Traffic And Turbulence (Episode # 472)

What business and leadership lessons can you learn from navigating the challenges of travel, traffic, and turbulence? In this episode, Dr. Karen shares insights from her recent trip to Atlanta. While she unfolds her fascinating traffic and turbulence story, Dr. Karen also extracts lessons corporate executives can leverage to effectively lead through business traffic and turbulence.

Contact Dr. Karen at Dr.Karen@transleadership.com to respond to turbulence in your business.

The post Traffic and Turbulence (Episode # 472) first appeared on TRANSLEADERSHIP, INC®.

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Traffic And Turbulence (Episode # 472)

Navigating Atlanta Traffic: 13 Miles, 45 Minutes

I want to talk about traffic and turbulence. This is related to some lessons I recently learned on a trip to Atlanta. It’s a reinforcement of some principles we want to keep in mind about life and business. First, I’m going to start with traffic in Atlanta, 13 miles is a long way. I live in Colorado 13 miles is right around the corner. I imagined that it would take me about 30 minutes at the outside to get anywhere being 13 miles away. However, I discovered quickly that 13 miles is an automatic minimum of 45 minutes in a busy city like Atlanta.

On the first day that I had to be somewhere at a particular time, the GPS said, “You’re going to be getting there in 30 minutes.” I thought, “Wonderful.” As we were driving and my husband was driving, that 30 minutes turned into 45 minutes. The next thing you know, we got caught behind a train. I said, there is no way we’re going to make it at exactly the right time, even though we had left some margin in the trip. That was very stressful driving through the city of Atlanta. We learned to make sure we left no less than 45 minutes, no matter where we were going.

My role, since my husband was driving, was to be the assistant driver. The assistant driver is essentially the navigator. This is the person who makes sure that you see things that are difficult to see when there’s so much to pay attention to and so much to see. I would be looking at the GPS. I would be making sure that my husband knew what the next exit would be or what terrain we were about to face if a car was suddenly driving erratically and about to come into our lane because people were driving crazy in the big city.

We had to be alert for all of that. When I think about the navigator, the assistant driver, so to speak, I think about the caddy in golf. You’re an expert golfer, yet you have a caddy who’s alongside you, who’s knowledgeable about the game and can still give you relevant advice and counsel and help you to see things that maybe you might not be seeing or might not be paying attention to. Also on one of those trips, a train suddenly was in front of us and I knew that this was going to be an inordinate delay. In the big city, you just never know what might stop you.

Business Lessons From Atlanta Traffic: Navigating New Terrain

It could be other cars and traffic. It could be trucks. It could be an accident. It could be a train or any other impediment. When I thought about, “What’s the meaning of all of this?” If I think about a business application, if I think about life, here’s what I would say is that when you’re in different places, the same terms may have different meanings and implications. In Colorado, 13 miles is close. In Atlanta, 13 miles is far away. You want to keep in mind about the context of where you’re operating.

When you're in different places, the same terms may have different meanings and implications. Click To Tweet

You may be starting a business in another place from where you normally live and reside. When you open that branch, what are some of the difficulties or challenges you might face just because the timing may be different, traffic may be different? The way your business operates could actually follow a completely different trajectory because each place has its own optics. You want to keep that in mind. I would also say that you want to learn from your new terrain while you’re there and know about it.

After that first trip, realizing that the GPS was going to continually add time and add time, we learned not to pay attention to what the GPS said at the outset because traffic conditions changed rapidly. We had to know that terrain that 13 miles, that was 45 minutes. That wasn’t an hour. Some of what you already know about how you’ve been running a business so far. Before you’re trying some new things, you will apply that learning to the new place. However, it won’t be all that you need to know. You’ll also have new learning that’s necessary in the new place and everything that you’ve experienced before, not all of it is going to apply.

Not all of it is going to be relevant, though some of it will. Use what is relevant, use what you can, and learn new things along the way. The other thing I would say, it’s important to remember to leave extra time when you’re navigating new terrain. You want to expect the unexpected obstacles and unexpected challenges and things that stop you along the way in that added time, whether they be trains, buses, or whatever else it may turn out to be. Leave extra time on your journey when you’re doing something new in your business, don’t assume that it’s going to be the shortest possible time.

Make sure you pad it, and add some extra time to make sure you’ve got that cushion. I would say in your business, you also need a number of people who are in the role of assistant driver or navigator, your extra pairs of eyes and ears along the way because you cannot see everything all around you or in every department or in every location where you may be operating. You want skilled and talented people who are coming alongside you as your team members to advise you. That’s an important concept in business as well.

You’re not doing it by yourself. You have help and you want to use that help. The other thing I would say is that similar to a road trip like what we were taking at the time and also in business, you have tools that can help you. We were using some tech tools like GPS. Without GPS, we would have been lost many times and I am very thankful for the GPS. At the same time, as most of you know, GPS is not always perfect. There was one highway where every time we would go on this highway, it would route us off the path and then bring us back that wasted a lot of time.

Once we did that twice, we realized, “This is just a flaw in the GPS, we won’t follow that direction the next time.” We didn’t. Again, you’re learning as you go. Learn along the way. You have tools to help you. You have people to help you in your business. Use all of them and know that they’re not infallible. In fact, sometimes they can be wrong and then you make the adjustments. Also, perhaps wherever you’ve been, you’ve never been before or it’s changed. I’ve been to Atlanta a number of times.

Learn along the way. You have tools to help you. You have people to help you in your business. Use all of them and know that they're not infallible. Click To Tweet

However, I haven’t been there lately, and it seemed to be a little different, and we were staying in a very different part of town than we normally would stay. Therefore, the experience was different. Just because you’ve even done something before, been there before, doesn’t mean that it stays static, it stays the same. There may be some nuances of difference. I would also say, take time to appreciate the benefits of each location where you are. In Atlanta, because it’s a big city, there were multiple options, multiple services, and all kinds of restaurants from different ethnic backgrounds that we really enjoyed and that we really liked.

First Flight: Battling High Winds And An Aborted Landing

In Colorado, we have vast open spaces and lots of natural beauty, many occasions unobstructed to see the sunrise, and the sunset, and to watch the mountains and the purple mountain majesty. Each place has its beauty, and each place has its delight, and you want to enjoy the delight where you are and recognize the delight where you are, because there is some, even if it’s different from where you are accustomed to being. Those would be a few lessons that I would share about traffic. Now on that same trip, we also experienced some turbulence on our flight back from Atlanta to Colorado Springs.

We were taking two planes. On that first plane which was going to Denver, let me just mention that Colorado is well known for high winds. We have huge high winds and on that particular day, the winds were up to about 80 miles an hour. Here we are attempting to land in Denver with these high winds which up to this point we’d had a very smooth flight. There was not any turbulence with that particular plane and it was a big aircraft and that’s important because larger planes can handle the wind a lot better than small planes.

Here the plane is landing, starting to land, nothing unusual about that. It comes all the way down to the ground for the landing. Suddenly, the plane pulls up and it starts going real fast straight ahead and pulls back up in the air and it’s not landing. It goes all the way a long-distance straight ahead first. I was like, “What is going on here?” I’ve seen many planes that circle in the air for a long time because the conditions aren’t good for landing and then eventually they’ll land on the ground. I have personally never been in a plane that came all the way down, about to touch the ground, and then suddenly pulled back up.

That’s after more than a million miles in the air flying. I am a frequent flyer. I’ve got more than a billion miles in the air and I’ve never seen that. I thought that was unusual. I was not sitting by the window. I asked my husband and said, “Were we really at the airport? Was that the proper place because it looked like we were over a lot of farmland?” I said, “Were we trying to land at someplace that was not an appropriate place?” However, it looked like it really was the airport and somehow we just weren’t landing.

Now the pilot did not get on the loudspeaker right away to give an announcement about what was going on. Given that this first landing was aborted, I figured in this case, “They’re busy in the cockpit right now. They don’t have time to give an announcement just yet.” However, it wasn’t too long after that experience, the pilot did get on the loudspeaker and he indicated that there was significant wind and we were going to make a second approach to the airport and land the plane. Now, mind you, his voice was very calm.

There was no sense of crisis or emergency. The plane was flying fine, smoothly, no sense of crisis or emergency whatsoever. He was acting as though, “We do this every day. This is not a problem whatsoever.” I’m sure that he had to make a split-second decision about whether to land or not and then he opted for not landing, figuring it would be safer to continue the flight and to come back. I was glad it wasn’t dark. It was not dark yet. Even though it was in the evening, it was still light outside.

Perhaps he had to go further straight ahead in the distance because of the air traffic and other planes coming in. Perhaps because of the wind, he had to go a long distance straight ahead before he was able to circle and come back. In any case, my husband and I, we always have a practice. We pray before every trip. Before we left Atlanta, we were praying over our safety, over the trip, both on the ground and also in the air. At this moment, I said, “We have some challenges here and the pilot’s got to make some difficult decisions. I’m going to lift up some extra prayers on his behalf.”

Not in fear, there was no fear. I thought, “It was just different, yet extra prayers are always useful because we know who holds our lives in his hand and that’s God himself.” That was what happened on the first plane. The second approach was successful. We landed fine. A lot of time was added to the flight as a result of having to make the second approach. It was a mad rush to the second gate and we had to go from one concourse to the other, take the train, and so on. All of those things were somewhat significant and challenging.

Second Flight: Turbulence, Rough Landings, And Unexpected Delay

By the time we got to the second gate, it was really time to board the second plane. Now the second plane is going from Denver to Colorado Springs. It is typically and often turbulent on those flights because they have to fly at lower altitudes because it’s a very short flight from Denver to Colorado Springs. This particular day, the wind was even worse than usual, so more turbulence was expected. Thankfully, again, there was a large plane as opposed to a small plane. Larger planes, again, can handle these kinds of crises a bit better.

When we first started off, it was a rough takeoff, very rough. In fact, in my mind, it sounded like the plane was falling apart. I thought, “I sure hope they’ve done maintenance on this plane because it’s not sounding very good.” That was the first thing that was a little bit concerning. Of course, when we got in the air, it was up and down and turbulent as is often the case, but not excessive. It was quite reasonable for the normal trip going from Denver to Colorado Springs. I decided no need to worry about that. I took a nap on that plane. What woke me up was the rough landing.

The plane felt like it was slamming into the ground when we got to Colorado Springs. I think everybody was jilted by that. I certainly woke up from my little nap and the taxi into the gate was fine. It was no problem. We got down to baggage claim and it seemed to take an inordinately long period of time for them to even be thinking about bringing the luggage out and the luggage didn’t come out. We were there with our driver. When they suddenly announced that they were not going to be able to bring the luggage out because the door to the luggage compartment of the airplane was jammed and it was jammed because all the luggage had slammed against that door and they had tried multiple methods to open the door.

They felt that they tried everything they knew already that was safe to do and anything else they tried would not be safe and so they had to call in for extra help and reinforcements. A company that specializes in circumstances like this for someone to come to open the door. That would take a minimum of an hour and a half and probably longer. We had options. We could wait for the luggage, we could come back for the luggage, or we can have it delivered to our house. The driver ran upstairs and got in the line for us.

We came up and then when we replaced him in the line, he took the luggage, the hand-carried luggage that we had to the car and we registered to have the luggage delivered the next day. That’s what happened with that. Next, however, was walking to the car from the airport. Mind you, I said it was incredibly windy, very windy. When there’s a wind report in Colorado, typically, I try to stay indoors, stay home, and not be out in the wind because people have been knocked over from the wind. You could be hit by some flying debris.

It’s not necessarily the safest thing to be out in the wind. As I’m pressing against the strong wind trying to walk to the car in the wind, when hitting me in the face, I cannot barely walk an inch. It is that strong. I’m exerting a lot of energy to go forward and I’m not going forward very much. Maybe like I said, an inch or so along the way. My husband is standing at the door of the car waiting for me to get there so I can get in the car and he can close the door. However, when I get right to the point where the car is, suddenly this gale-force wind just stops.

Now, I don’t know if much about physics, but if you’ve been exerting a lot of energy and pressure to go forward and the wind suddenly stops, I kept moving. It propelled me at that same high speed and threw me into the car. That had never happened before either. When I got thrown into the car, I ended up hurting my left hand somewhat. I thought, “What a day this is that that was unexpected.” I didn’t have experience walking in the wind because like I say, I normally stay indoors when they have the wind announcement. Here we are.

Lessons From Turbulence: Navigating Life’s Challenges

I’m sitting later on after we get home and I realized that my hand really needs to be iced. I put a nice pack on my hands. I’m sitting there and reflecting over all these experiences of traffic and turbulence and the lessons that can be learned from this. I’ll share with you the lessons from the turbulence. That is, first of all, some trips that we take are rough. It’s not always going to be smooth flying, or smooth sailing, and some turbulence is actually quite normal in life. It’s not meant to be smooth sailing all along the way.

Some trips that we take are rough. It's not always going to be smooth sailing or flying, and some turbulence is actually quite normal in life. Click To Tweet

Turbulence is normal. Takeoff and landing can be especially challenging and difficult so because these are regular occurrences, this is a normal part of life. You want to be ready in the sense of having the right equipment for such occasions. I was thankful for the big plane on both flights because if we had had a mini plane from Denver to Colorado Springs, the flight probably would have been canceled. I doubt if the regional jets really could have handled the level of wind that we had that night. Even though the big plane was tossed a little bit, a miniature plane gets tossed in such a way you feel like you’re going to crash and die. I’ve been on those planes many times.

This was not a day for a small plane. Also, I would say it’s important to have experienced personnel. On that first flight, the pilot was unflappable. He knew what he had to do. He had trained, I’m sure, for conditions such as what he experienced. Therefore, when he saw whatever he saw when he got down close to the ground, he said, “I’m opting for safety.” He pulled up and said, “I’m doing a second approach.” Which is another important aspect, is you want to keep safety in mind. In your business, as you’re doing new operations and new places, maybe you’re in a manufacturing environment.

Your personnel can be hurt if you do not make the right decision. You want to have a mindset that’s safety-focused. I know that my airline, that’s what they care about. They always talk about safety first. I would also say bring in specialized help as needed. When you need it, a delay is better than death. With this door being shut, someone could have been severely hurt if they had opened the door, not having the extra expertise and skills for the conditions. If someone had been harmed like that, that would have been unfortunate. It’s inconvenient.

We had to wait for our luggage and it wasn’t available right away. We had to get it delivered the next day. I’d rather see than have a situation where someone’s hurt, harmed or killed because the extra specialized help was not there and safety was not at the forefront. I would say going back to the first plane, there are situations that will occur in your business, such as not being able to land or things are turning out different than you thought. When you can, and as soon as you are able, speak to your people and provide information about what’s going on and maintain the appropriate calmness for whatever it is that’s going on.

If you are in that crowded theater, as it says, even if there’s a fire and you’re yelling and screaming fire in a panicked way, that’s how people get trampled and killed. Even though there may be a fire, there is a more appropriate way to exit, if you will, the movie theater in a fire. Similarly, this pilot had a very calm voice saying what was happening, and what they were going to do about it. He was not at all worried in terms of the voice tone that he used and giving us the information.

Now, suppose it had been a much more severe situation and maybe he was concerned that the landing was going to be particularly tough or whatever, then he could provide direction. The same thing in your organization, provide direction to your people even after you’ve given the call message, “Here’s what’s happening. Here’s what’s going on.” If we needed to be in a brace position to prepare for impact, the pilot could have talked about that.

Again, he could have remained calm. He could have said, “We may face some significant turbulence. It could be a rough landing. We would like to ask all of you to assume the brace position and he could have described it. He could have had the flight attendants describe it. He could have referred us to the card on the plane for the aircraft.” All of that to say, “We are doing everything we can to have a safe and smooth landing. In cases more turbulent, we want to make sure that no one is hurt. Please do this for us and for yourselves.”

That could have been announced if necessary. In our case, it wasn’t necessary. In your company, sometimes the information alone is enough, and other times you need to give direction and you still want to maintain sufficient calm and yet reach everyone with the direction that you are given. Keep in mind that lots of events are going to be new and will be unexpected as you go along. No matter what’s happening, keep in mind that you can pray and take a nap because we know that God is the one who holds us in his arms.

Trusting God Through Life’s Storms And Challenges

I want to just read a scripture related to this. This is Philippians the fourth chapter and it’s verses 6 and 7, which says, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” I peacefully took a nice nap on that second plane in spite of some minor turbulence. It wasn’t anything to worry about or be afraid over.

When we give issues to God and we pray to him, we can trust that he is in charge and in control along the way. All of these are new experiences. I’ve never been on a plane, got that close to the ground, and pulled back up. I’ve never been on a plane that landed and couldn’t get the luggage off the plane because of the door being shut. The third thing that I never experienced was a wind force so strong that when it stopped suddenly, it just slammed me into the car unexpectedly. I’ve never experienced that either.

Keep in mind that even though turbulence is normal, sometimes it’s going to have a different impact or a different way of operating than what we’re used to and you want to know what are the proper strategies in each situation. Before I’m out in the wind again, I’m going to do a little research to figure out, how do you keep yourself maybe from being thrown into the car unexpectedly and possibly being harmed or hurt? I’ll do a little research to figure out what’s necessary. Of course, since I had a minor injury, when injuries occur, hopefully they’re minor such as mine was take care of them early and right away so that they don’t become worse so that they don’t become major.

When I got home and I saw that this was really a problematic, I started the icing up right away and the next day I had no swelling even though it was still a little bit tender. If I hadn’t intervened early could have been worse outcomes. Same thing in your business. When something is small and it’s a challenge, handle it then before it becomes something big. I hope you’ve gotten something out of traffic and turbulence that you can use in your business. Be prepared, rely on people, rely on equipment, and yet know that all of these things are fallible. Make sure you pray through everything because God is there to help us in a time of need.

When something is small and it's a challenge, handle it then before it becomes something big. Click To Tweet

I’m going to read from Matthew the chapter as we close. This is a picture of Jesus who was on some stormy seas. In my case, I was in turbulent air. Sometimes it’ll be stormy seas. Starting with verse 23 in chapter eight of the book of Matthew, it says, “Now when he got into a boat, that’s Jesus, his disciples followed him and suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea so that the boat was covered with the waves but he was asleep.

His disciples came to him and awoke him, saying, “Lord, save us. We’re perishing.” He said to them, “Why are you fearful? You of little faith.” He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. The men marveled saying, who can this be that even the winds and the sea obey him?” Take that with you this week and know that even the winds, the waves, and the sea obey our Lord. We can trust him. We can be asleep in a boat. We can be asleep on the airplane because God is watching over us at all times. That doesn’t mean you don’t take necessary and appropriate action as you need to and as we’ve already talked about. However, when you’ve done what you’re supposed to do, it’s smooth sailing. Let Jesus take the helm, be in the cockpit, and fly your plane to safety.

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This is Dr. Karen Wilson-Starks, president and CEO of Trans Leadership, Incorporated. Did that workplaces can make a significant difference in the lives of people and that you can create a positive culture that gets positive business results and also produces positive life experiences for your employees and your clients and customers? You can make a significant contribution to the world by creating a culture where your people can bring their gifts to provide the most relevant and excellent products and services to your marketplace.

What the research shows is that companies with excellent leadership are also more profitable. As you flourish and as you grow in the world, you can do more for yourself as well as for others. If this is resonating with you and you want to create a positive, profitable, and powerful corporate culture and you care about succession, leaving the organization in a better position than when you found it. Do keep in mind that that legacy is something that’s intentional, and I am happy to partner with you to take your organization to the next level and create that positive leadership culture. Reach me at Dr.Karen.TransLeadership.com.

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This is Dr. Karen Wilson-Starks, President and CEO of Trans Leadership, Incorporated. I want to let that I am running a special promotion right now. If you are a CEO or executive leader in a medium to large size company, and you care about how your people are treated, and especially if you share our biblical values, and right now, you may be facing difficult decisions where you want some additional perspective.

You may be planning for succession in your company and developing people and preparing the organization for that succession or perhaps right now you’re going through change. You’re leading change. Maybe there’s a merger, there’s an acquisition. Whatever you’re facing in terms of leadership, including developing your executive team, contact me. Give me a call so we can do a discovery meeting to see what’s going on.

Here’s the special promotion. The promotion is that in addition to your discovery time, I will interview up to three people, additional people from your executive team so you have even greater context and feedback about where to go next. Reach out to me at Dr.Karen@TransLeadership.com or phone me at (719) 534-0949, extension one. I look forward to hearing from you and to coming alongside you to complete and continue your leadership journey with positivity and profitability in your organization.