In my book The Leaders New Clothes: The Naked Truths of Leadership there are seven Naked Truths of Authentic Leadership. The first and most important is about how you are perceived as a leader by those you lead. It states that:  “Perception is all there is – you are the leader you are perceived to be.” How you are perceived by your employees affects the culture inside the organization. Imagine being more than just perceived as but instead KNOWN to be an engaged leader that listens to, interacts with, and learns from the employees in the organization! That is the definition of authentic leadership.  The impact of such authenticity would be far reaching and better than any perception of one as a leader. So here’s a good question: Do you even know how you are perceived by your employees? For many of us the answer is “No, we really don’t know.” By the way you can go ahead and read that as, “I am naked.”

Yes. Yes you are!

Now more than ever there are great social enterprise networking tools that can create and nourish a connection with those we lead. Along with mobile access, these internal social networks afford leaders amazing a real time, all-the-time connection to their employees, to the issues facing the business, to new product ideas, and to every aspect of the business.  What an amazing opportunity to build an authentic relationship with the groups, division, and employees in the company!

Make no mistake about it however, there is risk. Entering into an authentic relationship requires new levels of transparency from the front-line to the C-suite. This is exactly why we see many leaders commit to providing the social network for the rest of the organization but exclude themselves from the conversation. They are content with providing transparency for the rest of the organization. This is more risky than actually engaging and setting the tone, direction, and authenticity of the conversation.

As they have with Social Media in general, leaders ask “What’s the ROI on the time commitment and costs?” And while that is a fair question, unfortunately ROI is the wrong metric for relationships. Instead leaders should be seeking the Return on Relationship, or the ROR.  What is the ROR on authentic leadership engagement in the social enterprise? It can be what all leaders seek: a motivated, inspired organization that is passionate about the company and its mission.

I firmly believe the ROR is worthy of the risk of engagement. Take a look at CEO’s that have embraced the concept and have seen huge benefits. Brian Dunn at Best Buy, Michael Dell, Tony Hsieh at Zappos, Gary Kelley at SouthWest and others engage socially with their employees and customers to foster a greater following inside and outside their companies.  Consider Bill Marriott, CEO of Marriott, who wrote this on his blog, “What’s the big deal? This is just another way for me to talk to my customers and listen to my customers.” He knows that having a relationship with his customers keeps him on top of their feedback and interests. His relationship with customers and employees cultivates social influencers and evangelists.

It’s no secret that the way we communicate inside the organization is rapidly changing with advent of social organizations. Leaders can authentically participate for a maximum ROR or they can be naked: perceived as disconnected, uninterested, or not present. Just remember that if you start down the authentic relationship path you must commit to it. Otherwise you will be in violation of Naked Truth of Leadership number three: “If you are not ready to act, don’t ask!”

This year I have watched teams soar and sink, and although there have been many unique aspects to each story, the one factor that is undeniable is that the character and competency of each leader was a determining factor in success and failure alike.

In thinking more critically about the specific competency in each situation, I have come to realize the single most important component in each story is the extent to which the leader had sufficient influence to move the people in a common direction, and the ability to facilitate that movement in a non-coercive way that was in the long-term best interest of everyone.  The influence, or lack thereof, in each situation was born out of the leader’s level of authenticity.  Being real as a leader means more than anything to those who follow you.  To be real you must know and cultivate your character.

Simply put, the success of any organization hinges on its leader’s ability to influence people.  The ability to influence is rooted in your authenticity, and authenticity is a matter of character.

My hope and challenge for you is that you will make this coming year one in which you cultivate your character to develop the authentic leadership influence your people need.

Hans Christian Andersen

Translated by Jean Hersholt

Many years ago there was an Emperor so exceedingly fond of new clothes that he spent all his money on being well dressed. He cared nothing about reviewing his soldiers, going to the theatre, or going for a ride in his carriage, except to show off his new clothes. He had a coat for every hour of the day, and instead of saying, as one might, about any other ruler, “The King’s in council,” here they always said. “The Emperor’s in his dressing room.”

In the great city where he lived, life was always gay. Every day many strangers came to town, and among them one day came two swindlers. They let it be known they were weavers, and they said they could weave the most magnificent fabrics imaginable. Not only were their colors and patterns uncommonly fine, but clothes made of this cloth had a wonderful way of becoming invisible to anyone who was unfit for his office, or who was unusually stupid.

“Those would be just the clothes for me,” thought the Emperor. “If I wore them I would be able to discover which men in my empire are unfit for their posts. And I could tell the wise men from the fools. Yes, I certainly must get some of the stuff woven for me right away.” He paid the two swindlers a large sum of money to start work at once.

They set up two looms and pretended to weave, though there was nothing on the looms. All the finest silk and the purest old thread which they demanded went into their traveling bags, while they worked the empty looms far into the night.

“I’d like to know how those weavers are getting on with the cloth,” the Emperor thought, but he felt slightly uncomfortable when he remembered that those who were unfit for their position would not be able to see the fabric. It couldn’t have been that he doubted himself, yet he thought he’d rather send someone else to see how things were going. The whole town knew about the cloth’s peculiar power, and all were impatient to find out how stupid their neighbors were.

“I’ll send my honest old minister to the weavers,” the Emperor decided. “He’ll be the best one to tell me how the material looks, for he’s a sensible man and no one does his duty better.”

So the honest old minister went to the room where the two swindlers sat working away at their empty looms.

“Heaven help me,” he thought as his eyes flew wide open, “I can’t see anything at all”. But he did not say so.

Both the swindlers begged him to be so kind as to come near to approve the excellent pattern, the beautiful colors. They pointed to the empty looms, and the poor old minister stared as hard as he dared. He couldn’t see anything, because there was nothing to see. “Heaven have mercy,” he thought. “Can it be that I’m a fool? I’d have never guessed it, and not a soul must know. Am I unfit to be the minister? It would never do to let on that I can’t see the cloth.”

“Don’t hesitate to tell us what you think of it,” said one of the weavers.

“Oh, it’s beautiful -it’s enchanting.” The old minister peered through his spectacles. “Such a pattern, what colors!” I’ll be sure to tell the Emperor how delighted I am with it.”

“We’re pleased to hear that,” the swindlers said. They proceeded to name all the colors and to explain the intricate pattern. The old minister paid the closest attention, so that he could tell it all to the Emperor. And so he did.

The swindlers at once asked for more money, more silk and gold thread, to get on with the weaving. But it all went into their pockets. Not a thread went into the looms, though they worked at their weaving as hard as ever.

The Emperor presently sent another trustworthy official to see how the work progressed and how soon it would be ready. The same thing happened to him that had happened to the minister. He looked and he looked, but as there was nothing to see in the looms he couldn’t see anything.

“Isn’t it a beautiful piece of goods?” the swindlers asked him, as they displayed and described their imaginary pattern.

“I know I’m not stupid,” the man thought, “so it must be that I’m unworthy of my good office. That’s strange. I mustn’t let anyone find it out, though.” So he praised the material he did not see. He declared he was delighted with the beautiful colors and the exquisite pattern. To the Emperor he said, “It held me spellbound.”

All the town was talking of this splendid cloth, and the Emperor wanted to see it for himself while it was still in the looms. Attended by a band of chosen men, among whom were his two old trusted officials-the ones who had been to the weavers-he set out to see the two swindlers. He found them weaving with might and main, but without a thread in their looms.

“Magnificent,” said the two officials already duped. “Just look, Your Majesty, what colors! What a design!” They pointed to the empty looms, each supposing that the others could see the stuff.

“What’s this?” thought the Emperor. “I can’t see anything. This is terrible!

Am I a fool? Am I unfit to be the Emperor? What a thing to happen to me of all people! – Oh! It’s very pretty,” he said. “It has my highest approval.” And he nodded approbation at the empty loom. Nothing could make him say that he couldn’t see anything.

His whole retinue stared and stared. One saw no more than another, but they all joined the Emperor in exclaiming, “Oh! It’s very pretty,” and they advised him to wear clothes made of this wonderful cloth especially for the great procession he was soon to lead. “Magnificent! Excellent! Unsurpassed!” were bandied from mouth to mouth, and everyone did his best to seem well pleased. The Emperor gave each of the swindlers a cross to wear in his buttonhole, and the title of “Sir Weaver.”

Before the procession the swindlers sat up all night and burned more than six candles, to show how busy they were finishing the Emperor’s new clothes. They pretended to take the cloth off the loom. They made cuts in the air with huge scissors. And at last they said, “Now the Emperor’s new clothes are ready for him.”

Then the Emperor himself came with his noblest noblemen, and the swindlers each raised an arm as if they were holding something. They said, “These are the trousers, here’s the coat, and this is the mantle,” naming each garment. “All of them are as light as a spider web. One would almost think he had nothing on, but that’s what makes them so fine.”

“Exactly,” all the noblemen agreed, though they could see nothing, for there was nothing to see.

“If Your Imperial Majesty will condescend to take your clothes off,” said the swindlers, “we will help you on with your new ones here in front of the long mirror.”

The Emperor undressed, and the swindlers pretended to put his new clothes on him, one garment after another. They took him around the waist and seemed to be fastening something – that was his train-as the Emperor turned round and round before the looking glass.

“How well Your Majesty’s new clothes look. Aren’t they becoming!” He heard on all sides, “That pattern, so perfect! Those colors, so suitable! It is a magnificent outfit.”

Then the minister of public processions announced: “Your Majesty’s canopy is waiting outside.”

“Well, I’m supposed to be ready,” the Emperor said, and turned again for one last look in the mirror. “It is a remarkable fit, isn’t it?” He seemed to regard his costume with the greatest interest.

The noblemen who were to carry his train stooped low and reached for the floor as if they were picking up his mantle. Then they pretended to lift and hold it high. They didn’t dare admit they had nothing to hold.

So off went the Emperor in procession under his splendid canopy. Everyone in the streets and the windows said, “Oh, how fine are the Emperor’s new clothes! Don’t they fit him to perfection? And see his long train!” Nobody would confess that he couldn’t see anything, for that would prove him either unfit for his position, or a fool. No costume the Emperor had worn before was ever such a complete success.

“But he hasn’t got anything on,” a little child said.

“Did you ever hear such innocent prattle?” said its father. And one person whispered to another what the child had said, “He hasn’t anything on. A child says he hasn’t anything on.”

“But he hasn’t got anything on!” the whole town cried out at last.

The Emperor shivered, for he suspected they were right. But he thought, “This procession has got to go on.” So he walked more proudly than ever, as his noblemen held high the train that wasn’t there at all.

When I took the newly created job of Chief Information Officer in the City of Boise, Idaho six years ago, I did so assuming that I would be trusted to take the City in new directions regarding the delivery of Technology-related services.  The 32 people who reported to the CIO position at the time anointed me with positional trust to lead them in new directions.

This kind of trust is probably short-lived and needs to be replaced with a true reliance built on integrity, strength, ability and confidence that I will do what I say, when I say I will do it.

In the first few months on the job, I believe that this trust did develop in my ability to effect change.  We found funding to develop an Enterprise-level Technology Strategic Plan, and after presentation and buy-off from the various levels of management, we began to execute against that plan.

One of the most important tasks was to choose the leaders who could assist me in this endeavor.

We struggled to get the right people in the correct slots for the new organization.  I was working closely with Phil Eastman on the Change Management aspects of what we were doing.  He was also spending time with the newly appointed leaders to help them build their teams.

I remember talking to Phil and saying that a major issue was that my own leadership team needed help.  He and I devised an offsite workshop in which my leadership team could work on team-building and learn to trust each other.

One of the exercises that still sticks in my mind was one in which everyone was blindfolded.  One person would remove their blindfold and, by verbal instruction, would “guide” the others around a forested course… in snow shoes!  The point of the exercise came down to trusting the person who was the “eyes” for the group, and it was successful in teaching us that you didn’t have to be in front to “lead” the group.  You could actually “lead” the group from the front, middle or back of the line, as long as the trust was there.

Trust at the leadership level is not always a given.  Trust at the leadership level is about placing confidence in others, so that they will be supportive and reinforcing without taking advantage of you.  We worked on that aspect as a team, discussing openly what we trusted and when we didn’t.

Subsequent to that outing, we each had our hands full with developing our own processes, procedures and rules within our teams.  We did another day of workshops and retested our relationships via a Leadership Assessment that we had base-lined in the forest session.  It showed that our trust in each other was not even as high as when we first tested.  Obviously work remained.  Progress was elusive even as we had made tremendous progress in our work delivery.

I believe we broke through in the next few months when we tested the team one last time and showed remarkable progress.  We had come to the point where we assumed that other peers would not intentionally hurt or abuse you, should you make an error or mistake.

Have we arrived?  I don’t think the journey is ever over, as any one seemingly small thing can disrupt the balance.  Someone said, “It takes years to build trust and a few seconds to destroy it.”  We seem to be constantly challenging each other, and the team seems stronger each time we work through another disappointment.  And though the journey is not over, it has been an interesting ride.

I have learned as much about trust as the rest of the group; how it is a powerful friend or a hated enemy when trying to accomplish the enormous task of providing leadership for technology in the City.

As I am writing this I am thinking it may be time to do another assessment.  Maybe I shouldn’t ask the question, unless I am sure I want to know the answer. I think we would rate ourselves much higher than in the past several assessments.  I am the perpetual optimist.  My glass is most always full in Garry’s World.  Actually, Garry’s World is a nice place to be.

Garry Beaty – Thirty years as Senior Executive of Information Technology for two leading retail chains and most recently as Chief Information Officer for the City of Boise, Idaho.  Beaty has continuously focused on improving productivity, enhancing visibility to data and information, and improving the bottom line.  He has served as a strategic partner and trusted advisor to C level executives while identifying, defining, designing and implementing key initiatives and solutions through the application of technology.  At the City of Boise, Beaty embarked on an enterprise-wide information-technology strategic plan, resulting in a centralization of the IT function across the enterprise.  This effort allowed leverage of hardware, software, money and, most importantly, talent to achieve the goals outlined in the 4-5 year plan.

Currently, several enterprise-level projects are under way, including replacing the ERP system, time and attendance capture, and rollout of an imaging and document storage system.  Several department-level projects are also active, including records management for the Police, electronic submittal of blueprints, replacement of a utility billing system, and others.

Rebecca Lovelace has been the Executive Director of the Family Justice Center in Nampa, Idaho for the past seven years.  As Director, Rebecca oversees the daily operations, financial management, sustainability, and fundraising activities of the FJC. She uses many interpersonal relationship skills to keep the Nampa Family Justice Center operating successfully.  Since the opening of the FJC in November 2005, the Center has provided over 5,500 services to clients living in the city of Nampa and its surrounding areas.  Services include protection order filing, counseling (adults and children), legal aid assistance, safety planning, case management, State self-reliance benefits assistance, forensic interviews and many other much needed services regularly needed by victims of abuse. All housed under one roof at the FJC.  Police, prosecutors, Legal Aid attorneys and several other community-based agencies work on-site at the FJC; coordinating their efforts with other off-site and/or part-time agencies to meet the needs of adult and child victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse.

Rebecca was awarded the Outstanding Victim Services Award by the Idaho Victim Witness Association in 2010 along with a Woman of the Year award presented by the Idaho Business Review. Rebecca is a presenter for the National Family Justice Center Alliance’s International Family Justice Center Conference for the past three years and has provided technical assistance for other cities across the United States for the Alliance on FJC operations.

A few weeks ago I was eating lunch at a Chinese restaurant, and when I was finished, I opened my fortune cookie.  It read, “If you have HOPE, you have everything.” I had already agreed to write this article for Leadership Advisors and was struggling on how to begin the article.  The minute I opened and read this fortune, I knew this was the opening statement for the article.  The word HOPE really sums up the vision of those who work tirelessly everyday with victims of abuse, including incident response and prevention. These workers’ efforts reach beyond the initial victim to secondary and tertiary victims through outreach, education and awareness.

The word Hope is present so much in the daily work of the many people working with at risk populations. Hope is what drives our commitment and work in helping people. According to Dictionary.com, the definition of Hope is: The feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best. Those who come to work every day to help others in need or who have interaction in response to or prevention of abuse all have Hope. We have to. If we didn’t have Hope, we couldn’t gain the inner strength needed to help those in need. There are those who have no hope because of the circumstances they face, particularly harmful and/or dangerous situations that place themselves and their children at risk on a daily basis. This is what victims of domestic violence and their children face every day, Without Hope, they cannot survive, and those called to serve in many different ways cannot survive either. Survival,  like Hope, looks different for different people, based on the perception and inner strength that a victim and those who care for them all define differently.

The month of October has been deemed the month of Hope by many who participate in Breast Cancer awareness activities or recognize Domestic Violence Awareness Month.  Both of these very different,, very personal, often life-threatening, “diseases” are treatable and curable.  With the help from family, friends, the community and the criminal justice system, this “cancer” known as family violence can be purged from society.  All we need is HOPE!

As one survivor said, “Hope has rewritten my story.  I no longer focus on the violence that ripped through my family like a wrecking ball, leaving shattered souls in the wake of its destruction. Instead, I invite others to join me where life is real, bittersweet real.”

The struggle to emerge from the oppression of abuse is serious and quite arduous. It cannot be done alone. Every day at the Nampa Family Justice Center, I get to be part of an amazing team of people who offer hope, help, and healing. Something happens when a survivor chooses to move from darkness to light; a life is broken open to reveal unseen possibilities. Therein lies our Hope.

Libby Sartain discusses listening as the new leader, in her book HR From the Heart.  She offers great advice about when to listen.  She recommends that listening is the perfect behavior for a new member of a team, committee, or board.  Even if you’ve studied and worked for years to acquire your new membership, stop, look and listen during your first of many meetings with the group and absorb how the team interacts, what its history is, its culture and values.  Listen, and stop yourself from blurting out all the fabulous input and advice you’ve spent years preparing.  Listening for a long time (longer than you’d really like and are comfortable with) will help prevent you from accidentally touching on a sore subject, or stepping on toes, or any of the other embarrassing, relationship-straining things one can do in an unknown environment.

You may be familiar with the old jokes about Americans speaking English to foreigners in a loud, slow voice, as if the communication barrier was volume, not the inability to understand the language.  I see people repeat that funny situation at the office frequently, except the miscommunication isn’t a language barrier, it’s a values barrier.  To engage in a conversation, you have to be speaking the same language as the other participant, and this doesn’t refer simply to English, Spanish, or even Farsi, but the “language” of values or priorities.

Each time this situation occurs, the speaker turns up the volume insistency of their message, but it’s not their audience that isn’t listening, it’s them.  The leader is not listening to the clues the other person is sending about what influences their decision-making.  Some people don’t decide based on facts alone; the effect of an action on relationships, or a different (more or less optimistic) vision of the future, is their primary decision factor.  If you have tried repeatedly to persuade someone unsuccessfully, you need to listen to where their objections come from and reframe your talking points to address their “hot buttons.”  Listen to their conversation.  Do they discuss current financial reports, or share their vision for the future?  Do they reference individual situations, or do they report on task completion?  Do they use words like, “I think….” Or “I feel…..”?  So much of leadership is persuasion, and to lead effectively you need to be able to use persuasive listening.

Finally, leading by walking around has been a popular concept in leadership circles for many years, but the more important aspect of leading by wandering is to listen during the wandering.  The idea is that a leader should interact regularly with their team members through informal encounters in order to understand what’s really going on.  The spontaneity and “here and now” nature of this allows a manager to get a more accurate understanding for the issues, barriers and real-life operational tactics of his team.

Most leaders will readily agree to the value of this concept, but stall out on its implementation.  “What do I say to them?” they ask.  And anyone who is an experienced practitioner of listening (went to the workshop, got the certificate!) will immediately identify the problem:  Management by walking around doesn’t require ”saying” anything – it demands listening.  The question managers should ask is, “How can I behave to encourage the most frank interaction possible from my team?”  Management by walking around, rather than receiving formal scheduled briefings, is like the difference of listening to a live broadcast compared to a taped program.

The answer to the right question, “How can I behave to encourage the most frank interaction possible from my team?” can be answered this way:  borrow from standard interviewing techniques and prepare a variety of open-ended questions to let the team members know what you’d like to learn about, and then use your best listening techniques to gather information about your employees’ real work.  Resist the urge to offer solutions or resolve problems right away.  Doing that would require you to be talking, and you’re supposed to be listening.  Keep asking follow-up questions, and wait to provide your comments at a later time.

Listening does not come naturally to many leaders, but developing this skill to add to your leadership tool chest will enhance your ability to effectively lead.

Internal social networks have been touted as way to engage the company into a conversation that can provide a vehicle for knowledge transfer, idea crowdsourcing and cross functional education and training. And indeed they are. When designed and implemented with upper management support, a well-defined strategy and a commitment to creating a threat free social environment, an internal social network stands to be an amazing asset to the organization.

However, many times organizations overlook the key ingredient to social enterprise success: authentic leadership engagement. Sounds like a big commitment just by the phrase, “authentic leadership engagement.” And it is. In the minds of many leaders internal social networks are there for the workforce. They believe endorsing “the spend” and providing the tools is all that is required of their commitment to the organizational social endeavor. “Go forth and be social!” is the thought. This rarely works.

Leaders today need to engage in the social project regularly and authentically. And they need to do so in a way that guides the conversation to productive insights. No proxy or ghost posters will do. Employees in an organization have amazing “BS detectors” and in the social networking environment they can easily sense when a leader has a proxy. Once detected they can lose all credibility. And let’s be honest, for many organizational leaders social networking is new and intimidating.

Much the same as in real life the rules of engagement for authentic leaders in enterprise social networks are a matter of character. My partner Phil Eastman has, as many of you know, written a book entitled, “The Character of Leadership: An Ancient Model for a Quantum Age” that extolls seven elements of character that are required for leaders to effective. They are: Courage, Justice, Temperance, Hope, Wisdom, Love, and Faith. These seven elements are what define your character as a leader in a face to face conversation or relationship. In the social enterprise it is no different. To garner respect and direct the social conversation to authentic levels of interaction leaders must have authentic character.

The Character of Leadership Model is even more important in the modern age of virtual teams and social enterprise. In essence, the Character of Leadership Model is the lens by which employees will view and measure the authenticity of their leaders in the virtual age. And it is only through authentic leadership engagement that a leader’s character will be the guiding force behind a productive social enterprise conversation.

• Provide the organization with a planning framework,
• Dedicate the time necessary to a robust planning process, and
• Lead the organization as it implements the strategies.

If your planning process is successful, it will be because you led the process.  If it fails to have the impact on the organization you desire it will be because you did not lead the process.  By leading strategic planning, you will not be involved in every detail or be in every session but you must provide the motivation, perseverance and resources for the process to succeed and for strategy execution to be successful.

Journalist Norman Cousins once said, “Wisdom is the anticipation of consequences.” There are many great quotations pertaining to wisdom out there, but this is by far my favorite. I guess thinking things through as thoroughly as possible just seems like a simple and palatable way to gain wisdom….”

It’s only September, but it’s cold in the mountains, and my hands and my feet are numb to the wrist and ankle. At some point, the cold overwhelmed the tissue and went to the bones. They’re numb like your lower lip and tongue might get after you’ve been to the dentist. The digits gradually started to feel plump and foreign, like they didn’t belong to me, then they began trying to act on their own whims rather than on my commands, straying from their tasks like so many drunken little sock puppets.

I’m standing on the tips of my frozen toes. I carefully shift my weight from left to right in order to rest my calves, which are burning with a heat of equal intensity to the cold in my feet and hands. They feel like they may give out at any time. Aside from this necessary shifting, I stand as still as possible. The wind is screaming in my ears, but I can still hear my heart pounding in my eardrums as I try to slow my rapid breathing, swallow the acid building in the bottom of my throat, and slowly look down toward Travis, shivering in the wind and snow below.

Travis and I have been climbing together for less than six months. It’s not long in terms of a teammate in the hands of whom you will be placing your life for 1500 feet of climbing, but we have built trust in that time. We climb well together and have been talking a lot about doing something big in the mountains. So with the alpine climbing season waning, we had set out on Friday to climb the famous Elephant’s Perch, slogged gear up to the climber’s camp at Saddleback Lakes under bluebird skies, then watched sullenly as storm clouds crept in from the west and began spitting alternating barrages of snow and rain on our camp dishes. The next morning we awoke to a half inch of snow on the wet ground, and wind pushing storm clouds around everywhere, a deal breaker for sure. Wet icy rock is a recipe for disaster. No one climbs in these conditions. Staring apprehensively upward at our frozen route through the steam of a hot cup of coffee, not really wanting to be the one to call it off, I had asked what I thought was an obviously rhetorical question.

“Well man, what do you think?”

A shaky, “Mmm, yeah, It’ll be ok,” was the reply.

I was sort of dumbfounded. “No way should we get on that route. No way,” I thought. But I hid my shock behind the coffee. I was not going to kill this climb if he wasn’t. We’d just have to go try. “All right… let’s go try,” I said, and so off into the freezing wind we went to do just that.

Now, an hour later, Travis is perched on a very windy ledge about sixty meters off the ground. Between us are fifty more snow-covered meters of the Sawtooth Range’s finest granite rock-climbing, a long, thin, also snow-covered, rope, and the several pieces of climbing protection. The last  items are for arresting a fall should one occur, and I had placed them in various cracks as I ascended. Each piece of protection is built to hold several thousand pounds of force, but they are only as strong as the rock they are placed in. The last of these trinkets is no fewer than forty feet below me, and I doubt I could hang my coat on it, let alone my falling body. It was a frantic placement, jammed quickly behind an inch-thick flake of decomposing rock, with hands trembling under the realization that this was the last protection the mountain would yield for another fifty feet of climbing. I knew it was a dog of a piece when I placed it, and the next good one is twenty feet below it, meaning a fall from here would take me for a 120-foot ride. That’s the sixty feet of granite above my last good protection, and the sixty feet of rope I have out. This is not a proposition which I am relishing very much. Figuring in the elasticity of the climbing rope, I quickly estimate that the fall would put me, oh… roughly right in Travis’ lap, or, more likely, on the ledge next to him. I reach left to a small rock edge, about the width of a pencil, glazed in wet ice. I reach left around a bulge, frantically groping for some weakness which will yield passage to the belay ledge, ten feet above me. No dice. It’s smooth and also covered in ice.

Desperately off-route, terrified, shivering, panicking, almost whimpering, there are a bunch of hard questions rattling around in my head like chunks of gravel: “How long before my calves won’t allow me to stand here any longer?,” “What then?,” “Man, why do I even like climbing? Why do I even do this?,” “What if I die here? What a stupid way to go.” “How did I get here?”

Eventually my shuddering calves drag me back to reality, and the realization that it is time to go. Just as I am about to make a move which I have very little doubt will lead to a fall, an idea occurs to me, and I unclip a piece of metal climbing gear called a nut tool from my harness, and use it to carefully chip the ice off of the edge next to my right hand. It’s terrible, but it will have to do. With a deep breath I force my fingertips against the edge with all my might, step up on a wet knob at knee height, hold my breath, grit my teeth, and pull ever so slowly through until a small bit of snow is at my chin. Blowing the dusting of powder off, to my elation a sharp, in-cut, depression appears in the rock. There is standing water in the bottom of the depression, but, with one last desperate thrust, I am able to use it to pull up and grasp the lip of the belay ledge above me and latch onto the trunk of a small tree there. With all the grace of a beached manatee, I flop into a heap on the two-foot ledge. Safe at last, delivered by a five-dollar nut tool from the single spookiest situation I have ever gotten myself into. I change over the belay and bring Travis up. He arrives on the ledge, shivering uncontrollably after an hour on the belay below.

“Let’s get out of here man! I’m freezing! This is nuts!”

It did not take me long to agree to bail off after climbing only one-quarter of the route. Our day was over.

In rock climbing, you take turns leading. One climber leads, the other follows, then you switch and repeat. When planning a route, both climbers must be comfortable on the terrain they will be responsible for leading, and both must share in the decision-making. Each climber has the right to express ideas, strategies, observations, and misgivings. Each has the right to call the whole thing off if something isn’t right. No questions asked. Both must lead, both must follow. Both must exhibit wisdom.

It’s been four years since that day. I’m sitting here on my front porch on a warm September evening, a beer in my hand, and it’s funny how easy all those questions I was asking myself are to answer. Especially, “How did I get here?”

As with any epic tale, it wasn’t one mistake which got me into the dangerous pickle I was in, but rather, a series of failures in anticipating consequences. Fortunately for those of us who like to do things the hard way, it seems to me that wisdom can be gained in another way. Not just by anticipating consequences, but also, perhaps more painfully, by experiencing them.

Sean Rasmussen works as a commissioning engineer for the energy services company McKinstry Co. He has enjoyed twelve years of working with Treasure Valley building owners, architects, engineers, and contractors to provide functional and efficient buildings to the public and private sector. When not at work, he still enjoys gaining wisdom (usually the hard way) through climbing pursuits, triathlon, and the occasional lesson from his extremely patient wife and children.