Lead Like a Guide: How World-Class Mountain Guides Inspire Us to Be Better Leaders: How World-Class Mountain Guides Inspire Us to Be Better Leaders

by Christopher I. Maxwell Ph.D.

Overview

This intriguing approach to business and personal success introduces six leadership strengths of world-class mountain guides: demonstrating social intelligence; adopting a flexible leadership style; empowering others; facilitating the development of trust; managing risk in an environment of uncertainty; and seeing the big picture. The premise is that these same strengths provide a valuable model in the workplace and other networks, whether one is already in a leadership position or aspiring to get there.

The result of more than a decade of research combined with the author's personal experience, the book explains how mountain guides coach people to reach for their highest goals in the most challenging environments, often enabling them to far exceed what they imagined possible. The same principles can be applied in business and elsewhere. To set readers on the right path, the author explains six strengths of guides, incorporating interviews and quotes from guides and expedition participants to illustrate leadership lessons and show how they can be successfully used off the slopes. The book also provides a checklist of action steps readers can follow to foster skill development.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781440844171
Publisher:	ABC-CLIO, Incorporated
Publication date:	09/26/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	133
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Christopher Maxwell, PhD, is Senior Fellow, Center for Leadership and Change Management, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

What People are Saying About This

Andrew Muir (Dr.)

"Chris Maxwell succinctly uncovers the true spirit of leadership by exploring the way guides adapt and improvise under often adverse and dangerous conditions, to best serve the safety of the experience and the growth of the individual—natural and servant leadership exposed."

Adam Grant

"Whether your passion is mountaineering or business, Lead Like a Guide makes a compelling case that the ultimate act of leadership is helping others reach as high as they can."

Jeffrey D. McCausland

"An accomplished leadership educator, Chris Maxwell is as comfortable on a mountain peak as he is in a classroom. In his book he brings together his amazing talents and provides the reader clear lessons and insights on some of the most valuable leadership principles that are as applicable to the board room or government as they are to being part of a mountain-climbing team."

John Kanengieter

"As an executive coach and leadership consultant, just about everything in my work is filtered through my lens of over 30 years spent in the business of guiding others in the wilderness. Chris Maxwell has thoroughly researched, and eloquently captured the leadership lessons of others as well as his own, through his extensive experience in the mountains. Lead Like a Guide will inspire and engage the reader to be a better leader, whether with peers or in the boardroom."

Monica L. Pugh

"Full of powerful insights from both guides and participants with valuable lessons about leadership."

Graham Charles

"At last! In true adventurous style, Chris Maxwell has dared to go where others have not and puts tangible value on the hidden-in-the-shadows and intensely relevant skills that professional guides use every day. He offers a razor-sharp view through a rarely seen window to explain the tools guides use to help people from all walks of life achieve extraordinary goals in challenging and uncertain circumstances. Lead Like a Guide offers a well-researched master class for anyone to learn these robust real-time principles, but without the risks (and smelly clothes!)."

Michael Useem

"By looking far afield we sometimes see best what is most vital for home. From interviews with mountain guides and those they have led, Chris Maxwell offers absorbing accounts in Lead Like a Guide that show that thinking strategically, appraising risk, and empowering followers are essential not only for mountaineering but also for management."

Nunzio Quacquarelli

"The six strengths of a mountain guide, identified by Chris Maxwell, are useful for any leader or manager of an entrepreneurial enterprise if it is to thrive in conditions of uncertainty. Anyone who seeks to lead a team, however large or small, can learn from and benefit from applying these strengths to their own way of working."