Lessons from the peak

Climbing has taught me many things, and over time it’s become a passion.

Years ago I worked, without bothering a lot about my fitness, but at some point in my life I understood that taking care of my body was directly linked to the quality of my work. A bit at a time, through mountaineering, I have changed my outlook. At first, I approached mountaineering to release stress, but over time I realized that I had developed a greater capacity to recognize my own emotions and those of others, and knew how to handle relationships more responsably.

In mountaineering, the body exercises measured and constant self-control until arriving at the summit, where you can finally relax. During the climb, the mind reacts accordingly and uses precise emotions in order to support the body’s effort.

From my experience, certain emotions tend to dominate over others, especially these three:

• Motivation (spur and guide toward a goal).
• Self-control (management of emotions).
• Empathy (perceiving the feelings of those who are on the rope with you, being able to adopt their perspective within the team).

The development of these skills has proved decisive in forming my vision of leadership. Today, I perceive the direct connection between what I experience when I'm in the mountains and my work in the company.

The section of the site related to mountaineering is out of my desire to express what I learned on the way that separated me from the summit: I have included pictures of some of the most significant excursions.

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The mountain is not just a symbol of fatigue, it stimulates an honest and meaningful comparison.
When you climb, it is necessary to refine some aspects of your approach; reaching the peak is rewarding, but can also become an insidious and formidable opponent.
In such conditions, the importance of a more comprehensive self-management becomes clear: not just willpower, rather, the humility of learning in the face of a grand and complex nature, in direct contact with one’s own limits and the necessity to challenge and change one’s habitual way of thinking.

Being a leader means having to deal with some of the disappointments of not achieving what you want. The ascent is difficult: At times, I’ve observed the daunting mountain ridge that seems the irregular teeth of a large animal, as well as the seeming claws of glaciers and walls of snow.
Yes, the mountain is much more than I can describe, just as the company is much more than just the people who compose it. So, I continue to search for the adequate vocabulary, more complex and varied.
A strong determination and an ability to assess, together with a sense of personal integrity, are the qualities needed to survive in sometimes dangerous circumstances when it is part of a mountaineering expedition.
But these qualities alone are not enough to lead a team: what you need to master is developed through the habit of using the body in relation to a performance, through mastering difficult emotions, and establishing a standard of clarity in communication, through flexibility in managing changes and through being able to cope with nature’s contingencies.
My relationship with mountaineering and alpine teams, of which I served, helped me change my vision of leadership, giving me the ability to enter more easily into the complexity of choices and visions that arise from daily business management.
The mountain has taught me the value of a contradiction because in front of a full vision of beauty and unity, only a language capable of adapting itself to fully create dialogue and an exchange of meaning can take you beyond the clouds, towards what you want.
In the company, I bring my desire to know how to move within the complexity of opinions and ideas that exist in a working environment. I remember an old movie that said more or less: "Wise is he who answers a thousand questions, but he who asks a lot of questions is human." In a society where it’s increasingly complex do business, it’s essential to be at ease with doubt and uncertainty.
I believe that every good team as well knowing how to plan a clear and articulated action must make room for doubt and uncertainty effectively, something I've felt in several expeditions. I got the idea to promote the start of each major project, with small company retreats, giving space to explore ideas and comparisons. At the end of a project, with the team, we try to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the experience, in order to develop new ideas for future projects.

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I assume that in mountaineering as in work sites, that risk can not be eliminated but, it can be a much less dangerous if there is impeccable organisation.
So almost without realizing it, my passion for the mountains has led me to develop and articulate a constant attention to safety on our construction sites.
Today my business is built on this attention to safety in the workplace, with every inch built according to specific methods. I can summarize this process in the following requisites: quality planning, equipment, time and services combined with the physical and mental preparation of the team.
Security gives fundamental value to my work, I am grateful to the expert teams with whom I shared the experience of climbing mountains, I learned from them to pay attention to detail when working toward a goal.
What I’ve written expresses the sense of my experience combined with gratitude for what I received from the various adventures shared within the alpine community.
I also added reflections, ideas and tools that I developed along the way, when the experience became a part of me.
My wish is that this site can be the beginning of a productive and more ample conversation surrounding business management.

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"Scalare un vulcano vale un appalto"

Business - issue 12/2010

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Pietro Dottor interviewed by Giancarlo Magalli

Rai 1, December 2006

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Speciale TGR

Rai 3, November 2006

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