On the Edge: Leadership Lessons from Mount Everest and Other Extreme Environments

Alison Levine

Jan 2014 · Hachette Audio · Narrated by Alison Levine

About this audiobook

On the Edge is an engaging leadership manual that provides concrete insights garnered from various extreme environments ranging from Mt Everest to the South Pole. By reflecting on the lessons learned from her various expeditions, author Alison Levine makes the case that the leadership principles that apply in extreme adventure sport also apply in today's extreme business environments. Both settings require you to be able to make crucial decisions on the spot when the conditions around you are far from perfect. Your survival -and the survival of your team-depend on it. Featuring a Foreword from legendary Duke University basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski who knows all about leadership, On the Edge provides a framework to help people scale whatever big peaks they aspire to climb-be they literal or figurative-by offering practical, humorous, and often unorthodox advice about how to grow as a leader.

About the author

Alison Levine is a history-making polar explorer and mountaineer. She has climbed the highest peak on each continent, served as team captain of the first American Women's Everest Expedition and skied to both the North and South Poles. She holds an MBA from Duke University and served as an adjunct instructor at the United States Military Academy at West Point in the Department of Behavioral Sciences & Leadership.

Levine is a sought-after keynote speaker on the topic of leadership development and has addressed audiences ranging from Fortune 500 companies to the World Economic Forum in Davos. Having spent prolonged periods of time in some of the world's most dangerous and inhospitable places, she addresses the topics of creating cohesive teams, taking responsible risks and developing no-nonsense leaders that can succeed in times of uncertainty.

Levine serves on the advisory board of the Coach K Center on Leadership & Ethics at Duke University and is a strategic advisor for the Thayer Leader Development Group at West Point. She was a contributing author to the book Leadership in Dangerous Situations: A Handbook for the Armed Forces, Emergency Services and First Responders (Naval Institute Press).