.

Consequently, not only does the firm provide executive search, it offers a complete

portfolio of services, including leadership coaching and development, and interim

management.

All organisations, no matter which market or sector, depend on the right talent for the right

role at the right time. This is no different at Holmes Noble. The Executive Team and

Heads of Practice have been chosen because of their experience, reputation, sector and

functional knowledge, and belief in the founding principles of the firm.

a leadership learning experience · everest base camp route my trip to mount everest across four...

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