THE POWER OF "WE"

As a leader, do you honor and appreciate the power of WE? Do you stop to thank and recognize the members of your team? Do you consistently show an attitude of gratitude?

The story of Charles Plumb is inspiring and emphasizes the value of each individual of a team. Captain Charles Plumb, a graduate of the Naval Academy, whose plane, after 74 successful combat missions over North Vietnam, was shot down. He parachuted to safety, but was captured, tortured and spent 2,103 days in a small box-like cell.

After surviving the ordeal, Captain Plumb received the Silver Star, Bronze Star, the Legion of Merit and two Purple Hearts, and returned to America and spoke to many groups about his experience and how it compared to the challenges of every day life.

Shortly after coming home, Charlie and his wife were sitting in a restaurant. A man rose from a nearby table, walked over and said, "You're Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!"

Surprised that he was recognized, Charlie responded, "How in the world did you know that?" The man replied, "I packed your parachute." Charlie looked up with surprise. The man pumped his hand, gave a thumbs-up, and said, "I guess it worked!"

Charlie stood to shake the man's hand, and assured him, "It most certainly did work. If it had not worked, I would not be here today."

Charlie could not sleep that night, thinking about the man. He wondered if he might have seen him and not even said, "Good morning, how are you?" He thought of the many hours the sailor had spent bending over a long wooden table in the bottom of the ship, carefully folding the silks and weaving the shrouds of each chute, each time holding in his hands the fate of someone he didn't know.

Plumb then began to realize that along with the physical parachute, he needed mental, emotional and spiritual parachutes. He had called on all these supports during his long and painful ordeal.

As a leader, how many times a day, a week, a month, do we pass up the opportunity to thank those people in our organization who are "packing our parachutes?"

Finish Strong by Dan Green

On August 1, 1914 Sir Ernest Shackleton set sail with a crew of 28 on an expedition to the Antarctic. The mission of their expedition was to cross the Antarctic on foot - something never done before. Shackleton was a successful and highly respected explorer known for his faith, determination, creativity and conviction. He was knighted for his successful expedition to Antarctica in 1907-09. In order to recruit his crew of 28 he took applications from 5,000 men. Many believe that he placed the following ad in a London newspaper to attract the applicants. While there is no evidence that this ad actually ran, it does quite appropriately frame the environment that Shackleton was trying to recruit for. 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. This expedition was going to be different than any other one that Shackleton had led. Five months into the expedition their ship, the Endurance, became stuck in the heavy ice flows near Antarctica. It was not uncommon for ships to get stuck periodically in the ice flows and Shackleton believed that the ice would eventually recede and free the ship. His focus was on the expedition and he held fast on that course. However, over the next three weeks the ship became solidly frozen in the ice. Attempts to free the ship were futile. At the end of February, 1915, the crew prepared the ship to become their camp for the remainder of winter. At this point, Shackleton abandoned his primary goal for the expedition and turned his focus towards returning to England. His expedition had become a rescue mission. By October, eight months after being stuck, the pressure created by the ice finally took its toll on the Endurance. The ship began to come apart and sink; making it uninhabitable. The order to abandon ship was given and the entire crew began to salvage as many supplies as they could. They took the sled dogs, food, gear and three lifeboats and moved their camp to the ice flow next to their sinking ship. The temperatures were brutal; reaching -15°F on average. For the next five months the expedition camped on the ice flow surviving on what little food they had left. In April the ice flow they were camped on began to break apart. Shackleton ordered the crew to take only essential supplies and board the life boats. They fled the disintegrating ice flow and traveled seven days by sea to Elephant Island. Elephant Island was a barren place to be stranded; made up mostly of rock covered snow with temperatures reaching -20°F. For the next nine months, under Shackleton's leadership, the broken expedition remained loyal, optimistic, focused and faithful to their leader's belief that they would survive. Ultimately, Shackleton knew that their survival depended upon his ability to reach a whaling outpost that was more than 800 miles across the most treacherous ocean seas in the world. Determined to save his crew, Shackleton set-out in one of the lifeboats with five crewmembers to make the journey. The odds of making it were 1 in 100. Nautical scholars consider this journey by lifeboat to be one of the greatest nautical accomplishments in maritime history. Shackleton successfully made it to the outpost and returned to Elephant Island with a rescue party four months later. On August 30, 1916 after 22 months of being stranded on a barren rock in sub zero temperatures, the crew of the Endurance was rescued. All twenty eight crew members survived the ordeal and most were quick to credit the strong faith of their leader as the catalyst in their survival.

What an extraordinary story. But wait, there's more! When Shackelton landed on the island of the whaling outpost, they were on the opposite side of the outpost. He and his two companions had to hike over the mountains to reach the outpost. In thirty five hours and sub zero temperatures and without any hiking gear, they made their way over the mountains to reach the outpost.

A few years ago, a group of climbers retraced the path that Shackleton took over the mountain. With modern climbing equipment and experienced climbers, it took 48 hours to retrace the steps of Shackelton - almost thirteen more hours than the trio did ninety years earlier.


Now that's what We call finishing strong...

A Leader Should Know How to Manage Failure'

Something to remember, in  work ethics, in a world where we see too much of , " I, Me, Myself "

(Former President of India APJ Abdul Kalam at Wharton India Economic forum , Philadelphia , March 22,2008)

 

Question: Could you give an example, from your own experience, of how leaders should manage failure?

 

Kalam: Let me tell you about my experience. In 1973 I became the project director of India 's satellite launch vehicle program, commonly called the SLV-3. Our goal was to put India 's "Rohini" satellite into orbit by 1980. I was given funds and human resources -- but was told clearly that by 1980 we had to launch the satellite into space. Thousands of people worked together in scientific and technical teams towards that goal.

 

By 1979 -- I think the month was August -- we thought we were ready. As the project director, I went to the control center for the launch. At four minutes before the satellite launch, the computer began to go through the checklist of items that needed to be checked. One minute later, the computer program put the launch on hold; the display showed that some control components were not in order. My experts -- I had four or five of them with me -- told me not to worry; they had done their calculations and there was enough reserve fuel. So I bypassed the computer, switched to manual mode, and launched the rocket. In the first stage, everything worked fine. In the second stage, a problem developed. Instead of the satellite going into orbit, the whole rocket system plunged into the Bay of Bengal . It was a big failure.

That day, the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization, Prof. Satish Dhawan, had called a press conference. The launch was at 7:00 am, and the press conference -- where journalists from around the world were present -- was at 7:45 am at ISRO's satellite launch range in Sriharikota [in Andhra Pradesh in southern India ]. Prof. Dhawan, the leader of the organization, conducted the press conference himself. He took responsibility for the failure -- he said that the team had worked very hard, but that it needed more technological support. He assured the media that in another year, the team would definitely succeed. Now, I was the project director, and it was my failure, but instead, he took responsibility for the failure as chairman of the organization.

 

The next year, in July 1980, we tried again to launch the satellite -- and this time we succeeded. The whole nation was jubilant. Again, there was a press conference. Prof. Dhawan called me aside and told me, "You conduct the press conference today." 

I learned a very important lesson that day. When failure occurred, the leader of the organization owned that failure. When success came, he gave it to his team. The best management lesson I have learned did not come to me from reading a book; it came from that experience.