Canadian HR Reporter

SEPTEMBER 8, 2014 CANADIAN HR REPORTER & STRATEGIC CAPABILITY NETWORK Just like workplace success, summiting the world's highest peaks requires the support of a high-performance team, according to Scott Kress, mountaineer and president of Summit Team Building in Toronto. "Teamwork is the single most im- portant factor in organizational success," he said. "It is what sepa- rates the good from the great. (But) there's no shortcuts to the top — if you want to be a high-performance team, you have to earn it." Speaking at a recent SCNet- work event in Toronto, Kress said many parallels exist between scal- ing mountains and the business world. In both instances, individ- uals can overcome obstacles and fears with the support of a team. "We're all climbers," he said. "Every single one of you is climb- ing a mountain — career moun- tains, health mountains." e path to high performance begins with relationship, before developing into trust, commit- ment and accountability, said Kress. "Relationship is the foundation of any high-performance team. Re- lationship allows us to build trust with one another. When we trust one another, we're going to com- municate openly and honestly." The ingredients to a world- class team are leadership, well- defined roles, shared resources, transparent communication and united effort, he said. Lessons of Cho Oyu While working towards his goal of climbing Mount Everest — the world's highest peak, at 8,848 metres — Kress decided to take a run at the sixth-highest peak in 2001. Known as Cho Oyu, the 8,188-metre mountain is on the border of Nepal and Tibet. For this adventure, Kress as- sembled a group of random hik- ers due to a lack of interest from his usual crew. e group of five included a professional guide. "Every high-performance team needs a leader," he said. "A leader is a coach and mentor, helping the team get to the top." Each summit attempt takes months to complete, with time spent acclimatizing at base camp, followed by subsequent hikes be- tween camps in an effort to allow your body appropriate time to ad- just, said Kress. is time allows for team devel- opment, which occurs in a stage cycle of form, storm, norm and perform, he said. "If you did a good job in form- ing — you have clarity around goals and roles and responsi- bilities, strong relationships built on trust and communication — when storming happens, you deal with it and move on," said Kress. "If you haven't done a good job in forming, when storming hap- pens, that's when teams start to fall apart." "Norming is when you're good. You're not yet great, but you have potential for greatness. High per- formance is where you ultimately want to be. Life is good when you're on a high-performance team." Unfortunately, the Cho Oyu team got stuck in the storming phase and never bonded, he said. Much of the issue was due to the guide's leadership style, which in- cluded fear and intimidation. "Leaders have got a dispro- portionate influence over team culture," said Kress. "Like it or not, people are watching ev- erything you do, consciously or unconsciously. Studies have shown that people will take on the characteristics, behaviours, values and beliefs of their leader within five days of that relation- ship beginning." The shallow relationships of the team ultimately led to disas- ter in the final stages of the climb. e team split, choosing differ- ent strategies to attempt the final summit, he said. Ultimately, no one made it to the top of Cho Oyu after one member revealed she had a seri- ous injury, and the guide called off the climb immediately. "We had the skills. We had the fitness, the experience, the knowl- edge," said Kress. "But not a single person made it to the top, and it was all because we couldn't work together as a team." e failure stung, but also pro- vided lessons for future climbs, he said, as ineffective leadership and lack of an overall vision saw the team come undone. e Everest experience In 2008, Kress decided to take his shot at Everest. For this adventure, he built his team around himself and a solid friend, and then made educated choices from there — all the while keeping servant leader- ship front of mind, which meant tracking down a guide who would do everything in his power to en- sure the others' success. is mindset was powered by a team strategy of vision, action and reflection, he said. "Mount Everest is a pretty black-and-white world. High- performance teams succeed. Low-performance teams fail." is climb wasn't easy, but the team worked hard to establish deep relationships early, swap- ping hiking partners daily and purposefully discussing issues such as conflict resolution and communication styles in an ef- fort to build a "deliberate success model," said Kress. Every week, the group gathered for 30 minutes to reflect on their vision and uncover any potential conflicts. is helped set the foun- dation for what rapidly became a high-performance team, and al- lowed the group to push through many obstacles, he said. High-altitude lessons Mountaineer shares secrets to leadership, high performance – pulled from thin air BY MARCEL VANDER WIER Credit: Ursula Perreten (Shutterstock) "Leaders have got a disproportionate influence over team culture. Like it or not, people are watching everything you do." MENTAL > pg. 13

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