Leadership, Trust and Managing Failures

There was a person tasked with the responsibility of launching a simple rocket ! He was given everything - abundant money, best of man-power - with the sole mission of successfully launching it in 6 years into a certain orbit. This was the beginning of the 70s. Thousands of people started working. They burnt the midnight oils and finally in 6 years they were ready with the rocket. 

An island was chosen for the launch. And after all the drills, at morning 7 AM, they launched it. Minutes before the launch, the computers threw an error. Our protagonist, who was the mission director, had the luxury of experts by his side. The experts quickly calculated and told the director that the error can be by-passed. 

The director, TRUSTING his team, bypassed the computer error and instructed to manually launch the 4 stage rocket. The first stage worked absolutely beautiful. Everyone watching live, including the global press, the citizens, was delighted. Such a proud moment for the Director and his team. 

But then in the 2nd stage, the rocket flirted with its course choosing to come back and fall into the ocean. It was a BIG FAILURE. 6 long years, money, man-power, hopes, aspirations, pride - all went down the drain instantaneously. 

A press-conference, with media from across the globe, had to follow. The failure was re-sounding. At that moment, the Director’s Boss came forward and decided to take the press conference himself and he declared “Ladies and Gentlemen, we have tried sincerely but have failed. We would try again and succeed the next time”. 

In an year from the failure, a second launch was attempted. This was after all an unprecedented success. The whole nation was jubilant, so was the protagonist - the mission director. The director and his team were waiting for this moment of joy. A press conference had to follow. This time the Director’s Boss came forward and told the Director “You go and take the press conference.”

This story epitomises leadership, trust, managing failures. When things went south, the leader came forward and took the onus of failure on his shoulders. When things were successful, the leader gave the credit of success to his team and himself took a backstep. 

Can you name the mission director and his boss? 

Do you have an interesting story to share ? 

Susnato

Sept 29th, 2019