I have business traveled for almost 20 years. Occasionally, I reflect that I could have written a NY Times best seller if I would have journaled some of the crazy stuff I’ve observed in airports, hotels and Ubers. In my younger years I was never someone that did much air travel. My first time in an airplane was not until my freshmen year of college! Those infrequent trips by airplane were always met with anxiety because I was not in control of my ability to get to my destination. Then fast forward to the height of my business travel where I had accumulated a personal record 152 flights in one year!

Early in my career I was working as a managing consultant. This meant I had a pretty brutal travel schedule that typically required leaving Monday and not returning home until Thursday night. This was every week and the location changed every trip depending on the mix of clients that I was supporting. One of these weeks I was traveling to Milwaukee, but had to connect through Chicago. It was a hot summer night and like most flights through Chicago it was not only delayed, but as soon as we boarded the plane and pushed back we sat on the tarmac due to air traffic control delays. Being that is was a hot summer night there was always pockets of storms passing through, but on this particular evening, it was more than just a passing storm. It was a tornado that had touched down somewhere in the Chicago area and had shut down the airport completely. The pilot calmly announced on the radio that a tornado warning was in effect and that the air traffic control tower had been evacuated.

My mind immediately started racing with worst case scenarios based on a large metal plane with wings sitting in the middle of a large open area when a tornado hits, I definitely watched the movie Twister too many times! I think the captain sensed the anxiety of the passengers and made a follow-up announcement and assured us that we were in a safe place and he and the crew were in constant communication and monitoring the situation to ensure our safety was maintained. Now, looking back, I don’t know whether he was being truthful or just trying to keep everyone calm, but either way he was right. The tornado did not touch down near the airport and after about an hour of waiting we were able to taxi and take off to our destination.

Leadership takeaways:

1. In so many situations within your career or at home, control is very much an illusion. In many cases the outcome can be influenced by an infinite number of variables, the only thing you can control is your response and your attitude. I had no control on whether that tornado was ultimately going to hit the airport, I could only work to control my negative thoughts and fear.
2. In many cases the outcome may have a high dependency on others such as an employee, manager or family member. As a result, faith and trust are essential to maintain calm and stay the course. In my example above, I had to place a high level of faith and trust in the crew that they had our safety was top of mind and knew the appropriate actions to take.
3. For many of us a belief in a higher power provides a level of comfort and assurance that all things are working together for a purpose and ultimate good. My faith carries me through many things including the fear and anxiety that I felt when the captain made the announcement on that summer day in Chicago.