This is a Culture-Defining Moment: Leading & Connecting Through a Crisis

A few years ago, I was stuck in New York at JFK airport trying to get back to San Francisco. My fellow passengers and I were standing in our designated lines at our departure gate, ready to board. The boarding time had come and gone. After twenty minutes with no updates, people lined up to talk to the gate agent behind the desk.

But he didn’t talk to anyone — he was too busy talking on the phone. He seemed scattered, frustrated, and even angry. Then, he abruptly put on his jacket and left the desk without saying anything. We started talking with each other, making up the worst possible scenarios, looking at our phones, trying to figure out what was going on and what our action plan was. Was the flight canceled? Were we going to get home tonight to see our families? Should we look into booking a hotel for the night? Was it even safe to take this flight if it opened up again? The collective anxiety was palpable.

As we were comparing our imagined scenarios with each other (and these are usually worse than reality), a woman named Diane confidently, intentionally, and even happily, walked behind the desk. She put her bag down and, before even taking off her jacket, got on the loudspeaker and told us, with a smile on her face, that she had no idea what was going on, but she would get back to us with an…