Crisis Management Archives

Great Leaders Run Towards the Fire

03/04/202203/04/2022Jon Rennie

Great Leaders Run Towards the Fire

This past week, the events in Eastern Europe reminded the world of what courageous leadership looks like.

The U.S. government offered to evacuate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky from the besieged city of Kyiv, but he declined.

According to the Associated Press, Zelensky said, “The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride.”

“The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride.” Click To Tweet

Instead of evacuating to safety, he chose to remain in Ukraine’s capital as Russian forces closed in. He addressed his frightened citizens from Kyiv and urged them to stay strong and united.

He reminded them, “I’m here. We won’t lay down our arms. We will defend our state.”

His actions stand in stark contrast to what we usually see from politicians. So much so that the entire world has noticed.

If you run a Google search for “Zelensky” and “leadership,” you will find hundreds of articles that news organizations have written about his bold leadership in the past several days.

Zelensky is demonstrating what it means to run to the fire. It’s a subject I have written about on my blog, and I cover it in detail in my latest leadership book, All in the Same Boat.

Great leaders lead from the front. Click To Tweet

Great leaders lead from the front.

They understand that when something threatens their organization, they run towards the danger and personally lead the efforts to attack the threat with tenacity.

These leaders know that everyone is watching them and how they respond to these challenges will set the tone for the rest of the organization.

The country of Ukraine needs strong leadership right now, and Zelensky is providing it.

The question is – what will you do the next time your company is facing a threat? Will you run away or towards the fire?

[Photo credit FACEBOOK / @Volodymyr Zelensky/A]

Hope is More Powerful than Strategy

11/12/202111/12/2021Jon Rennie

You’ve probably heard the phrase, “hope is not a strategy.”

While I generally agree with that statement, I would argue that hope is essential for leadership. And at times, even more powerful than strategy itself.

Hope is essential for leadership. Click To Tweet

The great Napoleon Bonaparte once said that “a leader is a dealer in hope.”

A dealer in hope? Yes, that’s a strange description. In my mind, I see a leader dealing out hope like playing cards to worried employees.

In a way, that’s exactly what a leader must do.

Consider Winston Churchill. In the dark days of the beginning of World War II, the British people were filled with despair. They had suffered heavy losses, and there was fear throughout the country that Germany would be successful in overcoming the small Island nation.

In a speech delivered on June 4, 1940, Churchill provided hope to a worried nation. He assured them that:

“We shall not flag nor fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France and on the seas and oceans; we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island whatever the cost may be; we shall fight on beaches, landing grounds, in fields, in streets, and on the hills. We shall never surrender and even if, which I do not for the moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, will carry on the struggle until in God’s good time the New World with all its power and might, sets forth to the liberation and rescue of the Old.”

In one speech, Winston Churchill ignited a country. He drove out despair and gave his people a hopeful vision of the future.

It’s our job as leaders to do the same.

In the past two years, every business has faced unprecedented challenges. A global pandemic, a deeply divided nation, labor shortages, inflation, and the supply chain crisis have all pushed employees to new levels of stress and anxiety.

People are worried about their jobs, their families, and their future. They are looking to their leaders for answers.

Just like Churchill, our role as leaders is to drive out despair and provide hope.

Our role as leaders is to drive out despair and provide hope. Click To Tweet

You might be asking yourself – how can I drive out despair when I don’t know what will happen in the future? How can I provide hope when I’m having trouble finding it myself?

Simple. We need to take a page out of Churchill’s playbook.

Instead of griping, complaining, and worrying in front of our employees, we must provide a hopeful vision of the future.

The only way to drive out despair is to unite our employees around a hopeful vision.

When the seas turn violent, and a storm blows in, sailors look to their captain for hope and assurance.

There will be time for strategy, but right now, our people need hope more than ever.

Providing a hopeful vision is one of the most important roles of a leader, learn more about establishing a hopeful vision in my new book All in the Same Boat.

[Photo by Rosie Kerr on Unsplash]

Who’s to Blame When a $3 Billion Submarine Runs Aground?

11/06/2021Jon Rennie

On October 2, the U.S. nuclear attack submarine USS Connecticut hit an unknown underwater object while operating submerged in the South China Sea. 11 sailors were injured in the collision forcing the Connecticut to limp back to Guam on the surface to assess the damage to the $3 billion warship.

As a submarine veteran connected to the submarine community, I heard a lot of speculation about what might have happened. Was it a collision with another submarine? Were they operating in the shallow waters near the coast of a foreign nation?

Most of the submarine veterans I spoke to came to the same conclusion – it was probably an uncharted seamount, something we all feared.

Seamounts are significant geologic landforms that rise from the ocean floor but do not reach the surface. They are formed by extinct volcanoes and rise abruptly to more than 13,000 feet, as tall as the Grand Tetons in Wyoming.

Despite having detailed charts of the ocean floor, many seamounts are unknown. Driving a submarine into one of them at high speed is the equivalent of flying an airplane into the side of a mountain shrouded in fog – it can be deadly.

In 2005, the USS San Francisco struck an uncharted seamount at full speed near Guam. One sailor died in the collision.

So, who is to blame when a nuclear submarine slams into one of these uncharted sea mountains?

Everyone in the U.S. Navy knows the answer to that question – it’s the Captain.

The Navy has a zero-tolerance policy for running a ship aground.

Not surprisingly, the Navy just announced that the Captain of the Connecticut was relieved of command due to a “loss of confidence.” The Navy wants their billion-dollar warships operating in liquids, not solids. When there’s a collision, the Captain always loses their job.

Even if the Captain wasn’t standing watch at the time, they are still liable.

You’re probably thinking, how is this fair?

How is it fair that the Captain, who isn’t even driving the boat or giving orders at the time, can still be liable if something wrong happens?

Well, the answer deals with how the Navy views responsibility.

The Navy believes the Captain is fully responsible for everything that happens onboard. If the ship runs aground, it’s ultimately the Captain’s fault for not training the crew and supervising them properly.

This is how the Navy views responsibility – the leader is ultimately responsible for everything that happens on their watch.

The leader is ultimately responsible for everything that happens on their watch. Click To Tweet

It’s a refreshing view of leadership.

Too often, we hear stories of politicians and corporate bosses ducking their responsibilities. They try to point the finger of blame on others in their organizations when things go wrong.

President Truman had it right when he famously said, “the buck stops here.” He had a no-nonsense approach to accepting responsibility for any decisions he made as President. He knew that he was ultimately responsible for everything that happened on his watch.

Accepting responsibility is a sign of a mature leader. People want to work for a leader who stands up for their team and doesn’t try to pass the blame when things go wrong.

People want to work for a leader who stands up for their team and doesn’t try to pass the blame when things go wrong. Click To Tweet

Leadership is more than just the title, the perks, and the paycheck. It’s about being responsible for the mission and the people under our care.

Leadership is difficult.

As leaders, we cannot pass the blame.

We must always be responsible and accountable, especially when things go wrong.

If you want to learn what it’s like living and leading on a nuclear submarine at sea, check out my new book, All in the Same Boat.

[Photo: The USS San Francisco in drydock after the collision. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 2nd Class Mark Allen Leonesio]