Climbing Through: Leadership Forged in the Struggle
By Derek Neighbors on March 14, 2025
The Struggle. The Perspective. The Peace.
Most teams are trained to dodge the mess—great leaders dive in. Leadership isn’t about sidestepping struggle; it’s about moving through it, pushing past limits, and finding clarity on the other side. The best teams don’t fear discomfort; they learn to harness it.
Every meaningful challenge follows three phases—whether you’re leading a company through chaos or climbing a mountain with the weight of the world on your shoulders.
1. Enter the Struggle
The climb is steep. Lungs burn. Legs scream. Everything in you begs to stop. But this is where the real work begins.
Struggle isn’t failure—it’s the proving ground. Too many leaders rush to fix, to rescue, to smooth the road for their teams. The best ones? They create an environment where the struggle sharpens, not shatters.
Here’s what that looks like: The founder who lets their team wrestle with a failing product rather than stepping in with answers. The engineering leader who holds the line, allowing frustration to fuel a breakthrough. The mentor who doesn’t remove obstacles but teaches how to navigate them.
Because the goal isn’t just to survive the climb. It’s to become someone who keeps climbing.
2. Lift Your Head
Surviving the grind isn’t enough—you have to see where it’s taking you.
At the summit, perspective shifts. The pain of the climb fades as the full picture comes into view. What felt impossible now makes sense.
Setbacks aren’t dead ends; they’re course corrections.
Great leaders help their teams find that clarity—even in the trenches. They remind people why the struggle matters. They step back, ask the right questions, point to the horizon. They show that today’s battle is part of something bigger.
A leader who panics traps their team in the weeds. A leader who lifts their head—and helps others do the same—creates momentum.
3. Find the Peace in It
The descent feels different. The body is still moving, but now there’s rhythm. Flow. Control.
Peace doesn’t come from escaping the grind—it comes from making peace with it.
For teams, this is when alignment happens. The chaos stabilizes. The group that once stumbled through late nights now moves as one. Leaders who push people through struggle and give them perspective also help them find their place in something bigger.
This is where great cultures are built. Not in easy times, but in the moments when the team learns to trust the process, trust each other, and trust that the climb is worth it.
Lead the Climb
A leader’s job isn’t to remove obstacles—it’s to help people push through them with strength, vision, and purpose.
Push them into the struggle. Pull their eyes to the horizon. Prove the peace is worth it.
Because leadership isn’t just reaching the top.
It’s becoming the kind of person who climbs—and bringing others with you.