Reaching Your Next Summit!: 9 Vertical Lessons for Leading with Impact
Reaching Your Next Summit: 9 Vertical Lessons for Leading with Impact by Manley Feinberg II is an engaging book that blends real-life mountain climbing experiences with powerful leadership lessons. Feinberg, an accomplished climber and speaker, uses his passion for mountaineering as a metaphor for tackling life's challenges and pursuing meaningful goals. The book is structured around nine "vertical lessons" that are meant to help readers navigate personal and professional growth, encouraging them to reach new heights in their lives.
The core of the book is built on the idea that leadership and climbing share many commonalities. Whether you're scaling a literal mountain or overcoming an obstacle in your career, you need vision, resilience, and the ability to motivate not only yourself but also those around you. Feinberg provides practical advice that goes beyond the usual business jargon, drawing from his own experiences of scaling some of the world's most daunting peaks and weaving in lessons learned from those adventures. His stories bring the concepts to life and add a sense of authenticity and urgency to his teachings.
The nine vertical lessons cover a range of topics crucial for any leader or individual aiming to grow. They touch on the importance of setting a clear direction, building trust, maintaining focus, and pushing through adversity. For instance, Feinberg discusses the need for establishing a “Belay” mindset—where you support others and, in turn, let them support you, much like the safety rope in climbing. This approach encourages building strong relationships that allow individuals and teams to weather challenges together.
Feinberg’s writing style is approachable, combining elements of memoir, motivational literature, and practical guidebook. His vivid descriptions of climbing and the mountains create a compelling backdrop for each lesson, and his use of metaphor helps translate his experiences into applicable advice. He strikes a balance between storytelling and actionable insights, making the lessons feel relatable even if the reader has never set foot on a mountain.
What stands out in Reaching Your Next Summit is the way Feinberg humanizes the leadership journey. He doesn’t present himself as a flawless leader; instead, he shares moments of failure, doubt, and vulnerability, illustrating that growth often comes from confronting our fears and uncertainties. This authenticity makes his advice resonate more deeply, as he frames leadership not as a static achievement but as a continuous, evolving process.
The book's structure—organized clearly by each of the nine lessons—helps the reader digest the information in manageable segments. Each chapter concludes with a "Vertical Lesson Recap" and action steps, which makes the advice immediately applicable. These summaries encourage readers to not just passively absorb the information, but actively apply the lessons to their own lives.
While Reaching Your Next Summit offers valuable insights, its primary strength is also its limitation. The climbing metaphor, while powerful, may not resonate with every reader. Those uninterested in mountaineering might find the frequent references to climbing jargon and scenarios a bit repetitive. However, for readers open to this analogy, the book is a treasure trove of inspiration and practical guidance.
In summary, Reaching Your Next Summit: 9 Vertical Lessons for Leading with Impact is an inspiring and thought-provoking book for leaders at any stage of their journey. Its blend of adventure and advice makes it a unique addition to the genre of personal development. Feinberg’s message is clear: whether on a mountain or in life, the path to success is about continuous growth, resilience, and the courage to keep climbing.