The Alpinism Law
Don't try to climb up a steep slope, without making sure someone experienced is holding your rope.
Life is short and fragile, and Peter knew it very well. Because of an avalanche his sister Annie, together with other two alpinists, were left stranded under an ice foot on K2 Mountain in Himalaya. Not letting himself succumbs to sadness and melancholy, he decided to go out after them. But the idea of climbing 8000 meters on a distempered weather with below-zero temperatures meant pure suicide. Up there, you don't get to die, you're already dead.
Peter, being himself a climber, immediately put up a rescue team of five people, with the help of whom he go out looking for the missing persons. The greatest problem was that he didn't know exactly the place where the three had disappeared. So they had to go together through ice and rocks. And because none of them knew quite well the mountains, the odds were very low.
Leadership: Do you assume an identity that will allow you to access a new form of trust, without questioning the validity of your mission?
Everybody is ready to take action, but not everybody is ready to become a leader.
Identity is what makes you different from other people. But not just any identity that differentiates itself through courage, responsibility, creativity, as a result of experience gained during long trials, can provide a framework in which most of the collective action situations develop. But only an identity which, in addition to all the attributes of a good positioning in the midst of the toughest challenges, manages to manifest through a vivid feeling of belonging to the hero condition and expresses itself through the rescue chances that it represents.
If you watched the movie "Vertical Limit (2000)" , then you definitely remember that their rescue, their main help, their right-hand man – the one whom the entire action was based upon, was none other than Montgomery Wick.
He was a fine climber, but a little bit old, to say the truth, but he had done many escalades through time. He had saved people in the mountains on various occasions, being the only climber who knew very well the trails, the only one able to decide, think, and distinguish between the good and the bad, in order for this rescue not to become a real failure. His strong look and stature, his remarkable competences scored along a very long career, made him look like a real fighter, a true survivor, a professional and the only provider of hope. They all listened keenly and followed him, without oppugn his validity.
You can check your leadership level when you manage to distinguish between the rescue chances you represent and the precious energy you are wasting when trying to move mountains.
Every team's achievements and failures are the direct results of the leader's actions. Montgomery Wick weighted out Peter's obligations, even saving his life twice. At the same time, he mobilized the entire team, splitting it into groups of two so that the search would become easier and more accurate, he was the one establishing a certain order, he was the one setting up the team's tempo, encouraging each and every one to seriously involve himself into the action.
Peter, although being a very brave man and having a scarce resolution, wasn't a climber of Montgomery Wick's size. His decision of searching for his sister manifested from the beginning in a determined and impulsive way, he was so determined to find her that he wouldn't have stopped before reaching his goal, he wouldn't cease from troubling till he would have accomplished his objective, and he would have eagerly with a great courage into the most risky actions.
But, unfortunately, this unyielding will, this wild bravery which defines the monomaniacs, would have driven him in the jaws of death - at the very most he would have lounged away his precious time fighting the wind mills, like Don Quixote.
Leadership: Is the testimony of the power to accept your mission failure a cause of limited access to a superior form of perception of personal vulnerability that occurs in overcoming difficult experiences?
He couldn't have carried out the life saving mission, not because he wouldn't have devoted body and soul, but because he lacked the necessary experience in order to undertake some campaigns and especially because, as I previously said, he didn't know the trails, which was vital. He was eager to start the action, but not to complete it. He would have failed if it weren't for Montgomery Wick.
How do you perceive yourself as a result of the personal vulnerability that manifests itself in overcoming difficult experiences: as a limited man or as a determinant factor of credibility?
