8 Dangers Every Leader Must Face and Overcome

8 Dangers Every Leader Must Face and Overcome

Above 26,000 feet life takes on a whole new meaning. It’s known as the death zone. At this height, the air holds only 30 % as much oxygen as at sea level. The air is so thin it is not life-sustaining. Within hours, judgment can become impaired. People get confused. Issues, that at sea level, we feel we can choose not to deal with, become deadly. At this height, the importance of character becomes black and white. Leadership mistakes are fatal.

Schmincke and Warner have identified eight dangers that can sabotage anyone at some point in their journey and put at risk careers, projects, or even companies. Overcoming these dangers requires implementing specific survival tips that are outlined below: 

Danger	Survival Tip
Fear of Death	Embrace death. A metaphor to accept and not resist, avoid, or ignore the inevitable death of a situation. Instead of freezing, free yourself to take action. Some call it “die before battle”.
Selfishness	Develop a compelling saga, a passion greater than the ego’s agenda. Focus on the greater good than your personal agenda.
Tool Seduction	Improve your behavior versus getting seduced by new performance theories or models. Run your tools, don’t let them run you. Getting off on new ideas, but not on implementation, distracts professional focus.
Arrogance	Humility. Offensive displays of superiority, self-importance, or treating others as inferiors never engenders success. Achieve success by not stepping over weak climbers, or leaving them for dead.
Lone Heroism	Partnership. Instead of feeling you’re the only one who can do it right, avoid missed opportunities and demoralized colleagues by engaging and leveraging everyone’s strengths.
Cowardice	Bravery. Cowardly professionals don’t challenge the status quo, hold others accountable, and expose weaknesses in the organization. Don’t be a coward. Take bold action
Comfort	Perseverance. No professional accomplishes a goal worth the pursuit without surviving the stretch—and often painful stretch. How uncomfortable are you willing to be to achieve your goals?
Gravity	Luck: Did you think any plan would survive its impact with realty? When gravity propels you, you’re invincible. When it pulls you down, you fall hard. Gravity is that uncertain push or pull regardless of what you do. Execution involves too much risk; and this causes expert opinions to fluctuate with the winds of uncertainty. Accept that luck happens, and prepare to seize it when it happens to you!

Here at sea level, these dangers don’t seem to pose a very big threat. But it’s deceptive. We figure we can get by. At sea level the margin for error is greater and the consequences often take longer to be realized. In the end, they will destroy you just the same.