Yesterday I was discussing with one of my colleague the importance of understanding the team strength, and allotting right work to the right person to be the most important decision by the team leader. Mountaineering which has many similar traits of entrepreneurship, can be used as a good example.

I have been a trekker (in past) and have been fortunate enough to interact with many great mountaineers. Whenever you climb a mountain, you have to establish different camps at different heights. The team is divided into three major groups.

a.) Low Altitude Sherpas
b.) High Altitude Sherpas
c.) Mountaineers

The low altitude sherpas are only allowed to carry 30kg of weight and operate below 4500 to 5000m height. Usually they establish the base camp, and don`t go any further. These sherpas transport tonnes of weight every day from the last motorable road to the base camp.

The high altitude porters establish Camp 2, Camp 3 and carry the equipments, food, ration and other things from the base camp to the respective camps. Neither they are not allowed to carry more than 20-25 kg of load and nor to go further than 6000-7000m.
The mountaineers establish the last camp or just scale the peak from Camp 3 or Camp 4.

Though on few occasions low altitude sherpas are promoted or transferred to high altitude and high altitude sherpas as mountaineers. Tenzing Norgay who scaled Mt. Everest was a high altitude porter who was promoted by Hillary as a mountaineer. But it is best advisable that the team should stick to their job. A team leader using his low altitude sherpas as high altitude sherpas or mountaineers risk jeopardizing the whole mission.

Every job is important, and you can’t compromise on any team. A low quality “low altitude sherpa” team would be unable to carry tonnes of load to the base camp properly or in the right time frame. The expedition has to be completed before monsoon or winter snowfall otherwise it would be useless. So the low altitude team has to be very focussed and strong. While high altitude sherpas would be doing a little bit of mountaineering themselves, so they need to be intelligent, experienced and strong. And mountaineers have to be insane, very strong, agile and highly focussed. They are the ones who are at the highest risk.

No team can work properly without the other, and the team leader has to identify the right person for the right work.

As a team leader anywhere, it’s the main job to understand the potential and skill set of your team. Expecting a low altitude sherpa to scale the peak is bound to fail almost all the time. So, it’s not the fault of the sherpa but the team leader himself. And, yes if you can spot a Tenzing among your team, then you should not waste a single second promoting him as a mountaineer.412817