Earthquake Leadership Lessons

By Kathy Korman Frey, @ChiefHotMomma

Lunch with dad gets rocky. Yesterday I drove into Arlington to have lunch with my Dad. I made what would be a final call on my cell phone. At the top of Arlington Rooftop Bar and Grill, we order our lunch, it arrives, and we start shaking pretty good.

I say to the waitress, “Is this normal?”

She says, “No.”

I look at my dad and say, “Let’s get out of here.”

We high-tailed it down the stairs, all the while the building was shaking. The ground was still shaking by the time we got down to the street level, which I view as a testament to our speed even in business attire.

“It’s an earthquake,” everyone told us.

When you’re from DC, hearing it’s an earthquake is actually a relief.

An Earthquake shows you who the wimps are.  I mean, this was a pretty junior varsity earthquake compared to our brethren in CA.  This is a picture flying around the internet:

Earthquake Devastation in DC

Source:  Famous DC

Here are three stellar leadership lessons. They have to do with mother nature, life, and people, which will always be bigger than business, which is a lesson in and of itself.

Earthquake Leadership Lesson #1

Leaders are Problem-Solvers, But Not Only the Problems You Might Think.

Problem solving ability is a well-documented top leadership trait. But, how does it surface behind the scenes in some of the world’s top leaders? I remember staring in awe at some of my business school classmates years ago (now world’s top leaders) as I learned their stories. These were people who’d already fought in wars and been in major accidents and survived things. They were so young. We were so young. But they were old, up here (point to head). They had the perspective of someone many years their senior having ALREADY been through shocking illness and life-threatening situations.  LIFE, not RESUME challenges. Their OWN, not telling their parent’s tales of the old country. It was an eye-opener. Mother nature gets you thinking about those things, even a 5.9 from Short Pump.

Earthquake Lesson #2

Top leaders have a “survival tendency.”  If you put these folks in a room, and dug a little deeper, they would they have the same traits I used to see when I worked at the National Council on the Aging. We’d study reports on people who lived a long time. How did they do it? Ability to weather tragedy, ability to retain a positive perspective, etc. That’s how. Other folks literally crush under the pressure. This goes beyond the typical leadership traits of power, motivation, etc. It’s Darwinian.

Earthquake Leadership Lesson #3

Top leaders have emotional intelligence. Who freaked in the earthquake? Who was calm? Who looked out for others? Who looked out for their own (reach behind, grab).  EQ and people skills: They still matter. Always did, always will. Play Well With Others. In this “press send” culture, you better develop your Brita impulse filter if you want to be thought of as a leader. Your ability to ruin your reputation in a nanosecond is there, waiting.  Read pages 116 and 117 for more on EQ and leadership theory. Fascinating stuff.

So back to the earthquake…..and people…and life. The earthquake killed my phone, school is out, and so I am busy raising the next generation of leaders here at Chez Frey.

My son had a playdate in the mancave with his friend. I’ll rationalize this as people skills.

I then ran a  “Five star spa” for two five year-old female CEOs who were very important, and here to relax.

“What can I get you before your massage, Madame President?” I inquired.

“We’d like some Sun Chips…oh, and some grapes please!” giggle giggle.

They were howling with laughter and feeling VERY important. A call came in:

I said “Oh, it’s your office. I’ll tell them you’re busy.”

My daughter and her friend looked at each other with utter glee.

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