Together Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita brought destruction and chaos to much of the Gulf Coast. In every situation, however, there are lessons and gifts. Here in Houston as a Katrina volunteer at the Astrodome/Reliant Park, I received the gift of watching leadership lessons demonstrated before my eyes.

Usually the impact of our leadership style plays out gradually over time, and we are not able to easily distinguish which variables caused the results we received. In the time-compressed atmosphere of the Katrina relief effort, however, we had the benefit of something like time-lapse photography. We could see strangers form work teams that either dissolved into dysfunction or developed an efficient rhythm despite the rapidly changing environment.

I will briefly describe the leadership keys I observed that worked.

Purpose and Passion
Everyone on the team knew the ultimate purpose of their work: to bring emergency relief and compassionate care to people devastated by a natural disaster. The volunteers all aligned with that purpose, found it meaningful, and felt passionate about it. Their passion and purpose motivated them to work long hours, to do difficult work and even menial or distasteful work willingly and with a sense of fulfillment. For example, on my first day I voluntarily sorted dirty disposable diapers out of a poorly marked container also containing damp dirty clothing in the women’s shower area.

Vision and Direction
In this case, leaders didn’t have to inspire passion or communicate purpose to the legions of volunteers. They were self-evident. What was not so evident, however, was what needed to be done, by whom, and how to do it. So many volunteers flooded into the Astrodome when Katrina survivors arrived that traffic clogged all around. The mass of inexperienced volunteers overwhelmed the workers trained in disaster relief. The survivors’ immediate needs of food, water, medical attention and shelter did get met amid the chaos, at least. Over the first few days, leaders with vision emerged among the volunteers, establishing direction for others, who eagerly fell into step. As they shared their visions and established a direction for all that activity, the chaos diminished.

Structure and Communication
Some leaders could see what needed to be accomplished and could point others in that direction. Their newly formed teams worked inefficiently towards the goal, however, because they lacked structure and communication. I watched one team leap forward in productivity when they developed clear structures of responsibility and systems for tracking their progress (instead of everyone just taking on the task they felt like doing in the moment). Their system also included daily training for the regular influx of new volunteers. They still stumbled, however, when one structured department of responsibility didn’t know the duties or accomplishments of another.
Even amid high adrenaline urgent activity, they needed to slow down enough to communicate effectively with each other. The team developed a new structure of taking time out for a reporting meeting each morning and each afternoon. In that meeting they learned the needs and accomplishments of each department, and were able to coordinate their efforts. The team leader had the opportunity to acknowledge individual contributions and communicate new initiatives and directions. The team members offered feedback on how the team functions could be performed more effectively. The team leader quickly recognized the benefits of these twice-daily structures for both listening and telling for his fast-paced team.

Empowerment and Strengths
With a clear structure and regular communication, the team began accomplishing many of its daily goals, yet there was still a bottleneck in the overall flow. Every time the team leader walked into the room, people with questions surrounded him. He could not accomplish his own duties to the larger relief effort command center, due to the interruptions. Yet, if he didn’t make himself available for questions, his team came to a near standstill.

The team leader recalled how he became a team leader in the first place. He saw a problem and proposed a solution to the leaders he encountered. Their response was, “Sounds like good idea. Run with it,” and they turned away to other matters. They didn’t try to do it all themselves, and didn’t micromanage him. As he demonstrated his capability, those leaders called on him for help, asked for his opinions, and gave him more authority.

The team leader recognized that he himself had become a bottleneck for his team, because he had not adequately empowered his team members to make judgments and take action on their own. He began telling his sub-team leaders to “run with it” and even refused to make decisions for some who were reluctant to take the reins.

As his own bottleneck cleared, he occasionally noticed bottlenecks forming down line. Closer scrutiny revealed a new volunteer processing her duties slowly and spasmodically, although the previous volunteer had functioned quickly and efficiently. The team leader paused to ask the new volunteer what kind of work she liked doing, and what she did really well. He encouraged her to capitalize on her strengths, and authorized her to switch roles. By finding a substitute with strengths in the original role, he improved the efficiency of two posts, and the bottleneck disappeared.

Epilogue
In a matter of days, an ever-changing group became an efficient team of 20 people tackling jobs many of them had never done before. The team hummed, even with a 70% weekly turnover rate as volunteers returned to their regular jobs, and new ones filled in. The workers expressed pride and fulfillment in their accomplishments. The team leader completed his service knowing he had just gotten the equivalent of a $10,000 crash course in leadership.

Our Teams
What can we learn from that team leader’s experience? If we want our teams to function more efficiently and productively, we can ask ourselves these questions:

  1. Have I clearly communicated a meaningful purpose for our work and inspired my team members to join me in my passion for it?
  2. Do I have a clear vision of where we are trying to go and am I pointing a clear direction to that goal?
  3. Am I willing to ask for the help and wisdom of others?
  4. Do we have a structure that clarifies responsibility and provides systematic opportunities for communication up and down the ladder, as well as across different ladders?
  5. Is every team member in a role that plays to her strengths, and have I fully empowered others to make decisions and take action to the full level of their capability?

With these guides in mind, leading a team can start feeling less like dragging a mule by the harness, and more like lightly flicking the reins to give course direction to a trotting horse.