On June 28th an “unmanned rocket by Elon Musk’s SpaceX on a resupply mission to the International Space Station exploded Sunday just minutes after launch” at Cape Canaveral in Florida.
Now. I won’t get into the nitty-gritty of what did or did not happen to the supply vessel but what I will get into is how the leader of the company that made and launched that rocket stepped out in front of this crisis.
Elon Musk, the owner of SpaceX, tweeted minutes after the incident
Falcon 9 experienced a problem shortly before first stage shutdown. Will provide more info as soon as we review the data.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 28, 2015
Now, he could have had someone from his organization’s Public Relations department get out there and tweet or post on Facebook about the event. While most organizations have people that are paid exorbitant salaries to stand in front of the press and “handle it”.
Other leaders in other organizations would have let the PR people pass along the messages to the public. However, this is not who Elon Musk is, if you have ever followed anything he has done in the past you will quickly pickup that he is the man in front and the organizations follows right behind.
What does this say about a leader? It says a lot!
It says that this leader continues to have the passion in what he has made, built, and created. He has taken that passion and turned into a finely focused vision that those that work with and for Musk see with such clarity that an event such is this is not only Musk’s moment to shine (and bounce back) but the organization will follow the lead and comeback better than ever.
Heck, who would not want to follow a leader that leads from the front and is always found leading at the front?
Now for the million dollar questions: Do you lead from the front? Do you ever go to the front? Do you even know where the front is?
Seriously, most leaders/managers started out on the front lines but forgot where it was once they move up. Don’t be that kind of a manager instead be a LEADER!
reference: http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/28/technology/spacex-rocket/