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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