Over the last five years, Knight and his team have built Cairn Leadership Strategies, where they connect the business world to the power of outdoor adventure. In this presentation Knight will share about that journey, in which they have taken over 200 business leaders on 38 weekend long expeditions. They have rock climbed, backcountry skied, backpacked, climbed mountains and canoed all over the U.S. Knight has seen the “Comfort Crisis” in America firsthand and also coached hundreds of adult business professionals through their first camping, climbing or skiing trip. Through this experience, Cairn Leadership Strategies has built a strong case for why leaders need to get out of their comfort zone, out into nature, and off on adventures of any size.
Knight will share the research and science behind our need to get outside more regularly to help us become happier, healthier, and more creative. He will share the benefits of outdoor adventure for leadership hard and soft skills and the approach Cairn Leadership Strategies uses to build high functioning teams and thriving cultures from groups of strangers in 48 hours. Finally, Knight will walk through ways you can harness the power of outdoor adventure to improve your leadership and your team through small day to day actions you can start right now.
Father, outdoor guide, executive coach, and leader. Knight Campbell is passionate about the power of outdoor adventure to transform the business leadership world. After graduating from the Naval Academy in 2006, Knight led Sailors in the Navy for over 16 years and three deployments as a helicopter pilot. He earned Masters degrees in leadership at the University of Maryland and the Naval War College before teaching leadership back at the Naval Academy in Annapolis. He earned his executive coaching certificate at Georgetown University in 2017 and an executive leadership certificate from Cornell in 2020. Knight now pairs leadership coaching with challenging outdoor adventures to create sustainable breakthroughs for business leaders and teams. A skilled outdoor guide, he leads rock climbing, mountaineering, and backcountry skiing expeditions while offering executive coaching in the wilderness. He is an apprentice rock guide with the American Mountain Guide Association and rock, mountain, ski, canyoneering, and hiking expedition instructor for the National Outdoor Leadership School. As the founder of Cairn Leadership Strategies, he creates a powerful community for leaders by merging shared outdoor adventures, executive coaching, and an MBA-level leadership curriculum. When he isn’t helping leaders elevate, you can find Knight climbing mountains with his wife Leonie or exploring the wild with his daughters.
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