Another fascinating perspective on leadership from a book that’s been keeping me gripped. A trailblazing climber despite being blind since his childhood, Erik Weihenmayer’s story holds innumerable lessons in courage, friendship, and persistence in the face of fear. In the chapter, “Moving Through Darkness”, he recounts a nighttime retreat through a boulder field, from the base of one of Yosemite’s big wall climbs. Weihenmayer takes the lead as the most well-equipped to guide in the dark. Used as he is to following Jeff, his sighted guide, he is forced to consider what it means to lead:
“I laughed nervously to think that I guided Jeff, a better climber than me, but in pitch darkness, I knew I was the best person for the job … As I stepped tentatively forward, I tried to feel confident, but I was unsure, questioning each step. I had always assumed that leadership came easily to a chosen few like Jeff, that people like him were born to take command, but now I wondered if this was only a convenient excuse. Jeff might be as uncertain to lead me by day as I was to lead him by night. Perhaps leadership was not so much a matter of raw talent, as raw courage. Leading was the ability to move forward through darkness towards those immense possibilities, unseen yet sensed, while others allowed the darkness to paralyze them.”
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