Everest Isn’t The Only Mountain To Climb

As some of my readers pointed out after my recent post about Mt. Everest, we all have more than one challenge to undertake. And, just because we manage to climb or start to climb our own Everest, that doesn’t mean that we stop climbing. I have other mountains to climb. I have an endless list of projects I want to finish before the end comes. I likely will not finish that list, but I’m going to do my best.

Reading about mountain climbing, it is clear that there are more challenging mountains than Everest. K2, the second tallest mountain in the Himalayas, is thought to be more difficult to climb. Across the world, others present different kinds of challenges: the sheer steepness, the unpredictable weather, the remoteness of the mountain, the severely rugged terrain, and so on.

More than likely, you’ve already climbed a few hills and maybe even moved up to some small mountains. You’ve scraped your hands and skinned your knees. You’ve probably taken a tumble or two or even faced a bear. You learned from all of that. You’re ready for a higher mountain, a more challenging mountain.

So, even, as in my case, when you’ve started on your Everest, keep pushing on those other summits. You may get to the top of those before you conquer Everest, and it will help you get to the summit at Everest. All knowledge and experience adds to our final success.

Knowing your organization’s mission, down to the bone

Legend has it that on a tour of NASA in 1962, President Kennedy approached a man pushing a broom. “Hi, I’m Jack Kennedy,” the President said. “What are you doing?” The man replied: “Well, Mr. President, I’m helping to put a man on the moon.”

That story is told in Knowing NASA, by Tim Manners. Tim’s point is that knowing the organization’s mission was bred into the space program. And it’s a very simple mission: putting a man on the moon and getting him back safely. Getting people, down to the janitor, to know and understand what the mission was and how their work tied into achieving that mission was critical to the overall success of the organization.

Now, getting that to happen took a lot of work. Tim talks to Dr. Edward J. Hoffman about his role in getting the various teams and departments to communicate with each other and sharing information.

When asked, “What is the most important thing about leadership?”, Hoffman returned to the importance of mission: We need to be clear about the mission. What are we trying to do? What’s the problem? What’s the strategy? When I was appointed Chief Knowledge Officer, I spoke to many people and asked: How does this impact the NASA strategy? How can this help our engineering and projects?

The interview is worth reading.

For the leader, every decision, every action, every plan, every strategy, every position, every… It all has to be measured against the mission. What is your mission? Do you really know? At the organizational level, the department level, at the team level, at the janitorial level? Do you know what your personal mission is? It has to be told as a story at every opportunity to the entire team – but more importantly to yourself!