Jeff Evans Keynote Speaker

• Nurturing the Concept of Servant Leadership

The cornerstone of Jeff's message, servant leadership, is paramount for success in our personal and professional lives. An organization/team is challenged to foster an atmosphere of trust, communication and teamwork without embracing the mindset of a servant leader. Jeff points out that we are all “guides” in some fashion, and the importance of leading from a place that is centered around fostering the success of others first, prior to considering our own personal summits or agendas. Nurturing the members of our teams (colleagues, clients or family) in order to help them identify their models of success and selecting the route up the mountain that optimizes their particular skillsets. Jeff describes the selfless attitude of his Sherpa partners as well as his role as the chief medic in Everest Air to convey the true nature of a Servant Leader.

• Developing and Honing Solid Teamwork

Whether you are roped up in the mountains or roped up in a business initiative, you will win together or lose together. Either way, your fate is inextricably connected to those on your team. To promote positive rope team health, each member of the team should be constantly assessing, in real time, how they can contribute to the overall team dynamic. Jeff stresses that we are all connected by a rope…and in some cases, now a virtual rope. So undoubtedly it is more critical than ever to be paying attention to the “tension of the rope” that we’re all connected to and nurturing the concept of The Collective Power of One that the rope creates. Jeff has lead countless rope teams throughout his career and one thing always rings true...the collective power of one that comes from aligning with teammates can propel us forward. It simply requires our attention.

• Cultivating Honest and Transparent Communication & Trust

Jeff has honed his communication skills guiding his blind adventure partner Erik on mountains, rock faces and races all over the world for over 25 years. This partnership has been successful only because the two men have placed the highest level of trust in each other…where every step, jump and move matter. Jeff uses many of the situations he has encountered while guiding Erik across challenging terrain to illustrate the power and effectiveness of a "High Comms, High Trust" team.

• Navigating our Landscapes while Managing Adversity

Adversity is a part of any journey or objective. How we manifest our reaction to that adversity is what differentiates us as effective leaders and teammates and has the potential to strengthen the team or tear it apart. By using the VUCA acronym (Volatile Uncertain Complex Ambiguous) as a learning framework, Jeff reflects back on the numerous events that have threatened to derail the final objective and identifies the tools necessary to optimize our efforts in the face of adversity. Jeff’s new book, Climbing Through Storms: Managing Adversity in a VUCA World is a great tool in support of this theme.

• Learning and Adopting what Jeff refers to as the Expeditionary Mindset

The Expeditionary Mindset is based on applying the optic of the mountain guide as we operate in our team settings. The guide is always willing to adjust the route up the mountain so that it’s congruent with the set of variables and conditions that are presented to the team. A guide understands the value in unpacking our backpacks and inventorying the tools and equipment in order to confirm that we have all the appropriate tools for the job, and then making adjustments as necessary. The guide is always considering how the team is acclimatizing as they move up the mountain. For the terms of this conversational topic, we discuss how the team should always be diligent on how we ascend the mountain, giving our “bodies” our “teams” the time necessary to climb the mountain in a healthy way. Occasionally that means we have to listen to the signs, pump the breaks a bit and recalibrate. This mindset also teaches us to manage the storms that circle around us…assessing forecasts and determining when and how we will move from camp to camp in a safe and efficient way.