Lead Yourself to Success

Ordinary People Achieving Extraordinary Results Through Self-leadership

Alan Chambers

• Publisher: Capstone
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9780857086945
• eBook ISBN: 9780857086976
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Leadership
• Index: Business

Let your lifelong adventure begin today

Lead Yourself to Success is your personal guidebook to greatness. Alan Chambers has led many expeditions to the North and South poles but you don't have to lead a national team or a multinational corporation to be successful, as long as you can lead yourself. The desire to learn is human nature, and lessons from those who have been where you want to go are extraordinary opportunities. You gain the insight and guidance you need to get there, and learn how to lead your own expedition down the path to success.

Like any adventure, good preparation is key. You don't take off for the North pole on a whim, and you don't just leap into leadership without understanding the responsibilities it entails. This book shows you how to develop the leadership mindset to get wherever you want to go in life, trust your own judgement and come out on top of the world.

• Uncover your inner leadership potential
• Learn how others succeed
• Find the adventure in everyday life
• Lead yourself on an expedition to greatness

Alan helps thousands of people every year unlock the door to higher performance. Every single one of those people was a leader waiting to happen, even if they didn't know it – but once they truly realised where their potential could take them, they became unstoppable. Let yourself become unstoppable with Lead Yourself to Success.

1
Researching the Vision

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.

Uli Steck, mountaineer (died on Everest, April 2017)

In this chapter we look at preparation, the place where all good leadership begins:

• OPERA. Ordinary People Extraordinary Results Achieved.
• Successful failures. Why it is important to try first and, if you do fail, to learn from it, bounce back, and move forwards.
• How to learn from failures the Royal Marines way.
• ‘Train hard, fight easy’. Training evolutions explained.
• The ‘Concept, Detail, Results, and Recommendations’ model.
• Dynamic Planning Mission Debriefs to pass on the knowledge.

Explain

Victory awaits him, who has everything in order – luck we call it.

Defeat is definitely due for him, who has neglected to take the necessary precautions – bad luck.

Roald Amundsen

In March 2000, I led a team of four Royal Marines to attempt to be the first British team to walk unsupported from the Canadian coastline to the Geographic North Pole (GNP), a trek of around 500 nautical miles ‘against the drift’.

This trek (hereafter referred to by its military handle, ‘Team Polar 2000’ (TP2K)) forms a constant theme throughout this book, examining the different aspects of leadership from the start (the planning stage) to the finish (completion) and beyond (educating future leaders). It is written in chronological order, using my diary extracts and interview transcripts, to illustrate the specific leadership topic being discussed.

Alan's TP2K Diary (i.e. the March 2000 Unsupported Expedition to the North Pole)

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After a successful failure in 1998, I did not see the next attempt as a challenge but as an opportunity. An opportunity to put the records straight, but, more importantly, to prove what high performance and well‐structured teamwork could achieve when combined with strong true leadership; leadership that would set a precedent, hopefully for future adventurers and businesses world‐wide; leadership that would show the world what could be achieved both physically and mentally against all odds.

We had only a one per cent chance of success as judged by the critics. They say a man who lives out his dreams is a scary man. I scared myself – but it was my choice. Life holds a certain risk; the more alive you are, the more the risk. It seemed natural to me to re‐plan meticulously for the millennium walk.

I spent the next two years searching for approval to go. I begged, stole and borrowed equipment, and had the daunting task of procuring all the capital finance within three weeks. I researched the last 25 years of failed attempts for the reason why they failed. I then calculated, or programmed, a solution to their failures into my master plan.

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OPERA: Ordinary People Extraordinary Results Achieved

I firmly believe that anybody can achieve extraordinary things with the right preparation, a positive mindset and unswerving passion.

Up until my 2000 North Pole expedition (TP2K), I had spent every holiday for five years living in Canada with the local Nunavut Inuit, learning about snow, ice, survival techniques, and polar weather conditions. I immersed myself in their environment so that I could learn my limits, whilst being as comfortable and confident in this extreme environment as possible.

Although I did not succeed in my 1998 attempt (see ‘Section The Importance of “Successful Failures”’), this was because of a combination of bad luck and poor team dynamics, not due to any lack of ‘polar confidence’ or technical ability. Consequently, when I returned in 2000 to try again, I was able to build upon this base of excellent preparation, which in turn gave me the confidence to push myself to my limits and beyond, knowing that my mental and physical preparation had been top‐class.

In ‘Researching the Vision’, it is OPERA which breeds confidence, and which, in turn, attracts success.

The Importance of ‘Successful Failures’

In 1998, I failed to reach the North Pole during my first attempt in a two‐man team. A number of things went wrong during this expedition, a great many things in fact, from equipment failure to a breakdown in team dynamics, but this only strengthened my resolve to return and try again, which I did successfully in 2000 (TP2K). However, I only succeeded with my team the second time around, against all the odds, by being brutally honest with myself in assessing what had gone wrong in 1998.

This meant testing out new procedures, innovating with state‐of‐the‐art equipment, embracing innovation, and accepting that I did not need to do things in the same way as everybody else. We trained harder and smarter, and I put together a group of individuals whom I'd been able to test under severe pressure until I was confident they would be able to withstand the physical and mental pressures of an extreme polar expedition, one that had never been successfully completed before. It had certainly been attempted many times – including by myself – but it had never been achieved.

It also meant being very honest with myself as to why I had failed the first time round, something which was not always easy for a proud person who had never previously failed to achieve his goals. Luckily, I had kept a diary at the time recording my thoughts and emotions, so was able to look back with a degree of clarity which is often obscured by hindsight. Taking personal responsibility for the intended outcome and potential success of the expedition was absolutely key.

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Friendship and Teamwork are Not Always the Same Thing

Between 1995 and early March 1998, our two‐man team had persuaded the gods that we could make a serious attempt to walk to the Geographic North Pole from Canada unsupported, and claim to be the first British team to do so.

We thought we had covered every angle of planning and, after knowing each other for some 10 years, the question about compatibility and cohesion was foolishly dismissed. Why? Because we were to set off on what I believed was a venture forged by joint beliefs, aims, convictions and finally goals. How wrong could I be?

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Alan's 1998 North Pole Diary

I thought I knew the person I would be walking with, having served w...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 Researching the Vision
• 2 Blending the Team
• 3 Communication Under Duress
• 4 Rethink the Old Ways
• 5 Build Confidence Early
• 6 Tent Time
• 7 Self‐leadership and Self‐questioning
• 8 Leading from the Back
• 9 Train the Mind and the Body Will Follow
• 10 Celebrate Small Victories
• 11 Dynamic Planning
• 12 New Problems, New Measurements
• 13 Trust – the Final Frontier
• 14 Extreme Learnings
• Index
• End User License Agreement