Leadership

A few months back I was asked to become the track-lead for our annual user conference SNUG. Key responsibilities included getting customers to submit technical papers, getting them reviewed with appointed committee members, providing feedback to the authors and most importantly picking 4 of the best which could be presented in front for a wide audience. 

All this happened over a period of 2 months without many hiccups, but my job wasn't done as yet. The conference was yet to happen!

On the day of the conference I had to work with the MC to get a presentation ready for her so that she could introduce the judges, authors and welcome the attendees. I was to take care of basic logistics like plaque distribution. The rest of the work like maintaining decorum amongst the attendees and the corridor outside was assigned to other 'traffic cops' within the group.

Overall the job was pretty simple, but the real test of a good track-lead only comes when things start to get out of hand. Everything went smoothly till the afternoon session and shortly after lunch I realized we had a problem. Now, I can't really describe the real problem in a blog, but I can say that it was quite a major slip which could not be blamed on any one person.

A dozen or so sms's, emails and phone calls went out and before we realized we had only about 30 minutes left before the session would end and we needed a fix for the problem. It was at this time that I could have easily said 'Not my fault', raised my arms and run away from any further responsibility, but that was so not me. Instead, I asked others to relax, I decided to sit in the main conference room and checked the attendance. Something had to be done to ensure that the people who were attending would not get a slightest hint that there was a problem.

I just sat there quietly trying to come up with a solution. I knew I had to keep my cool - I had read enough that this was the biggest quality of any good manager....and it actually helped because it was right then that atleast one plan come to mind.

I shot an sms out to my MC with my suggestion. At first, it sounded 'weird', but slowly people realized that the what I had suggested was actually viable. It went to the conference management folks who were satisfied with it because it would help us get over the problem, atleast for that moment and buy more time for a fix.

All that was left now was to execute the same. The MC was kind enough to let me take the mike and execute what I had in mind and as expected things just went through without an issue.

An awkward situation was averted and everyone was happy. The actual source of the problem is yet to be investigated, but I felt very relieved that I was able to deliver when needed.

I guess temperament is an important virtue every good leader should have. You need to be able to keep your cool through a crisis situation, cause remember if you panic and start blaming others for your problems, you have already lost the battle!
 

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