The Morale of the Leadership Story – Another day, another mountain to climb. Here’s how to keep your team’s spirits up (even when everything looks so hard).

The climber Joe Simpson faced an apparently insurmountable challenge: getting down from Peru’s Siula Grande, in ice and snow, with a smashed and useless leg. He lived to tell the tale — in the best-selling Touching the Void (Harper & Row, 1988) and subsequent movie — at least in part because of a mind game he played with himself. He broke the climb into small, achievable stages. Since each goal seemed relatively trivial, it was foolish not to try. And after each success, his morale was boosted enough to go on. Simpson overcame his sense of helplessness literally step by step.

In business, sometimes it feels as if you’re trapped alone on top of a mountain. Every leader will tell you that in today’s climate, most days are a tough climb, and that in order to succeed, every team must keep spirits high. In crisis situations, this definitely resembles being Joe Simpson. But there are plenty of employees at "good" companies who still feel disrespected and are unenthusiastic. And you’re the one facing long-term issues of how to keep those people focused, driven, and optimistic, without burning out. How do you get people to keep going when everything looks so hard?

From: Issue 92| March 2005 | Page 79 By: Margaret Heffernan

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