If You Want To Be A Leader Don't Do This!
69Business Leadership - What not to do!
While I was in my home, enduring the wrath of Hurricane Irene, I felt surprisingly confident that between my employer (the Massachusetts Air National Guard), FEMA, the police, the fire department and the myriad of state and local agencies poised ready to help me in a potential time of need, I would weather the storm of the century. But wouldn’t you know it, like many thousands of Nation Grid customers early on in the storm’s arrival, I lost power. Now, for me, it was a brief and momentary interruption, but for some of my friends and co-workers, darkness has endured for more than a week. As one of my friends noted, “What am I Laura freakin’ Ingalls from Little House on the Prairie? I can’t do this (expletive omitted!!)” I felt her pain. After all, I lost Xfinity onDemand for like almost a minute…it was very uncomfortable. You can imagine my complete dismay when yesterday, I read in the Boston Herald that while tens of thousands of her customers labored in darkness, the President of National Grid skipped town BEFORE the arrival of Irene to begin her vacation, lest it be interrupted by an inconvenient deluge of wind and rain. As a thought expert on high pressure leadership and author of the business leadership book, Scrambled, 10 Year Edition, I can say with authority the example Marcy Reed demonstrates, or would demonstrate if any of her customers could get on line and read the article, is exactly what not to do if you are a leader. Funny thing is, I am quite positive it doesn’t take an expert on leadership or an author of a business book to figure this one out!! The leader of a multi-billion dollar company like National Grid should know this, too. When asked to comment, her lame response was, “The fact that I was out of the state for five days had nothing to do with our storm restoration practices.” Um, REALLY?? Newsflash, Ms. Reed, your “storm restoration practices” aren’t really going all that well. A high pressure situation manifest by a predictable, slow moving hurricane, demands your leadership. Can you imagine if this were some sort of catastrophic cyber-attack on the grid, or a terrorist attack like September 11, 2001? The leadership of a company begins at the top. It sets the tone as its policies, standards and “storm restoration practices” ripple down through the company. Now I am sympathetic to the fact that this was her 25th Wedding Anniversary trip, but seriously, this one was a no-brainer for any leader. I’m sorry, if you are making the big bucks and you are “in charge,” you have to be there when the hurricane hits the fan. You cannot lead your company through a legitimate disaster in Massachusetts from the Beaches of Hawaii. What a shame for Nation Grid. This should have been their chance to shine. This should have been their chance to prove to the customers they serve that they are worthy of every penny of their ever increasing electricity bills. But no, the enduring memory of Irene, will not be that she caused darkness and troublesome days, but that the President of National Grid, Marcy Reed, was sipping a Piña Colada on the beach, while her insignificant customers were in the dark, and her insignificant employees were risking life and limb. If you are really trying to become a better leader, use Ms. Reed as the perfect example of what not to do. As Donald Trump, who I am pretty sure wants a copy of my business leadership book, Scrambled, 10 year edition, would say, “Ms. Reed, you’re fired.”
