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INSEAD Business School, pres-
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Altitudes of Leadership

Leaders must cultivate the seamless ability to mix forward-vision thinking,
tactical execution and self-awareness — across various levels of leadership.

By Ian C. Woodward, Dubai

H igh altitudes hold a special place in move between three distinct altitudes of They travel up and down easily, making
the history of human achievement.
the connections between all of the alti-
leadership thinking.
Ram Charan, the distinguished author,
We remember New Zealander
tudes. Using this analogy can focus peo-
mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary
concept of leadership altitudes based on
erate crucial leadership insights, as each
and Nepalese sherpa Tenzing Norgay as DGYLVRU DQG VFKRODU ÀUVW GHYHORSHG WKH ple in a simple, yet profound way to gen-
WKH ÀUVW FOLPEHUV WR UHDFK WKH VXPPLW RI many decades of observing CEOs and altitude is so clearly different.
Mount Everest. Other altitude pioneers leaders. Together, we extended it into a
include Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, framework that stresses the importance Connecting three altitudes
WKH ÀUVW KXPDQ WR UHDFK RXWHU VSDFH DQG RI WKLQNLQJ ÁH[LEO\ IRU OHDGHUVKLS VXF At 50,000 feet — the maximum altitude
1HLO $UPVWURQJ WKH ÀUVW SHUVRQ RQ WKH cess in the disruptive, volatile, uncer- for commercial aircraft — leaders are able
moon. More recently, in 2012, Austrian tain, complex, ambiguous and diverse to see the big picture. They envisage pos-
Felix Baumgartner skydived from a cap- 21st century world. sibility in disruption and connect the dy-
sule at 127,000 feet. The three critical leadership altitudes namic external world of customers, mar-
In the world of leadership, too, altitudes DUH IHHW IHHW DQG ÀYH IHHW kets and change to a holistic view of their
DUH VLJQLÀFDQW +RZHYHU WKH FRQFHUQ LV Effective leaders develop the capacity to organization. This is also where they can
much less about how high a leader can go, ´Á\µ WKHLU WKLQNLQJ DW DOO WKUHH DOWLWXGHV encourage large-scale transformation and
than about how he or she can seamlessly not getting trapped at any one of them. innovation linked to action, using what I

February 2018 | TRENDS 57