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Hello
Hurricane Sandy hit my hometown pretty ferociously this past week. After a harrowing night of fierce winds and rain, I ventured out in the early morning hours by car to check out the area damage and try to find a first cup of coffee from anyone who hadn't lost power.
The coffee cart located inside one local supermarket was the only place functioning with a generator. To my dismay, the line at the cart stretched 82 people strong looping around the produce section about 100 feet from the entrance. I took my place in line at position #83.
I observed that the cart had one coffee urn operating from one brewing station. The urn served 20 cups of coffee. When the urn was empty, it took approximately 20 minutes to brew a fresh pot. You do the math and you'll get an idea of the time investment this was going to take.
As I watched the line move at a snail's pace, the most disturbing thing I saw was that some folks in line were taking up to 4 cups of coffee when it was there turn, for friends or family waiting at home. This had the ripple effect of making the line go even slower.
One courageous woman called out to the manager and made a pretty impassioned plea to institute a 'one cup' rule. Her position was that the only fair thing to do was to limit this precious commodity in the most equitable way possible in light of the extreme circumstances.
What followed her brave action was an uprising, of sorts. Those folks who were looking for more than one cup began a rather selfish argument displaying their sense of entitlement and disregard for the unique circumstances or for their fellow customers in line behind them. One designer clad hot shot told the manager 'money is no object...I want what I want and I'll pay a premium for it if I have to'.
After a few minutes, the manager took a bold position that made a powerful statement about himself and his company.
'One cup rule for today', he said. 'For those who aren't happy with that, I respect your option to leave the line and find coffee elsewhere.' To which, the 'money is no object' fellow left the store in a huff, got into his Range Rover and drove off likely not to bring his loafers back into this store for quite some time to come. As for me, he's got a customer for life.
Two leadership heroes in this post-Sandy scene:
1) The woman who had the courage to stand up for her beliefs, eloquently express her position in a manner that was respectful of the greater good for all in a unique situation that called for some level of shared selflessness.
2) The manager who understood that circumstances dictated unique actions that were not going to please everyone, rather than avoid making a tough decision - he made one.
I got my coffee just 43 minutes later.
Greetings!
Mike
ph: 215-341-9740
email: mmalinchok@verizon.net Follow the conversation with me on twitter @s2kconsulting
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