This is the seventeenth of a weekly blog series that will focus on leadership in the outdoors and how to get the most from the least. Even though the title is called, “Thoughts of a Modern-Day Mountain Man”, it will hopefully cover topics that are useful to everyone.
Chapter 17: A call to all mountain men, wade into the water and retrieve your traps.
“We are crew, not passengers, strengthened by acts of consequential service to others” -Kurt Hahn.
In the mountain man’s time of yesteryear, there was no piece of equipment that was as necessary to his trade or livelihood as his traps. If you can imagine or visualize wading into water so cold and icy that even going in up to your calves takes your breath away, then you can picture in your mind’s eye what the mountain man dealt with every day, many times a day. The best “plews” or beaver skins were almost always gathered in the mid to late spring season. As soon as the water in the beaver’s habitat was free of ice, the mountain men were in the water trying to trap them. The beavers had spent all winter growing out their luxuriously rich coat and now it was time for the mountain man to go to work. This was difficult and dangerous work and no man along on these trapping expeditions was excluded from the work. Everyone, from the first time in the mountains “greenhorn” to the most seasoned and hardened free trapper, was expected to complete this task. Everyone went into the icy waters to benefit their fellow mountain man or company.
In the many years of working at camps and conferences centers, or even non-camp education programs, I have come across many different types of supervisors and many different leadership personalities. The best leaders and supervisors were the ones who were always willing to be part of the greater cause and help out the crew by getting their hands dirty and doing the exact same work they were asking even their lowest level of employee to complete. The administrators who were simply in their position to work towards moving on to a higher position or as a way to check a box or add a rung in their climb up the “corporate ladder” were always the worst leaders. They simply didn’t understand the everyday, sometimes mundane work that needed to be done to make the program work. The employees could see right through their insincere sentiments and contrived concerns about the employees’ well-being. Their talk was rarely backed up with a willingness to do a job or complete a task that was perceived as being below them. The supervisors and leaders that were always well respected and looked up to by their employees almost always started at the same place as the lowest level of worker, and they had put their time learning the trade the proper way. My mother is a great example of this. She is now a Ph.D. holder and teaches at a major university, but she certainly didn’t start out that way. She spent many hard years in the Kindergarten classroom honing her skills and abilities working with students and other staff. Now, when she has a student at the university that has an issue in the classroom, she knows where they are coming from and how to best resolve the issue. The idea that Universities today allow students to complete a master’s degree or even a Ph.D. immediately after completing a Bachelor’s degree is absurd. There are no real-life lessons being learned, and the title of master of something is only that, a title. Some of the best employees I have had the honor of working with throughout the years didn't always have the best, or any higher levels of education, but rather they had a fantastic work ethic and a willingness to do whatever was asked of them with a smile on their face. Great leaders understand what it means to walk into the proverbial “icy” waters to do a task, it isn’t always fun or glamorous, but the business doesn’t go without that work.
I still distinctly remember the first time I became a director at an outdoor education center how much it meant to the employees that I was still willing to get out and teach programs every day in all weather imaginable, work night programs throughout the week, and even help to scrub toilets if needed to get the facility ready for the next group. This wasn’t something that was required, and I certainly could have taken the stance that I had already done that type of work for years and now it was someone else’s job, but that isn’t what was needed. Doing work like this was invaluable in gaining and keeping the respect of the most valuable asset that any company has, its employees. They were willing to do more and to go to greater lengths to complete a job knowing that I wouldn’t ask them to do anything that I would not do myself. Was it always fun and enjoyable? Certainly not. Was it always a grand ole time for the mountain man of yesteryear to wade deep into icy cold water to retrieve their traps? Of course not, but it was necessary for their enterprise to be successful. This hard work knew no limits of seniority or superiority.
The modern-day mountain man would do well to remember that no matter how far he climbs up the ladder of leadership, if he has done the process correctly and started out as a “greenhorn” that didn’t know a fat cow from a poor bull, he should always be willing to teach a new member of the company, to retrieve a trap or two, or to be ready at a moments notice to take the place of the lowest level of trapper in his company.
Comments