ROB HALL

Rob Halls Leadership Skills

Authoritative
The turnaround time of 2pm was never clearly
communicated and never executed.
A team member once wanted to advice to go
back, but since Hall had not made his clients
comfortable giving advice, he stayed quiet.
Clients had strong confidence in Hall, this
confidence was contagious for them, which made
them push for the summit.

Rob Halls Leadership Skills

Overconfidence
Market his 1995 expeditions with 100% success. His
1996 expedition was put together because he wanted
to prove the previous years failure was due to nature
and not due to his guiding skills.
Its worked 39 times so far, pal and a few of the
blokes who summited with me were nearly as
pathetic as you
Hall convinced clients that anyone who was
physically fit could climb the Everest without any
problem.

Rob Halls Leadership Skills

Bad Resource planning
Problem with guides which he hired. One of them had climbed Everest
before, but the other one had never tried to ascend Everest, though he
had climbed other challenging peaks in the Himalayas.
He did not pick right team members. None of his clients had climbed
any other peak more than 8,000 meters high. Took clients who were
more inspired than those who had the experience needed.
Hall selected a client based on emotional basis and for his own business
benefit. Doug Hansen was selected only because Hall lobbied him and
offered a discount. This was because Hall felt bad he hadnt been able
to guide him to the summit a year before.
Failure to anticipate resources needed. He thought he would find ropes
already in place near the summit, but when he got there he found out
there were no ropes in place.

Lessons
Being overconfident clouds judgement and you are not able to
take practical and good decisions.
Selecting incompetent team members for your own benefit leads
to a catastrophic failure.
Having quality clients is better than having a higher quantity of
clients.
Open discussion and joint decision making are often essential for
success/ good outcome.
Be flexible/ adaptable to the current situation. (Hall should have
let team members modify his rules as necessary during the climb)

Conclusion
Everest 1996 was a tragic incident.
Although external threats such as altitude sickness and
hostile weather conditions are always prevalent at
Everest but this happening was avoidable.
The major flaw in this event was not executing the rule
given by the leader. The 2 P.M. rule was neither followed
by the team members nor by the leader himself.
One should always a well-communicated plan and
should abide by it. A contingency plan must also be
prepared to survive during crisis.