I distinctly remember at time in the 70s when our ship passed through the
Strait of Hormuz, the narrow entrance-way to the Persian Gulf from the Gulf of Oman.
This is a very hazardous place to navigate. You've got huge containerships and supertankers passing through. And at night, it's hard to figure out what's happening.
I was on the destroyer, the USS Turner Joy DD-951, and we were with a small task force heading home to San Diego -- yeah, the long way around -- from a brief visit to Bandar Abbas, Iran. This was when the Shah was in power and we were allies with Iran.
I was one of two Junior OODs assigned that night for this passage. And our skipper made sure to be there to oversee what was happening.
At one point the Skipper noticed that a merchant ship was on a collision course with a cruiser in our group.
And for a moment, he and everyone else on deck with a pair of binoculars peered our eyes onto the dark scene.
At the last moment, the cruiser changed course, and our Skipper ran over to the radar and exclaimed, "They were so close, their radar blips merged!"
I put together an infographic about the qualities of a good skipper...
Hey...thanks for your service! Ah, you were on the Turner Joy! There is some history there...:)
Love the infographic...just love it (especially including Gregory Peck as Captain Ahab!)
I would not be in the least surprised to hear that one of your favorite movies is “Master and Commander”. It is certainly one of mine.
Of those five qualities you listed, the one I think that I would value the most in a hot situation is “Calm in the Storm”. Over the course of my life, I have found that the most impressive people when in a hot situation are those who keep their head when others are losing theirs. I know this, because I tend to be emotional, and have to deliberately and constantly fight it in myself when a situation arises.
In a hot situation (family, corporate, military, you name it) fear and heated emotion is contagious, and can become destructive to clear thinking and chances for successful resolution.
My wife is a critical care RN. One of the things that can become a “hot” situation, even among experienced nurses or physicians, is when a situation begins to become unwound during a code on a patient. Things get confused, people begin speaking louder and faster...you hear the urgency (and anxiety and even fear) in their voices...people begin talking over each other and shouting. The situation can degenerate quickly and put a patient’s life at stake. Anyone who has been part of more than a few patient code situation knows this.
My wife is the one, who would walk into a room with people running around and casually walk over to a conscious patient and say in a calm, almost joking tone “Having a little chest pain, are you? We’re going to take care of that for you.” And she would turn around and say “Okay. Everyone who doesn’t need to be here, leave. You, make sure you have the intubation kit ready if it is needed...you, get out in the corridor and direct the code team in here...” She knew that dynamic very well and was used to it.
I have been in a room where people took charge and did just that, and the effect is electric. Everyone comes down a notch...the noise decreases, speech slows down, things become less chaotic and more orderly, everyone’s training kicks in, and your chances of a successful rescue shoot up dramatically.
I work in a different field now, and a crisis carries the same dynamic. I am often the one who is called to take lead, but even if am not, before I enter the situation, I have an internal dialogue that says “Stop. Breathe. Relax. Think. Keep calm. Arrange your face to appear calm.” and so on. That way, when I get into it, I can help others who have more knowledge than me or may be more necessary in their role to relax and think more clearly.
So you can see, even though I readily admit that one thing without the support of other four items in your list is not going to be enough, being the calm in the storm is in my book, the most important one, and I am always duly impressed when I see that in someone. I always view those people in a different light.