Musings at Altitude

I spent 3 hours at 37,000 feet today, and now I’m sitting on the ramp at an alternative landing site waiting for fuel before heading to our destination in Denver.  We diverted to Colorado Springs which is only 20 miles from my home, but we’re all staying on the plane and then flying to Denver which is 75 miles from my home.  There are 10 planes on the ground in front of us and at least that many it seems behind us, and probably the busiest this airport has been in a while.

While at altitude I started thinking about what leadership really means and how the mood of any team is so dramatically affected by the mood of the leader.  I also thought about how the behaviors of an organization will change during the mood swings of the leader.  When the mood is upbeat with reason for excitement, folks bring their issues and questions and ideas to that leader and look forward to positive momentum resulting.  When the mood is downcast or sullen, team members often times completely avoid the leader, putting off important discussions or decisions and waiting hopefully till the mood has changed and action can be taken.  According to my good friend John, “hope is not a strategy”, so during this period of anxious hoping, the organization could very well be combat disabled or at least impacted enough to greatly slow down things and create chaos.  Any impact is bad, so the mood of the leader could seriously affect the attitude and thus altitude of the organization.

In thinking through the attitude of a leader, great organizations recognize the moods and subsequent behavior of their leader, and they automatically (and smartly) look for alternative paths to get things done.  The best team members will work something else aggressively until the leader gets back on track, and take critical issues to a second in command (if at all possible) rather than burden the leader with the issues during those toughest times.  Also according to my good friend John, “leaders don’t lead alone”, so others in the organization can pick up the organizational slack during these moodiest of times if the leader has created that type of structure that rewards organizational momentum even during the moodiest of times. 

It’s probably irrational to think that any particular leader can be upbeat and on their “A” game all the time…but it is very rational to think that good leaders will empower their teams to take alternative action to keep the business wheels in motion when the “C” game appears.  During those valleys of emotion, it’s also very possible that good teams with respected leaders will find ways to minimize the downs and pull that leader back up much more quickly than would have probably happened without intervention.  That intervention can come in the form of affirmation, or a good win, or a note of thanks for that leader’s support, and with each positive stimulus the leader very well may climb their way out of that emotional abyss and back into that rarified air of business excitement.

I think I’m a fairly upbeat person (we probably all do), but I find myself often times during my greatest disappointments sinking deeply into a funk that could last from hours to days.  I’ll be pretty dejected after a long staff meeting where nothing gets accomplished or on day 5 of a 5 day board week.  Long meetings where I have to try and stay mentally focused bring me down, while short bursts of exciting talk with our team members pumps me up.  The ideal day for me would be critical meetings that last no more than a half hour and then lots of five to ten minute meetings getting updates from those fighting the war and getting better acquainted with all those on the team that aren’t bureacrats but are warriors.

Unfortunately, the bigger the company, the longer the meetings, and the longer the meetings the less seems to be accomplished.  Also unfortunately, the bigger the company the greater the attendance at the meetings and with attendance comes a strong desire for each attendee to prove their intelligence and to contribute some nugget of brilliance that can then make them smile and sense that promotion just around the corner.

Yes, I hate meetings.  In fact, I’m a big believer that most things shared in meetings could be shared through email to a wide distribution list and then the meetings could be reserved for those critically strategic discussions where the dialogue can’t effectively be captured through email.  It’s amazing how so many of those add on participants add no value when the dialogue gets strategic because it takes more than a sound nugget of input to be important in the dialogue and it takes conviction and confidence in the debate to be relevant.

Well the fuel truck is leaving and then engines will be starting momentarily.  We have a quick taxi as we burst out to the runway for our 18 minute flight up to Denver.  My wife is anxiously waiting there for me as I now get to overfly my house to get to her and the back track in the car back to the house then.  Thanks for listening during this brief respite in my journey!