My Path to Ridgeline Leadership
Jim’s Journey in a nutshell
After 36 years in higher education as a leadership educator, I was ready for a change and a challenge. I loved working with college students and helping them to understand the leadership process and to develop their capacity to lead. I believe it matters. All the while, it had been some time since I felt scared, uncomfortable and challenged at work. What if I were to take my expertise and share it with people in the business world, where the stakes are much higher? Before jumping into that world, I decided I needed a restart.
So I searched to find an experience that would be challenging and uncomfortable - something that would require new ways of knowing, being and doing. So I decided to go on a walk on the Appalachian Trail. I wasn’t sure how long I would be on the trail, but I wanted to be there long enough to where life on the trail was the new norm. When Thoreau left society to live at Walden Pond, he said, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” Reflecting back on my experience, the Trail had so much to teach: about myself, about resilience, patience, self-reliance, simplicity, and self-authorship. I ended up walking 900 miles on the A.T., then added another 100 on trails in Scotland to make for a 1000 mile journey.
On to the next challenge - Ridgeline Leadership. For me, the ridgeline was the sweet spot of the trail. It took work to get to the ridgeline - climbing 2000 to 3000 feet in 3 to 4 miles. Once up on the ridgeline, it was magic - being on the spine of this ancient mountain range. Of course, just ahead was a descent to another gap, followed about another ascent up to the next ridge. Leadership development is a lot like that. It takes work, focus, desire, pain and resilience to get to a desired state, but it is worth it. Up ahead is another descent, but now you are better prepared to face it. Ridgeline Leadership is about helping individuals and organizations identify the sweet spot for them, then finding the best way to get there.
Ridgeline Leadership Exists to
Inspire confidence and make lasting change
Develop personal and professional habits that propel you toward positive growth
Assist teams in functioning at higher, more meaningful capacities
Develop a company or team culture that thrives and endures
Promote values-based leadership that drives decisions and creation of goals
Serve as a guide along the journey
Teach leadership fundamentals that engage the heart
Practice and model Authentic Leadership
Provide ongoing encouragement and periodic check-ins on established goals
Ridgeline offerings
Individualized Leadership Coaching for executives, employees, and individuals
Full-day or multi-day workshops on the skill of Leadership Coaching
Retreat design & facilitation for businesses and organizations
Team development and skill-building
Gallup Strengths workshop for your team.