Courage to Venture into the Unknown

In early 1995 I set out to complete the first ever ski crossing of Iceland from west to east coasts. It was a journey that many, including the Icelandic mountain rescue service, deemed an impossible journey due to the extreme rugged terrain and unpredictable weather. The journey was also the first time I had independently managed a ‘large scale’ adventure.

It took two years just to get the project off the ground, initially to convince backers of my ability to manage and lead such an ambitious undertaking and then to obtain permission from the Icelandic authorities who first viewed my quest as being impossible.

From the outset I knew the journey was achievable and I drew on that belief to continually motivate me forwards, despite considerable hurdles. But slowly momentum increased and eventually others came with me.

We succeeded in our venture, completing the crossing of Iceland in forty-seven days. A crossing that even today has not been repeated. The late Diana, The Princess of Wales, sent a personal letter congratulating me on the crossing highlighting courage, preparation, fitness and leadership as key contributors to our success.

Venturing into new territory requires considerable personal courage. The challenge is as much about maintaining your own motivation as you work to convince others around you to take a step with you. But having the courage to take the first step will often be sufficient enough to get the snowball slowly rolling.

Read more about my Icelandic crossing.

10 Success Insights from Polar Explorers

Although these insights were from successful polar explorers there are many lessons that can be learnt to your benefit...

1. Go for both poles.
We didn’t manage to even reach one Pole the first time. But we never lowered our goal. Our final success was so much greater in the face of it.

2. Seek out the winners.
We wouldn’t have made it without the aid of polar veterans, and they in turn learned from veterans before them. Every true success is a mankind joint venture.

3. Don’t cut food and fuel.
In the short run, dropping food and fuel increased our speed. In the long run, it killed our expedition. Don’t undercut your survival.

4. Face the storm.
Hiding out in a tent waiting for the sunny days steals crucial time. A storm always looks the worst from inside the tent.

5. Get out each morning Get out there, every single day.
There are so many reasons not to - repairs badly needed, fatigue and whiteout. The winner moves when the others rest.

6. Keep moving.
In temperatures of -50C, we wore only thin layers of clothing. In this situation, to stop was to die. When times are rough and you are the underdog, keep running.

7. Don’t think.
Skiing thin ice commands swift and determined steps. Too much doubt in times of pressure kills the power of action.

8. Be brutal
If you want to reach the impossible then you must continue where others stop. Tear down walls with your bare hands, crawl on your knees. But never stop.

9. Say only positive things to each other.
The single, most important piece of advice - 'Say only positive things to each other.'

10. You don’t have to believe to win.
Faced with the facts, we couldn't believe in success. Yet it arrived. You don’t have to believe in success. Just do the right things. And go.

Another important insight is the subject of, what I call leadershift. This is when the mantle of leadership moves within the team. This is a step beyond empowerment, where more often than not individuals still have constraints or parameters to operate within. Leadership is a clear decentralisation of control to another member of the team, where there initiative and judgement is totally uninhibited.

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Never Give Up

An important attribute of the high performance leader is the ability to never give up. This does not mean carrying on regardless with something that is destined to fail, but about recognising that success is achievable but it will not always be easy and will take time and effort. Here my tips for Never Giving Up:

Remember Why

Remembering how your journey started and why you are on it will help you to recommit to it. By reminding yourself of your desired outcome will generate internal energy and encouragement. All too often, especially during minor setbacks, we can get bogged down in the details and forget the overall driver that was the original source of enthusiasm. Personal, team and written commitments are a great source of inspiration for never giving up. A commitment written down and displayed has more impact than one discussed or thought about.

Keep Walking

As long as you keep moving, one step at a time, you will move towards your goal. On one of my polar journeys I coined the phrase ‘keep walking scheme of manoeuvre’ and had the catch phrase ‘keep walking’ written on charts, printed on mugs and even on the inside of the tent so the first thing we saw as we woke each morning was ‘keep walking’.

Refocus Mindset

If you have experienced previous successes think about how that made you feel. If not, imagine yourself, having achieved the result you were aiming for, looking back past all setbacks, realising that you had the confidence and energy to succeed.

Maintain Momentum

During one particular North Pole one of my team members sustained frostbite and I made the decision to have him airlifted off the ice. We had lost a valued team member, and our goal to complete the journey ‘unsupported’ had now changed. With the loss of a team member we were now classed as being ‘supported’ with our extracted team member being considered as supporting part of the journey.

My priority was to realign focus back on the journey, and a new goal ‘to reach the pole’. As soon as the emergency airlift had been completed I briefed the team that we would immediately continue and we completed a four hour ski before setting up camp. We could have waited until the following day before carrying on, but it was important for me to have everyone’s attention on the ‘here and now’ as quickly as possible.

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Teambuilding Tactics from Winning Polar Teams

Based on a case study by TMS Development International Ltd on how I used the Team Management Profile to create and sustain high performance during my ground-breaking North & South Pole journey.



Building an effective team

Regardless of each individual's skills, experience and character, to succeed, it was essential that everyone was committed to working together as a team. To do this they needed to understand and appreciate the value of each member's team role.

Teamwork strategies

I believe that employee empowerment, and a teambuilding approach, enables people to make better decisions. Using the Team Management Profile, I was able to build this into my expedition strategies.

Leadership at all levels

Through real experiences on these increasingly demanding journeys, I have realised that peak performance develops when the function of leadership exists throughout the team. The ability to know when to lead and when to follow, and generating the levels of trust within the team that allow leadership to shift from one person to another, are crucial ingredients for developing high performance.

My top 5 teambuilding tactics

1. Respect individual perspectives by sharing Profiles within the team.

Before each expedition, I gave each team member an A4 photo sheet, with contact details and their team mates' major and related role Wheel 'segments'. This was a real prompt for effective communication. When contacting a Controller-Inspector, I would remember his preference for more detailed background and send an email. Likewise, I would give a Thruster-Organiser a brief summary, or a phone call.

2. Move from working groups to teams.

Build ‘Tent-Time’ discussions into your project. Once our chores were done, we took 20 minutes to review progress and look ahead at our strategy and progress towards the next goal. This open and honest discussion ensured that everyone felt comfortable raising leadership or team issues. Any successful team should always ask, 'How can we improve?'

3. Avoid role gaps by compensating for missing team roles.

The Margerison-McCann Types of Work Model is a useful project planning tool to ensure all work areas are covered. We set a 'green' or Reporter-Advisor agenda item so that we would cover our main role gap. After a while, it became natural to gather more information before making decisions.

4. Pace team members throughout the challenge.

For the South Pole, I created a pacing profile for each team member, listing their likes and dislikes. I gave each of them a copy of these notes to look at after they had completed their daily journals. This was a useful mental reminder for the following day of how to communicate most effectively.

5. Use the Team Management Systems approach every day.

Our jackets had the Team Management Wheel sewn onto them, so we had a constant visual reminder of the importance of good communication during our journey.

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