Sherpas wanted for demanding journey.
Small team, complex challenges, fast pace.
Ambitious plans, competing demands, progress rarely linear.
Enduring impact in case of success.
One of the most famous recruitment adverts in history is often attributed to Ernest Shackleton, who set out to explore the Antarctic in 1914. It is said to have read:
“Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success.”
While the exact advert may never have been published, its spirit has endured. Shackleton was blunt about the hardship ahead and honest about the reward.
The Sherpa Programme is not quite so physically demanding, but it does ask a lot of those who take it on. It is challenging, it is uncertain, and it requires you to operate in dynamic conditions. Reflecting on my own journey as a Sherpa, the privileged position I now have supporting other Sherpas, and looking ahead, I wanted to share an open letter to the next cohort.
‘Lessons from the Trail’
1. Know your operating system.
This feels a bit like cheating because Stew, Boris and Rory all echoed something similar in their conversations with us, but it’s true. Be clear on what makes you successful. What do you need in place to do your best work? How do you work? What cadence of activity keeps you aligned? How will you handle uncoordinated requests and competing priorities? If you don’t know your own “operating system,” the role will run you rather than the other way around.
Top tip: I’d probably ask about this in an interview…!
2. Leave lasting capability.
You’re not working to be so indispensable your business can’t function without you. If you’ve done your job well, the business may well want to hire you permanently (and that happens for many Sherpas!) but the ultimate measure of success is leaving behind systems, skills, and momentum that don’t depend on you being in the room.
3. Stay practical.
There will always be more to do than time allows. A Sherpa’s skill is cutting through the noise and delivering solutions that matter most. This can be difficult for high achievers, but the trick is to keep the bar for delivery high while being extremely discretionary about your effort. Stay grounded in what the business needs now, and what can realistically be achieved in the period you have. It’s also essential for your mental health. Private equity can feel like a marathon run as a sprint. Add the two-year horizon of the Sherpa role and it becomes even more intense. You need to be practical about what you can achieve (and still find time for fun!).
4. Find energy in ambiguity.
There is no template role, no typical day, no fixed job description. One of the great privileges of being among other Sherpas is the freedom to shape your own path — and the judgment to know when it’s smarter to build on what already works than to start from a blank page.
5. Balance humility and ambition.
As a Sherpa you are there to accelerate an ambitious management teams’ journey, but you are also there to stretch yourself. Two years is a short window. Learn fast, prove yourself, and take pride in the fact that few roles will ever give you this much accelerated growth in such a compressed timeframe.
If you’ve read this far and feel more energised than put off, I’d love to hear from you — and maybe I’ll see you on the climb as part of Cohort IV!
