Leadership Can Present A Slippery Slope
There are many leadership lessons one can learn from a day on the slopes. Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Airlines and the $7 billion Virgin Empire, doesn't think of work as work and play as play. He has intermingled both work and play in an intoxicating downhill rush of excitement and fun.
 It is important for the leader to look at work as play to keep a proper perspective. If your job gets to point where you are no longer getting an adrenaline rush from it, then perhaps you are suffering from burnout and need to find a new venture that restores the fun.
To a beginning skier, a small hill can look like a large mountain, and the smallest mogul can look like a major obstacle. It is both exciting and terrifying to stand at the top of the hill, watching other skiers make their descent. Some ski fast and smooth. Others are cautious and slow, and still others are totally out of control. I think this is where the term tree hugger first originated.
Learning to be a leader is much like the process of becoming a good skier. Small challenges can appear as mountains, when in fact they are mere hills. The more times your ride over them, the more you come to realize how small they really are and how easily you can navigate them. You wonder why you even thought they were huge and hazardous in the first place. You then desire for greater challenges and bigger and steeper hills.
As a leader, you know that you can't always expect the best conditions. You can't always expect powder. You must learn to read, understand and navigate all the various ski conditions. You learn to ski on less-than-favorable snow, such as packed granular, ice and even slush. You learn to enjoy the sport, whether it is sunny or raining.
The effective leader has weathered all kind of conditions and learned to adapt his style accordingly.
Richard Branson's experience, continuing the ski analogy, is varied, with some successful runs in records and airlines and some wipeouts in other ventures, such as communications. He didn't always have a successful run, but he has always enjoyed the challenge.
When you fall down on the slope, you can take off yoru skis, walk down the slope and spend the afternoon in the lodge, nursing your wounds and ego. Or you can get up and conquer that which has you down. Branson simply has the most fun. He has chosen a career that feeds his passions and incorporates his family and friends.
He loves adventure and his business ventures, and the life he has made for himself provides plenty of both.
You like Branson, have committed to the breathtaking life of a leader.
As with the skier, you make decisions, commit to a chosen path and enjoy the ride.
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