Jeff Evans

MountainVision:  Lessons Beyond the Summit takes the audience on a journey to high peaks around the globe, detailing the meaningful and exciting endeavors of mountaineer and adventurer Jeff Evans.  These experiences have allowed Jeff to hone his skills of teamwork, commitment, servant leadership and handling adversity which he shares in a way that is applicable to everyone in their business and personal lives.

The cornerstone of Jeff’s message, servant leadership is paramount for success in our professional as well as personal lives. Jeff points out that we are all guides, and it’s important that we lead from a place that is centered around fostering the success of others instead of focusing on our own personal accolades or summits. Nurturing your team (colleagues, clients or family) helps them identify their models of success and guides them up the route that optimizes their particular skillsets. Jeff describes the selfless attitude of the Sherpa as well as his role as the chief medic in Everest Air to convey the true nature of a Servant Leader.

Whether you are roped up in the mountains, or roped up in a business initiative, you will win together or lose together. Either way, your fate is inextricably connected to those on your team. Jeff has lead countless rope teams throughout his career and one thing always rings true… the “collective power of one” that comes from aligning with teammates can propel us forward. Keep in mind that whether you are leading the team from the front of the rope or bringing up the team at the end of the rope, if your rope team starts to plummet towards the edge of the cliff, it is unimportant who initiated the fall. In fact, you have no time to blame or finger point. You only have time to react and work together to bring that fall to a stop so you can begin climbing again together.

Jeff has honed his communication skills guiding his blind adventure partner, Erik on mountains, rocks and races all over the world for over 20 years. This partnership has been successful only because the two men have placed the highest level of trust in each other…where every step, jump and move matter. Jeff uses many of the situations he has encountered while guiding Erik across challenging terrain to illustrate the power and effectiveness of a “High Comms, High Trust” team.

Adversity is a part of any journey or objective. How we manifest our reaction to that adversity is what differentiates us as effective leaders and teammates. Throughout his keynotes, Jeff reflects back on the numerous events that have threatened to derail the final objective. Whether it’s redirecting and taking another route up the mountain or working to enhance the team dynamic, being an effective leader and guide requires constant reassessment of team health and situational awareness.

This live or alternatively prerecorded virtual keynote is a condensed, pandemic-specific event. Through the roughly 30-minute talk, Jeff distills out the learning opportunities that were baked into his life experiences as an Emergency Room Physician Assistant and international mountain climbing guide and draws out the parallels and relevance to the uncertain landscape we all find ourselves currently navigating, both professionally and personally. The result is an engaging, humorous, real-life storyline that provides the audience with solid take-home tools to move forward in these complex times.

• Embracing your inner mountain guide. Tapping into the characteristics necessary to be an effective guide.
• Nurturing trust within the “rope team” in an unfamiliar and remote landscape.
• Learning how to communicate effective and transparently with your “rope team” in a remote and unfamiliar landscape.
• Implementation of the “Sherpa attitude” of stepping up and pulling your weight in complex times. Looking for ways to be a selfless leader.
• Mapping out new routes to climb upwards when the route you chose isn’t fit for safe travel.
• Embracing accountability for yourself and your team.