Knight Campbell is the Founder and Managing Partner of Cairn Leadership Strategies, a company that uses outdoor adventure as a catalyst for leadership development. A former Naval Academy instructor and helicopter pilot, Knight combines his passion for experiential learning with evidence-based leadership principles. He also teaches leadership and strategy at the University of San Diego’s business school and is currently pursuing a PhD in leadership studies.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- [03:20] How Knight’s background as a Navy pilot shaped his approach to systems and leadership.
- [06:40] Why outdoor adventures create powerful learning environments for teams.
- [08:30] The link between systems, safety, and trust — and how structure frees leaders to be creative.
- [14:40] How well-designed onboarding processes build confidence and connection.
- [18:20] The balance between creativity and process in effective leadership.
In this episode:
What can climbing a mountain teach you about leadership, decision-making, and systems? Knight Campbell has built his business around that very question.
In this conversation, Adi Klevit talks with Knight about how outdoor adventure experiences serve as powerful laboratories for leadership development. Drawing from his time in the U.S. Navy and his work as a leadership professor, Knight explains why systems create safety — and how safety, in turn, builds trust. He and Adi explore how structure enables creativity, the parallels between guiding teams up a mountain and leading organizations, and the importance of immediate feedback in growth and decision-making.
The two also discuss Cairn Leadership’s unique approach to team retreats and leadership offsites. Whether scaling a peak or scaling a company, Knight shares how clarity, communication, and consistency form the backbone of effective leadership systems.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Quotable Moments:
- “If you don’t have systems outdoors, it’s not just inefficient — it’s dangerous.”
- “Systems create trust because they build understanding and predictability.”
- “Structure doesn’t kill creativity — it enables it.”
- “Outdoors, you can’t procrastinate a decision. You have to act.”
- “The best systems are those that define freedom within structure.”
Action Steps:
- Build structured systems that create clarity and safety for your team.
- Use experiential learning, such as outdoor challenges, to strengthen leadership skills.
- Identify which parts of your operations require strict systems and which allow for creative freedom.
- Apply the principle of “decision points” to business: pause, assess, and act decisively.
- Foster trust by creating predictable, well-documented onboarding and communication processes.
Sponsor for this episode:
This episode is brought to you by Business Success Consulting Group.
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