Followership
There has been a lot of talk about failures of leadership. In one conversation, Tom Lattanzio raised an interesting point regarding failures of followership. The essence is simple: for leaders to lead effectively, there must be followers.This is an interesting concept which has implications for employee communication. I hope we'll get to discuss this in Chicago.
In the case of Hurricane Katrina, many people failed to follow evacuation orders. They did not take personal responsibility or ownership of the impending crisis situation.
This notion is controversial because some people did not have the means to leave town. Ideally, everyone would have a plan that might include some emergency cash for evacuation. But New Orleans is a poor city where many live hand to praline, and they expected leaders to provide for them. People will debate this dilemma for years to come.
My own decision tree was simple: evacuate if a storm escalated to category three or higher and was projected to pass within 100-150 miles of New Orleans. Mama Pizzo is almost legally handicapped, so I knew she couldn't climb onto a roof or into a boat during a rescue. I also felt a responsibility to take my pet - as well as myself - out of harm's way.
As soon as I returned home Friday night, I went online to read the news. There it was, a satellite image so chilling that I paused: this storm was huge.
Staying put was not an option.
In the morning, I kicked Mama Pizzo into high gear. "Pack what you can, and grab your prescriptions. We gassed up the car and withdrew cash. We also had a cache of traveler's checks ready to go, as well as some important papers in boxes prepared to stuff into the trunk.
To keep up with the weather, I had long ago registered with a local television station that offered severe weather alerts. It dawned on me that e-mail would be useless during the evacuation, so I registered to have alerts sent directly to my cell phone.
As the frequency and intensity of alerts increased, I started sending them via text message to my IABC colleagues who were meeting at the Hilton. It was time to raise the red flag. They felt safe because their hotel was a hurricane-rated shelter, yet I implored them to come with us or rent a car and drive north by northwest. "Get out of Dodge!"
This plan was basic, hardly all encompassing. Yet it allowed us to follow the evacuation orders earlier than the mandatory edict. We took that responsibility upon ourselves.
posted by CP for Ragan @ 11:00 PM
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