These times call for leadership and clarity of mind. While most managers, employees and staff are struggling with fear, a leader steps forward and remains focused on opportunities and a way through the doubts.
I am reminded of a story:
”When I was a little boy growing up in Ohio, I would spend my weekends alone with my sister playing on the dusty stacks of packing boxes in my father’s factory. The four story WWII factory was empty and cold but for the whispers of two small children as we constructed our fantasies. We would make castles out of these boxes, grab snacks from the vending machines in the grimy break rooms of the employees, and wait for endless hours as my father worked in his office.
We would leave this exhaustive play, tired and hungry and nestle in the back of his Buick while we listened to Drag Net on the radio. I remember this one line from virtually every show. . . . But first, imagine two tired, hungry and dirty children on a bone-braking cold night . . . . in the plains of Ohio, just outside of Detroit and its sprawling auto-industry plants. . . . a lone car driving through the frigged snow covered corn fields on a dark and moonless night.
The line we would hear on the radio was something like: “Just the facts Ma’am, just the facts.” As a boy, I found this strangely comforting. That steady voice of whoever that actor was comforted me. I felt, perhaps, that somebody would be unaffected by the mystery and the drama of the story. He would sort it out and find a way to solve the problems.”
If you are a leader during these troubling times, who, better than you, is there to face the challenges in your life and find solutions? Can you use all of your resources to sort through the mystery and confusion and get to the “facts?” And as always, I encourage you to turn to your relationships as a primary resources for support, insight and the immediate value found in human connection.
© Tdukes, November, 2008
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
I love this story.
It reminded me of how my younger brother and I spent endless hours climbing behind upright bleachers (it’s amazing what you could find back there!) and empty high school hallways while my dad coached his basketball team/s. The two activities we always returned to were shooting baskets and trying to find enough change to buy candy in the vending machine. We never really bothered asking dad for the money because the desperation of not being able to succeed was a big part of the fun.
The sad part only came years later when I walked through those same halls and found that the magic we had created was so many times more satisfying than high school.