Last week, I was involved in a leadership development/competitive event. Hosted by the local university, college and high school students traveled from as far as Florida to be involved in this event. An event that many of them will be talking about for some time.
It was in the middle of the afternoon, around 3:20 pm CT when one of the volunteer workers opened the door to the “presentation room” and told us we needed to evacuate the building. (The presentation room was the place where teams would present a “final presentation” to two judges.) With less than two minutes to go in the final presentation, we got the word to leave THEN.
So, upon exiting the room, we found a steady flow of many students, advisers, volunteers, staff of the hotel, hotel guests, walking in one direction – out of the hotel building down the “glass hallway” to the attached conference center.
No doubt, this prevented some of the teams from making their final presentations. Decisions needed to be made by the leaders of the event. What would they do? And why the emergency evacuation?
After some initial confusion, we were informed that there was a bomb threat and all had to leave the hotel. Also, decisions were made and the leadership team was able to bring the event to a close on schedule. Which meant all final presentations that were completed were dropped in fairness to those teams that didn’t get that far.
I observed three valuable leadership skills exhibited by the leadership team of this day long event. They are:
1. Adaptability. The definition of this word is: able to adjust oneself readily to different conditions. Rather than cancelling the remainder of the event, they adapted. It would have been easier to give up and end it then. But they didn’t.
I do believe we’re all adaptable, and you’re probably more adaptable than you realize. Julia Leigh
2. Calmness. They kept their “heads on straight.” It would have been easy for anyone to be upset and wring their hands, but nothing like that happened. The team kept calm while directing many people from one place to another. By doing so, all people kept calm. It starts with the leader.
My father used to say to me, ‘Whenever you get into a jam, whenever you get into a crisis or an emergency, become the calmest person in the room and you’ll be able to figure your way out of it.’ Rudolph Giuliani
3. “Thinkability.” Okay. There is no such word, but it works best for this next point. The leaders were able to quickly make decisions as fast as circumstances were changing. They were able to “think on their feet.”
You have to have your wits about you and think quickly on your feet. Michael East
I am sure there could be other points I can draw from my observations on that day, but these three are ones I noticed more so than others. They are also important for any leader. I also want to say kudos to the leadership team of the Leadership Challenge Event. They did a great job handling the entire day – including the bomb threat.
So, how does the story end? I bring this up as I am sure some of you are asking that question. Eventually, they found the item to be of no threat. And, as I write this, the local authorities are looking for the main suspect who delivered the package and threatened the hotel staff.
What about you, the reader? Have you experienced any kind of emergency evacuation? What are your personal observations of leadership in emergency situations? Or, what do you think leaders should exemplify in challenging events? Feel free to write your comments.