Olga Koroleva: 4 leadership lessons I learned climbing the world’s tallest mountains

Article by WWSG exclusive speaker, Olga Koroleva.

As someone who has started businesses and summited over 40 of the highest mountains around the world, I have learned that proper preparation determines success of any enterprise. If you understand it, running a business or climbing the highest mountains become a very simple process.

Have a Clear Goal and Strategy

Without goals, we turn our everyday life into a collection of meaningless tasks and spontaneous moves that lead to burnouts. As if you are climbing a mountain following some random trail not even knowing if it leads to the summit. When you know where your summit is, you have a sense of clarity and direction. You no longer take scattered steps in many directions. You go further.

Each new venture requires a strategy. Each new mountain requires a new training plan. I have to adjust my daily routine and train my body differently depending on the mountain I am attempting next. Mount Denali was my first major mountain where I had to carry a lot of weight so I spent most of my training time at the gym building my back muscles. Climbing Mount Everest involves a lot of long-distance hiking so I was working on cardio. K2, the Savage Mountain, required a lot of technical training, so I focused on that.

Take Effective Action

Effective action is about eliminating procrastination. If we want results, we’ve got to learn to decrease the time between our intention to do something and the action itself. Studies indicate that as people age, they tend to procrastinate less. This shift can be attributed to a growing understanding that time is limited. After all, each one of us only gets about 2.5 billion heartbeats; no need to wait if we really want to do something. You don’t summit a mountain by sitting in the base camp.

Effective action also involves a concentrated focus on the present moment. In the mountains there were many situations when I was climbing that I heard the rescue helicopter above my head. I knew they were flying to search for an injured or a dead climber. But I could not let my mind focus on that story. I had to forget about the outside factors and do my best taking the next step. The helicopter noise was irrelevant, only my summit goal mattered.

Maintain Your Priorities

Every goal has a price. Sometimes that price is having to go to the gym at 7 p.m. on New Year’s Eve when all my friends are going partying. I have limited time during any given training period, so I have to carefully maintain priorities to be in shape on time. I get very strict about my daily routine: I follow the nutrition schedule, I don’t drink alcohol, I watch my sleeping patterns. I meditate to stay mentally strong. I put myself in an environment supportive of my goals: To train for big expeditions, I moved from the Bay Area to Tahoe to be able to train at higher altitude.

If you set your goal correctly, maintaining priorities becomes easier as you naturally choose only those things that take you closer towards your goal.

Exercise Discipline

I follow a routine for every training period, which may last up to six months. Routine gives me a sense of safety and structure. I don’t have to waste emotional energy on irrelevant things that don’t bring me closer to my goal. Normally, I exercise twice a day. I wake up very early, work on the most pressing business tasks that require concentration, then I go for cardio around lunch time—hiking, biking, swimming. Then back to work, I take my meetings after lunch. I hit the gym before dinner.

I know how to enjoy small wins which encourages me to stay on track. Negative motivation never worked for me. Telling everyone that I will shave my head if I don’t do something? No, thank you. Instead, I track my progress and pat myself on the back every time I reach a training milestone. I keep reminding myself that nothing happens if I stop; I’ve got to keep moving if I want results. Even on the days when I am feeling low on energy, I make myself do at least one thing that would contribute to my training.

When I speak to an audience of business executives, I encourage them to keep this system in mind, whenever they are working on a personal goal, or setting up a new venture, or solving a hard business issue. Choose a mountain and always know why you want to climb that particular mountain. Reverse engineer the goal to determine the steps you need to take to reach it. Then just start living your goal because from now on everything you do becomes a road to the summit. Take that initial step and then the next one. Never think about the goal in terms of quitting. Stay focused, watch your priorities, and exercise discipline.

The going gets easier. Keep climbing.

Contact WWSG to host Olga for a speaking opportunity.