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Outdoor Leadership: Technique, Common Sense, & Self-Confidence
* Only handbook available on outdoor leadership
* Skills taught are applicable to all endeavors and vocations
* Sidebars written by noted outdoor leaders
Leadership is not a set of rules, but an art. It's not just skills and techniques, but a subjective blend of personality and style. A good leader must have self-confidence, intuition, compassion, and common sense. Can leadership be taught? Yes, according to author John Graham, who has spent a lifetime exploring the role of leadership in numerous venues. But, Graham points out, it's not just mastery from the head, it's also learning how to monitor the heart.
Outdoor Leadership covers the skills, attitudes, and intuition necessary for leading in an outdoor setting and beyond. All aspects of leadership are explored including forming a personal style, making decisions, communicating effectively, team building, and coping with stress. The principle taught here may be applied to outdoor leadership in all settings, from a day trip to a siege mountaineering expedition. The skills are equally appropriate to other leadership situationsAfrom running a business meeting to coaching the neighborhood softball team to serving as a role models for your child.
Each chapter features a leadership checklist and thoughts on leadership from a variety of outdoor experts, including climbers, bikers, wilderness travel experts, and adventurers. Outdoor Leadership is compelling reading filled with practical advice, anecdotes, and trail-tested wisdom - indispensable information and guidance for the complete outdoors person.
174 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1997
13 people are currently reading
113 people want to read
About the author
John Graham
5 books5 followersJohn Graham shipped out on a freighter when he was sixteen, took part in the first ascent of Mt. McKinley’s North Wall at twenty, and hitchhiked around the world at twenty-two.
A Foreign Service Officer for fifteen years, he was in the middle of the revolution in Libya and the war in Vietnam. For three years in the mid-seventies, he was a member of NATO’s top-secret Nuclear Planning Group, then served as a foreign policy advisor to Senator John Glenn. As an assistant to Ambassador Andrew Young at the United Nations, he was deeply involved in U.S. initiatives in Southern Africa, South Asia and Cuba.
By most measures, he was very successful. But something was missing.
In 1980, a close brush with death aboard a burning cruise ship in the North Pacific forced him to a deeper search for meaning in his life. Now out of the Foreign Service, he began teaching better ways of handling challenge and conflict. Since 1983 he’s been a leader of the Giraffe Heroes Project, an international organization moving people to stick their necks out for the common good. The Project finds ordinary people acting with extraordinary courage on a broad range of important issues—then tells their stories to millions of others through the media, and in schools.
Graham is a familiar keynote speaker on themes of leadership, courage, meaning and service. He also leads Giraffe Heroes Project workshops, helping organizations, businesses and individuals handle their challenges more effectively.
Graham has done TV and radio all over the world and articles about him have appeared in major magazines and newspapers. He is the author of Outdoor Leadership, It’s Up to Us (a mentoring book for teens), and Stick Your Neck Out—A Street-smart Guide to Creating Change in Your Community and Beyond. He walks his talk, including today as an international peacemaker, active in the Middle East and Africa.
He has a degree in geology from Harvard and one in engineering from Stanford, neither of which he ever expects to use.
A Foreign Service Officer for fifteen years, he was in the middle of the revolution in Libya and the war in Vietnam. For three years in the mid-seventies, he was a member of NATO’s top-secret Nuclear Planning Group, then served as a foreign policy advisor to Senator John Glenn. As an assistant to Ambassador Andrew Young at the United Nations, he was deeply involved in U.S. initiatives in Southern Africa, South Asia and Cuba.
By most measures, he was very successful. But something was missing.
In 1980, a close brush with death aboard a burning cruise ship in the North Pacific forced him to a deeper search for meaning in his life. Now out of the Foreign Service, he began teaching better ways of handling challenge and conflict. Since 1983 he’s been a leader of the Giraffe Heroes Project, an international organization moving people to stick their necks out for the common good. The Project finds ordinary people acting with extraordinary courage on a broad range of important issues—then tells their stories to millions of others through the media, and in schools.
Graham is a familiar keynote speaker on themes of leadership, courage, meaning and service. He also leads Giraffe Heroes Project workshops, helping organizations, businesses and individuals handle their challenges more effectively.
Graham has done TV and radio all over the world and articles about him have appeared in major magazines and newspapers. He is the author of Outdoor Leadership, It’s Up to Us (a mentoring book for teens), and Stick Your Neck Out—A Street-smart Guide to Creating Change in Your Community and Beyond. He walks his talk, including today as an international peacemaker, active in the Middle East and Africa.
He has a degree in geology from Harvard and one in engineering from Stanford, neither of which he ever expects to use.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 12, 2017
Teaches nicely with real examples to relate to. Sometimes I wanted more theory than stories though. Has basic knowledge and things you could probably guess to do in survival. Easy read and has some nuggets of high worth hidden in its pages.
October 13, 2014
As someone who identifies as an Anarchist, I've been on a hunt for literature that talks about leadership from an informal, even horizontal, perspective.
I found the chapters to be better than most books on the subject I'd browsed recently and so I read the whole thing, skimming the last two chapters on Organizational and Political Leadership. Overall, there's lots of good advice and the chapters give less of a shallow treatment than most books. Still, all of these books focus on formal leadership, and I suspect the audience is Outward Bound/NOLS students. This might be great, but for those of us that are out in on trips with peers and without a guide, the advice from books like this often come across as ridiculously black and white, especially when you've been in situations of crisis (small or large).
The trouble arises when nobody is really sure where the stand in relation to one another. When no one's experience is known to the group, when people expect spontaneity, confusion over what decision making process will be used if need be, and when the buck doesn't stop anywhere in particular. Now don't get me wrong, there's plenty in this book on interpersonal skills that is useful, but I still don't feel like some of the more common problems I've encountered were dealt with.
For example, you suspect most of the people in your group are homesick, but you had expectations of accomplishing something in particular. How do you bring up the subject without embarrassing others, being accusatory, etc? How do you deal with people being homesick without making it obvious?.
So ultimately, while the book has a good amount to offer (and LOTS to offer if you're a guide or some sort of formal leader), I felt like it didn't give enough treatment to the far more complex situations that arise when people get together to do a trip, when nobody really wants to plan ahead and you don't even meet some of the participants until the trip has started. What are the priorities in these instances when someone wants to bring out the best in others?
I found the 10 page chapter in Freedom of the Hills (also put out by The Mountaineers) was short, but at least acknowledged the issues I'm talking about, so it's worth a read, if you're puzzled like I am.
The biggest issue I had with the advice given (aside from the omissions mentioned above) is that too much of the advice boiled down to "don't rock the boat". The idea always seemed to be to just make it back to civilization without getting onto touchy subjects, or having to cll out really bad behavior unless necessary (though the Women in Leadership chapter was less protective of the status quo, which was nice)
I also was not a fan of the typical leftist approach to environmental issues, but beggars can't be choosers I suppose. Nothing new said here, though there is some detail given if being another Sierra Club campaigner is your bag.
At the end of the day, I'd still consider trying to buy this book used, as it is the best I've come across so far, but there's definitely a lot to be desired if non-hierarchical leadership is your area of interest.
I looked at a few books to see what they said on Leadership. I already mentioned Freedom of the Hills. The New Wilderness Handbook by Paul Petsoldt (who's often quoted in this book) was another. It wasn't as focused on leadership though, and while it's certainly a landmark book (far as I can tell), it's certainly a little old fashioned on some of the leadership stuff.
I found the chapters to be better than most books on the subject I'd browsed recently and so I read the whole thing, skimming the last two chapters on Organizational and Political Leadership. Overall, there's lots of good advice and the chapters give less of a shallow treatment than most books. Still, all of these books focus on formal leadership, and I suspect the audience is Outward Bound/NOLS students. This might be great, but for those of us that are out in on trips with peers and without a guide, the advice from books like this often come across as ridiculously black and white, especially when you've been in situations of crisis (small or large).
The trouble arises when nobody is really sure where the stand in relation to one another. When no one's experience is known to the group, when people expect spontaneity, confusion over what decision making process will be used if need be, and when the buck doesn't stop anywhere in particular. Now don't get me wrong, there's plenty in this book on interpersonal skills that is useful, but I still don't feel like some of the more common problems I've encountered were dealt with.
For example, you suspect most of the people in your group are homesick, but you had expectations of accomplishing something in particular. How do you bring up the subject without embarrassing others, being accusatory, etc? How do you deal with people being homesick without making it obvious?.
So ultimately, while the book has a good amount to offer (and LOTS to offer if you're a guide or some sort of formal leader), I felt like it didn't give enough treatment to the far more complex situations that arise when people get together to do a trip, when nobody really wants to plan ahead and you don't even meet some of the participants until the trip has started. What are the priorities in these instances when someone wants to bring out the best in others?
I found the 10 page chapter in Freedom of the Hills (also put out by The Mountaineers) was short, but at least acknowledged the issues I'm talking about, so it's worth a read, if you're puzzled like I am.
The biggest issue I had with the advice given (aside from the omissions mentioned above) is that too much of the advice boiled down to "don't rock the boat". The idea always seemed to be to just make it back to civilization without getting onto touchy subjects, or having to cll out really bad behavior unless necessary (though the Women in Leadership chapter was less protective of the status quo, which was nice)
I also was not a fan of the typical leftist approach to environmental issues, but beggars can't be choosers I suppose. Nothing new said here, though there is some detail given if being another Sierra Club campaigner is your bag.
At the end of the day, I'd still consider trying to buy this book used, as it is the best I've come across so far, but there's definitely a lot to be desired if non-hierarchical leadership is your area of interest.
I looked at a few books to see what they said on Leadership. I already mentioned Freedom of the Hills. The New Wilderness Handbook by Paul Petsoldt (who's often quoted in this book) was another. It wasn't as focused on leadership though, and while it's certainly a landmark book (far as I can tell), it's certainly a little old fashioned on some of the leadership stuff.
May 29, 2014
Most of the book is great, except the chapter on "Political Leadership," which is really nothing more than an argument of the environazis. If the objectionable chapter was left out the book would get 5 stars instead of 3.
December 24, 2007
This book was a requirement for my Outdoor Leadership class in college. If this is a topic that interests you, then chances are you will find something useful about this book.
January 22, 2013
En av de beste bøker om ledelse jeg har lest!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews