Leadership in the Face of Crisis

By David Weis, PT, DPT, MBA-HCM

Robert K. Greenleaf: "The first and most important choice a leader makes is the choice to serve, without which one's capacity to lead is severely limited."

September 3, 2015 at 9:55 AM the fiber optic communication cable was severed in the southern portion of Mendocino County. All cellular devices lost signal, all computers lost network connectivity, and all business phones went silent. All communications went dead across Mendocino County, except for a few land lines scattered throughout the community that could still connect with the 911 dispatchers. Suddenly, what had been an ordinary day screeched to a halt with a universal sense of fear and panic rippling through our patients, staff and physicians. Were we under some type of attack as a country? How could all communications disappear instantaneously? While chaos could have very quickly erupted, we pulled our leadership team together within minutes and I initiated incident command. We assessed the situation, re-affirmed everyone, created a quick down-time operational plan, equipped everyone with emergency radios and then went to all areas of the organization to support our team and assure them that we would get through this together. For hours while the rest of county wrested with communication capabilities utilizing HAM radio operators, we calmly and safely cared for our patients and supported our team members through the caring and supportive presence of our leadership team. 

October 8, 2017 at 11:36 pm the Redwood Complex fire broke out in a terrible wind storm after a branch hit a powerline sparking the flames. The up to 70 MPH wind gusts were blowing the embers close to a mile at a time advancing the fire across the dry mountains and hills of Mendocino County at a pace the firefighters had no chance of keeping up with. Approximately two hours later, after sleeping through two previous phone calls in short succession from the emergency response system, my phone rang again and one of our ER nurses was on the other line. She shared that a fire had broken out and it was quickly engulfing Redwood Valley, knowing that I lived there she wanted to make sure that we were not in danger. In my still foggy state of mind as I am processing what I am hearing, I said no I don’t think we are being impacted. As I stumbled out of bed and made my way to the back balcony, I was instantly awakened as I saw a ring of fire circling the valley we lived on the south rim of. The winds had blown the flames just a mile north of us and I had no idea how much time we had to get out. I quickly awakened my wife and we grabbed critical papers, hard drives, clothes for us and our two young boys, diapers, a few important toys and loaded them into the car. Meanwhile I kept going out on the back balcony every few minutes to make sure the fire wasn’t advancing closer to our home. We piled into our cars and raced down the mountain we lived on arriving in a grocery store parking lot a few minutes later to collect our thoughts and to contact a few of our friends and neighbors to make sure they were making it out themselves. A few moments later I received a call from my ED director that we were already receiving some injuries with more potentially coming. I rushed my wife and two boys to my mother-in-law’s home and then raced to the hospital to set up incident command. As I started to round on our teams in the early hours that morning, I could sense the fear and concern of everyone. Many of our team members lived near the fire zone and their families were struggling to get out themselves while they still expertly and professionally cared for the patients entrusted to our care. While our community was experiencing this massive devastation the Tubb’s fire wreaked havoc just 50 miles to the south of us forcing hospitals in Santa Rosa, California to evacuate their patients on city buses as the flames burned onto their campuses. With fires now to the north and south of us we became an isolated island with no ability to get outside help in by road or by air ambulance helicopter service due to the poor visibility the multiple fires in our area created. While I coordinated with county emergency management officials to potentially bring in an Air National Guard Black Hawk helicopter to evacuate patients to a higher level of care, our teams diligently did their work despite knowing that we were not going to get any help from the outside to deal with this crisis. Our teams quickly coordinated with other clinics and nursing homes in our area to acquire additional supplies to care for burn victims. While burn centers all over Northern California became inundated with cases due to the wide spread devastation in Mendocino, Sonoma, and Napa counties, we were able to get our patients out to the units that they needed to be in. That night 44 people died in the fires in Northern California, with 9 of the fatalities within 15 miles of our hospital where they couldn’t get out of their homes in time. 5,600 structures were destroyed including the homes of several of our team members that night and a quarter of all the residences in Redwood Valley, California. Throughout this disaster, we saw the very best in our team and in our community. Team members who had even lost their homes or weren’t sure if they had lost their homes after hastily evacuating, continued to show up every day and serve our community. 

July 27, 2018 the Mendocino Complex Fire started approximately 15 miles from our hospital after a rancher incidentally sparked the blaze by driving a fence post into the ground. It burned 459,123 acres and destroyed 280 structures and become the biggest fire in state history before it was fully contained two months later. Over a period of several weeks the fire continued to threaten our community with rolling evacuation warning notices becoming the norm. The ultimate devastation and loss from this fire was an out of state firefighter who gave his life fighting this fire. The impact this loss of life had on our team and first responders throughout the area was profound and made us all realize that there is no greater sacrifice than for someone to put their life on the line to help you and your community and lose it in that effort. This is an experience being played out the world over right now as health care providers put their lives on the line every day to care for our communities in their hour of greatest need. 

January 30, 2020 the W.H.O. declared a global health emergency due to COVID-19. Since early January the world has watched this evolve first in Wuhan, China and then shockingly as it spread rapidly around the world. While we watch the number of positive cases and death tolls rise globally, it is easy to understand why our communities, our staff, and physicians can be gripped with fear of how this will impact them and their families.  This unseen enemy has changed the world as we know it, likely forever. As we grapple with this global pandemic, there are several key leadership principles that I have found to be invaluable through the crises I have lead my teams through in the past and present and I hope they may be helpful to you in this uncertain time. The first is Prayer. Isaiah 41:10 says: “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” God will give you the wisdom you need regardless of the situation you are in. Pray for wisdom, pray for your team, and pray for strength to lead through the challenges ahead. 

The second is Presence and Connection. There is nothing more powerful than personal connection with our teams on the front line of this or any other crisis. Listening to their suggestions, thoughts, concerns, and acting on issues that we can resolve to make them feel cared for and supported. In John Maxwell’s 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership the Law of Connection applies here. “Leaders touch a heart before they ask for a hand.” Maxwell goes on to say, “You develop credibility with people when you connect with them and show that you genuinely care and want to help them.” It can be very difficult to build this connection and trust in the face of crisis if you have not already been intentional about developing this with your team, but you can still humbly start now. The third is Transparency. Tell the truth, be honest about what is going on. Our teams are incredibly resilient, but a lack of transparency will immediately result in a lack of trust and commitment from your teams. The fourth is stay Calm. Our teams are incredibly perceptive and when you get easily flustered the stress and anxiety of the situation is magnified as your teams take their cues from you. I claim the promise of 2 Timothy 1:7: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and of a sound mind.”  The double rainbow in the image above was taken overlooking Redwood Valley several weeks after the devastating wild fires destroyed life and property. Out of such bleakness came this amazing sign of hope. I am confident that as we lead by serving our patients, teams, and physicians first, we will see another rainbow after the crisis we are faced with today. May God bless you in your work.