Leadership Lessons From the Underground

Leadership Situation1: Exploration - The A-Team

Review: The Exploration Leader Decides the overall objective (the vision) Gets the team together Motivates the group Ensures logistics are covered Respects and supports expertise Modifies objectives if necessary Keeps a watching brief on motivation Celebrates success The A-Team!

Leadership Situation 2: Leading the Inexperienced

Review: Leading the Inexperienced The leader: Is visible and authoritative Closely supervises beginners Coaches intermediates Makes all important decisions Provides an encouraging atmosphere

Leadership Situation 3: Sudden Major Crisis

Review: The Sudden Major Crisis The leader: barks commands gives not a damn about sensitivities is decisive demands instant compliance

Leadership Situation 4: The Organized Cave Rescue

Review: The Organized Rescue The leader: … Is corporate man Spends hours in committee meetings Has numerous sub-officers Runs a bureaucracy Is dominated by the need to avoid injury to the rescuers

Summary of Caving Leadership Situations Exploration: vision; revolving leadership Beginner trips: close supervision, coaching, encouragement, authority Serious crisis: command and obey Organized cave rescue: corporate man leads a bureaucracy Ps: What about no leader?

When Things go Wrong No leadership!

When Things go Wrong There’s an A-team ready to explore. Leader applies close supervision and coaching Micromanagement! Severely cheesed off A-team. Quiet mutiny.

When Things go Wrong There’s an A-team ready to explore. Leader applies command and obey Instant and noisy mutiny. Punch on nose.

When Things go Wrong There’s an A-team ready to explore. Leader applies Corporate Man Team wades in treacle. Achieves little. Stars drift off to another team

Beginner Trip Leader lets people do their own thing people are hurt; cave is hurt Leader uses command and obey Nobody has fun; nobody returns Leader is corporate man Beginners spend so much time filling in forms they never go caving

Sudden Crisis Leader lets people do their own thing People die Leader closely supervises and coaches People die Leader is corporate man People die

Complex Organized Rescue Leader lets people do their own thing People dash off madly and get hurt. Leader closely supervises and coaches The goal is to extract someone safely, not to develop skills! Leader uses command and obey With experts, police, ambulances, and SAR ????

Ordinary Management Situations 1.The leader provides vision and then is not much seen, day to day. Is there an experienced, self- motivated A-team? Is all going well? 2.The leader supervises, coaches, and encourages. Is the team comprised of beginners and intermediates, and everything running smoothly? 3.The leader barks commands. So is it a sudden crisis? If not, why is he yelling? 4.Corporate-man leader applies heavy bureaucracy. Is it essential, then, that everything goes according to plan? Is avoidance of error more important than productivity?

The End Tread carefully