Some speakers walk onstage with slides and stats. Alison Levine walked in with stories forged in hurricane-force winds, sub-zero temperatures, and the kind of decisions where the right call isn’t obvious until long after you’ve made it.

In her RCGNZ Summit 2025 keynote, Levine pulled leadership lessons from one of the most unpredictable environments on earth: Mount Everest. Not to romanticize hardship, but to translate it into practical advice on how to lead, adapt, and keep moving when your plan meets reality.

Here are the big themes (without giving away every story beat because watching the recording is worth it).

Step up before you feel ready

Levine shared that when she was first asked to captain the first American women’s Everest expedition, her instinct was to say no. She didn’t feel prepared—not fast enough, strong enough, or ready enough.

But the moment that shifted everything was simple: if she didn’t step up, someone else would. And they’d be the one living the adventure she wanted. The takeaway lands hard in a workplace context: sometimes leadership isn’t about certainty. It’s about choosing to find out what you’re capable of by showing up.

Build teams with the right kind of ego

One of the most memorable parts of Levine’s talk was her take on recruiting: ego isn’t always the enemy.

She broke it down into two types:

• Performance ego: People who are good and know they’re good. The confidence that says, “I’ve got this.”
• Team ego: Pride in being part of something bigger than yourself, where the mission matters more than the individual.

In other words, confidence isn’t the problem—misaligned confidence is. The best teams balance individual capability with collective commitment.

Progress doesn’t always move forward

Everest climbing requires acclimatization: moving up, then back down, repeatedly. It’s physically taxing and psychologically irritating, because it can look like you’re losing ground even when you’re doing exactly what will make success possible.

Levine’s point was that backing up is not the same as backing down.

Teams hit this all the time:

• Pausing a launch to stabilize
• Reworking a process after a failed pilot
• Revisiting assumptions because the market changed

It can feel like regression. But sometimes the fastest way to the goal is a temporary retreat that rebuilds capacity.

Fear is fine, complacency is the real threat

Levine described the Khumbu Icefall—one of the most dangerous sections of Everest—and pulled a lesson that applies directly to modern work.

In fast-changing environments, fear can be a helpful signal to stay alert, pay attention, and move carefully. The real risk is when teams get comfortable and stop scanning for what’s shifting.

If the last few years have taught organizations anything, it’s that change isn’t an interruption. It’s the operating system.

Leadership is a responsibility, not a title

At high altitude, everyone suffers. And Levine emphasized the truth that every person on a team influences outcomes.

Leadership isn’t reserved for the most senior person in the room. It’s the decision to:

• keep your composure when things get messy.
• do your part when the work is uncomfortable.
• look out for others, not just yourself.

And critically: you can’t ask your team to endure what you won’t endure.

Plans matter, but reality matters more

Levine was clear that planning keeps people aligned, focused, and motivated.

But on Everest, storms can roll in within minutes, and clinging to the original plan can become dangerous. The same is true at work: the best leaders don’t worship the plan, they respond to the situation.

Your plan can be solid and still be outdated the moment it’s finished. What matters is the ability to execute based on what’s true now.

Break big goals into small, winnable steps

When Levine described summit day—thin air, slow movement, high stakes—she shared the mental strategy of shrinking the goal that helped her keep moving forward.

Instead of thinking about the summit, she focused on the next visible landmark. One rock. One ridge. One chunk of ice. Progress became manageable again.

It’s a simple tactic, but it’s one most teams need when goals feel overwhelming:

• Define the next step, not the entire staircase
• Create momentum through visible checkpoints
• Let small wins rebuild confidence

Sometimes the strongest move is to turn around

One of the hardest truths from extreme environments is that quitting and failing aren’t the same thing.

Levine recounted the reality of making difficult calls near the top—when conditions aren’t right, continuing can put everyone at risk. It’s the kind of leadership decision that requires looking beyond personal effort and focusing on team impact.

The workplace parallel is uncomfortable, but necessary:

• Sometimes you stop a project that’s eating resources
• Sometimes you change direction when data changes
• Sometimes you walk away from the deal

Not because you didn’t want it badly enough, but because you’re responsible for what happens next.

Failure can become an advantage

Levine didn’t sugarcoat failure, especially the public kind. But her message was about what failure produces when you don’t waste it: stronger judgment, clearer thresholds, better decisions the next time the conditions are tough.

She also made the point that a low tolerance for failure stifles progress. Most breakthroughs depend on what earlier attempts taught, even when those attempts never became the story people celebrated.

Nobody gets to the top alone

Even when one person is on the summit, the outcome is built by many hands.

Sponsors, support teams, logistics, guides, Sherpas, teammates—success is never a solo act. And in organizations, the same is true. Visible wins are usually the final chapter of a story written by people who don’t always get credit.

That’s where recognition becomes more than a nice gesture. It becomes a way of telling the truth about how success actually happens.

The real takeaway: keep moving

If Levine had to distill everything into one message, it wasn’t “be fearless” or “always push harder.” It was this: you don’t have to be the best, fastest, strongest person on the mountain.

You just have to be relentless about putting one foot in front of the other.

Watch Alison Levine’s full mainstage presentation here.