"As the closing speaker of our national business conference, Jeff was incredible. His compelling story of teamwork, commitment, sacrifice and the 'power of one' working toward the common goal of guiding the first blind man to summit Mt Everest, was riveting. He left our entire management team energized and eager to take on the challenges that come our way."
~ George Spanos,
Project Head- The Hershey Company
Learn more about the moments and stories that Jeff will share with your team during the MountainVision presentation.
Leadership
Opportunities to quit present themselves at every step of our journey and we have to be willing to take the lead and keep striving for our goals. Nearing the summit of Mt. Everest, Jeff remembers that the ropes the team had been following throughout the night had become buried under feet of snow and ice. Jeff had to make the conscious decision to sacrifice his summit and start digging out the ropes in order to ensure Erik and the team’s safe journey to the summit, but also to ensure their safe descent. The gift of sacrifice ended up giving Jeff (and his team) a Mt. Everest summit in the end, but the power of this moment is how important it is to give it all away to lead your team to success. In climbing, leading a rope team is referred to a ‘taking the sharp end’ of the rope. Leadership, means taking the sharp end where there are bigger consequences, but also bigger rewards.
Commitment
During the training to climb the 3,500-foot vertical rock face known as El Capitan in Yosemite National Park with Erik, Jeff learned the true meaning of commitment. Watching a blind guy rock climb, you realize the scariest part of climbing a 3,000-foot rock face is not necessarily the fear of falling. That’s obvious. The fear is actually the reaching into the darkness and not knowing what you’ll find. That fear of reaching into the unknown and not being guaranteed something to hold onto, that is the real fear in all of our lives. And reaching out takes complete commitment...to yourself and to your team.
Teamwork
Whether you are roped up in the mountains, or roped up in a business initiative, you will win together or lose together. Either way, your fate is inextricably connected to those on your team. Keep in mind that whether you are leading the team from the front of the rope or bringing up the team at the end of the rope, if your rope team starts to plummet towards the edge of the cliff, it is unimportant who initiated the fall. In fact, you have no time to blame or finger point. You only have time to react and work together to bring that fall to a stop so you can begin climbing again together.
Vision Jeff will discuss how, in spite of what the naysayers might be telling you, it is important to establish your own definition of success and forge on in order to achieve your objective. When Erik and Jeff decided to team up and tackle incredible physical and mental challenges, they knew that they had to establish their own definition of success. Not with reckless abandon, but with calculated risk. It is important to always create your own Vision. Vision goes beyond a goal, it is in fact what goals spring from. Remember, the future will belong to those who see possibilities before they become obvious.
