Seeking to better lead their employees, managers confront an ocean of ideas and methods. Many try bringing the latest theories into their organizations, but in the remote corners of conferences and behind closed doors, complaints abound:

• "Ninety days after the team-building trainers left, my staff reverted back to previous behaviors. Now the CEO is asking me what happened."
• "I’m frustrated that our coaching offerings aren’t producing leadership breakthroughs."
• "After driving re-engineering and Six Sigma into our organization, I’m afraid to even bring another change program into the company. My employees are still reeling from the cultural damage."

Although the failure rates of training and change programs are well-known, the real question is: Why do some managers perform better than others even when exposed to the same coaching, training and development? Perhaps fresh insights aren’t in deep waters but at higher altitudes.

Seeking an answer to this question led our research to a special laboratory: the death zone—that altitude above 26,000 feet where lack of oxygen threatens long-term survival. Here, climbers resemble managers. They live passionately while confronting tough challenges. They range from the humble to psychotic narcissists, and naive wannabes to elite athletes. And when put to the test, climbers react like managers: sometimes heroically; other times, self-destructively.

High altitudes offer a sterile environment in which to observe managers. With no motivational speakers or consultants, the biological essence of management emerges. Here, we expected to find new leadership theories or principles. We found none. Instead, we discovered that peak-performing managers walk a different path. Rather than applying newly discovered principles, they succeed by recognizing and surviving specific dangers. Missing in modern management literature, the fact remains that dangers always emerge when managers take their organizations to higher levels. Yet no training in danger management can be found in most businesses.

We learned about these dangers from training managers to perform in the most extreme circumstances. Such dangers risk careers, projects and even companies. Out of the dangers we discovered, the following four offer managers insights into ways to take themselves and their staffs to higher levels of performance.

Danger No. 1: Fear of Death

Death isn’t typically a course offered in corporate education. Training experts find it too provocative or risky. Yet we’ve seen managers create great teams when mastering this genetic connection with leadership. The power of death in leadership was observed last year at 26,500 feet in the Himalayas on K2, the second-highest mountain in the world, when an experienced Sherpa slipped off an edge into the darkness. He would fall for several minutes before hitting the glacier below, his body never to be recovered. All the climbers stopped as the fear of death gripped them. We’ve found the same effect happens in corporations, especially during financially challenging times.

• Anxiety about the death of a project or product line causes people to stop performing.
• The shock of a missed sales target freezes people from taking new, innovative directions.
• The death of a career or strategic goal causes staff members to freeze up and fear pushing forward.

When the above happens, profits are threatened as managers shirk great decisions, avoid risks, stop challenging each other and resist organizational change. What do high-altitude leaders do?

Survival tip: Embrace death.

Danger No. 2: Selfishness

Managers are constantly challenged by risks. Whether it’s a turnaround situation or surviving a recession, risks emerge on the journey. Yet selfish behaviors surface during these risk times, just as with climbers who ignore dying colleagues. Managers concerned chiefly about themselves, with a disregard for others, diminish cultures, endanger profitability and kill performance. And selfishness infects cultures as well when you see people:

• Spending more time looking good to the boss than serving customers.
• Taking credit for others’ ideas.
• Avoiding accountability by backstabbing or blaming others.
• Adopting entitlement attitudes.
• Engaging in silo building and turf protection.

Selfishness drives the protection of sacred cow projects, blaming, accountability avoidance, backstabbing, political maneuvering, silo protection, power plays, buck passing, gossiping and "grin faking"—when people smile in agreement even though they have no intention of supporting projects. Selfish behavior sucks a great deal of productive time out of organizations. But rarely does an organization measure that damage to productivity. And the damage extends further as sales opportunities are missed, quality erodes, legal exposure grows, competitiveness wanes, waste increases, employee turnover escalates and morale declines.

Survival tip: Develop a compelling saga.

Danger No. 3: Tool Seduction

Climbers with the latest and greatest gear become stranded at high altitudes while experienced climbers sit at base camp watching the weather report. Likewise, managers seduced by tools can become overconfident zealots after reading a book or hearing a motivational speaker.

But well-intentioned, impassioned managers caught up in a fashion-trend theory find relief by posing better questions:

• Are our tools for organizational change, leadership development, process improvement, team building, continuous improvement, quality programs, culture alignment or other methods distracting focus from vital issues?
• Are our managers’ shelves clogged with interesting but irrelevant information?
• Are we experiencing consultant-of-the-week syndrome?
• Are motivational posters substituting for accountable behavior?
• Are managers throwing tools at problems to solve organizational woes?
• Do buzzwords abound in our culture?
• Is staff getting whiplash from frequent change programs?

Tool seduction costs companies a lot, as useless meetings derail productivity, activity becomes confused with results, and lingo-driven processes are used as weapons.

Survival tip: It’s not the tool; it’s you.

Assess transferability. Will this program transfer to us? Different cultures, strategies, leadership styles and customers thwart the best intentions.

Ensure commitment. How much discomfort is everyone willing to endure to make this happen? Change can be painful.

Expect to adapt. No plan survives impact with reality. As the saying goes, "Men plan, God laughs." What is our adaptation strategy? How will we know if we have to adapt the change program?

Analyze strategic impact. Will this change measurably drive our success, or is it just an industry fashion trend? Assess what the direct strategic impact will be on market share and profits.

Analyze organizational impact. Will this change allow us to act more decisively? Will it fuel our team’s passion for the challenge ahead or derail production with useless meetings, lingo and processes?

Pilot test. Validate the above assumptions with a limited and measurable pilot program before inflicting it on the whole organization. This also enables a great learning laboratory for your culture.

Performance theories or models don’t seduce high-altitude leaders. Is your company aligning behaviors or just throwing tools and money at problems? Are you running your tools, or are your tools running you?

Danger No. 4: Cowardice

Cowardice at high altitudes causes climbers to turn around or spend a lot of time on stories about their greatness that they hope will hide the truth. Likewise, cowardice stops managers from challenging the status quo, holding others accountable and exposing weaknesses. This danger happens when a manager tolerates violations of accountability, risk avoidance or the compromising of core values during times of trouble. And it causes organizational change failures by stopping the essential act needed for effective execution: telling the truth. Many managers find that telling the truth upsets people and causes discomfort, but managers committed to high performance love it, and it drives accountability. The alternative of keeping the truth at unspeakable levels only produces collateral damage that can include:

• Accumulating dead weight of marginally performing staff.
• Avoiding the real issues that thwart meaningful change.
• Sticking with doomed projects far too long.

Survival tip: Bravery.

Recognize the Dangers

Managers manage better by not ignoring dangers in the journey higher. Mistakes can be deadly to profits and market share penetration. A fearful, cowardly or selfish manager on a mission with a new tool can wreak havoc. By knowing what these dangers are, and the methods to survive them, managers reach higher levels of performance faster and safely. What dangers most threaten your company?

The author is a speaker and co-author of

High Altitude Leadership (Jossey-Bass, 2008) with Chris Warner. Visit www.highaltitudeleadership.com. High-altitude managers develop bravery that allows them to achieve the accountability, commitment and truthful communications necessary for producing great results. Rather than reveal the truth about a situation, do you choose avoidance, denial and silence to avert possible discomfort, anger or retribution? Do you hide or only whisper about the uncomfortable issues? Most management problems are behavioral, not tool-based. Organizations typically have plenty of tools. What they don’t have is desired behaviors—the decisions and actions necessary for success. Better to focus on behavior and adaptation. The latest gear is nice, but it is not as important as applying the right techniques and behaviors to the challenge. Before initiating another change program, do the following: Each team, division and company with a common drama that inspires passion for a strategic result keeps selfishness at bay. High-altitude managers ensure that strategies are clear to employees and have compelling sagas for their people. Companies succeed when the collective passion for the challenge ahead remains greater than egotistical agendas. What passion drives your people—selfishness or a compelling saga? Is your culture driven by the greater good or entitlement attitudes? This metaphor to accept and not resist, avoid or ignore the inevitable death of a situation produces winning strategies. Instead of freezing up, managers who accept death are freed up to take action. We’ve seen salespeople improve dramatically when they adopt the ancient strategy of "dying before battle." And managers experience a similar effect when leaders finally start making vital decisions during bankruptcy or recession.