“Sometime
around 2:10 a.m. as the Titanic
began settling more quickly into the icy North Atlantic, the sounds of ragtime,
familiar dance tunes and popular waltzes that had floated reassuringly across
her decks suddenly stopped as Bandmaster Wallace Hartley tapped his bow against
his violin. Hartley and his musicians, all wearing their lifebelts now,
were standing back at the base of the second funnel, on the roof of the
First Class Lounge, where they had been playing for the better part of an
hour. There had been a few moments of silence, then the solemn strains of
the hymn “Nearer My God to Thee” began drifting across the water. It was
with a perhaps unintended irony that Hartley chose a hymn that pleaded for the
mercy of the Almighty, as the ultimate material conceit of the Edwardian Age,
the ship that “God Himself couldn’t sink,” foundered beneath his feet. As
the band played, the slant of the deck grew steeper, while from within the hull
came a rapidly increasing number of thuds, bangs and crashes as interior
furnishings broke loose, walls and partitions collapsed–the Titanic was only moments from breaking
apart.”¹
I’m
sure you recognize the story that is told here. The band, while employed
on the ship, were not crew members of the ship. They were in fact
employed by a Liverpool music agency who was employed by the ship. Thus,
the musicians were just ‘passengers’ like everyone else outside of the ship’s
crew. They could have left at any time they wanted, just like the
passengers were leaving. Note that the entire band perished in the
icy North Atlantic waters that morning along with 1495 fellow passengers and
crew.
When
you look at the lives of these men (short descriptions here), you
don’t find anything that would have caused you to believe that they would
possess such courage. Yet, when the time came, the gave all.
When
you stop and think, I would say that our survival instincts would prove to be
one of our highest, so knowingly going to your ‘grave’ just isn’t something the
overwhelming majority of people would ever do. How was it that Wallace Hartley
was able to lead his team in a way that caused them to stay and play (work)
when everyone around them was panicking? They obviously saw something in
this leader that caused them to follow him, to the very end.
So as
you lead your team today, ask yourself these questions:
o
Am
I hiring top talent for the positions I’m filling?
o
What
culture am I instilling within the team concerning the customer experience,
comradery, and the company mission & vision?
o
Am
I a leader that people believe in and trust?
o
Do
I lead by example?
o
Am
I a leader that people willingly follow?
o
Am
I a leader that inspires?
o
Am
I seen as a servant leader or a task master?
o
Everyone
leaves some type of legacy – what will mine be?
“A man who wants
to lead the orchestra
must turn his back on the crowd.”
~Max Lucado
must turn his back on the crowd.”
~Max Lucado
¹From
RMS Titanic Remembered
No comments:
Post a Comment