Work Matters

Tag: Luis Urzua

  • Chile’s President to Luis Urzua: “You acted like a good boss”

    As readers of Work Matters know, like so many of us, I am quite obsessed with the (now) feel-good story about the trapped miners and their rescue.  I was taken with Luis Urzua's leadership, especially during the first couple of weeks when they were trapped with little food and no knowledge of the efforts being made to rescue them.  I love what the President said to Luis, of course, because I am quite focused on good and bad bosses these days — given that is what my new book is about.  Here is the story and the exchange was reported as follows:

    "A 70-day shift is a very long shift," said Mr. Urzua, standing before Chilean President Sebastien Pinera to symbolically hand over his leadership. "The first days were very difficult." Mr. Pinera told the miner: "You acted like a good boss. I receive your shift."

    Lovely, isn't it?

    I had written a post in early September called "Luis Urzua and the Trapped Miners: A Good Boss, Performance, and Humanity," which  considered the reasons that he appeared to be such a competent and compassionate leader.  That post emphasized how he was a good boss because he understood how to be "perfectly assertive,had  grit, used the power of small wins, understood how to stay "in tune" with the emotional needs of his people, and he "had their backs."   As the stories have been been emerging about what Urzua did in those scary early days, another theme emerges, a set of lessons, that are also worth mentioning.  As I write in Good Boss, Bad Boss and also in my HBR article on being a good boss in a bad economy,  when people are facing stress, fear, and uncertainty of any kind, the "recipe" that good leaders follow reflects four main ingredients:

    1. Prediction.  In crisis situations, the big things — like whether the rescue will happen or the next round of layoffs will cost you your job — are often impossible to forecast.  But a useful palliative is create as much predictability in terms of the small things — when meals occur, what they will be, and other little details of life. You could see with how Urzua rationed the food in the early scary days and in how they used the lights underground — including the headlights of trucks — to simulate 12 hours "days." 

    2. Understanding.  Even when people can't change elements that cause distress, understanding why bad things have happened and the implications for what people should do know is very important.  This not only helps people understand what to do, it gives them a sense of purpose.  Urzua and his team were kept apprised of the details of the three rescuse attempts and instructed what the implications were for how they could themselves and why.

    3. Control.  Along related lines, even when people can't influence the final outcome — including bad ones (unlike the miners). when there are elements of their lives they can have some "Mastery" over, it has a big impact.  You could see it in their efforts to stay in physical shape (I love the story about the miner who ran miles each day), and even in Luis Urzua's expressions of concerned that, although they had cleaned up things as well as possible before leaving the cave, there was a lot grabage that they couldn't get rid of.  Also, the efforts of 62 year old Mario Gomez as the group's spirital guide was important — he organized a small chapel, led the men in prayer, and counseled them about their fears and other emotional issue— both provided a way to introduce predictability in their lives and provided a way they could take control over their time. 

    4. Compassion.  The compassion that Urzua conveyed for his men was evident in his concern for them, and also the concern for others.  He was completely devoted to their safety, physical health, and well-being — as all the reports show.  And I loved that he was the last miner out… it reminded me of the old saying "officers eat least."   I would be very curious to know the more micro-details of his demeanor during the ordeal. The reports thus far is that he was very calm, which is the best possible emotion for a leader to convey and spread during scary times.

    I should also note that prediction, understanding, control, and compassion isn't just a recipe for crises, following these four guidelines can help bosses do a better job of all sorts of mundane but important things, especially when doing management "dirty work" like dealing with employees who are poor performers or are behaving in destructive ways.

    P.S. I am scheduled to be on CNN International tonight to talk about this kind of stuff.  I did get on CNN yesterday, but only for a few minutes.  PRI's The World also aired a fairly detailed interview that Lisa Mullins did with me.  You can download the MP3 of the episode here — the interview comes about 9 minutes in. As I said yesterday, Lisa is a great interviewer.

     

     

  • Luis Urzua and the Trapped Miners: A Good Boss, Performance, and Humanity

    I first wrote this post on September 6th.  I am highlighting it today to celebrate the rescue and to show some of the nuances of Luis Urzua's impressive leadership.

    When people ask me for one sentence summary of a great boss, I answer "He or she promotes both performance and humanity, and strikes a healthy balance between the two when trade-offs are necessary."   In Good Boss, Bad Boss, I quote a cool 2008 American Psychologist article by Mark Van Vugt, Robert Hogan, and Robert Kaiser who, after examining descriptions of admired and effective leaders in settings ranging from ancient human tribes to modern corporations and sports teams, conclude the best leaders are both "competent and benevolent."

    In light of this perspective, I am intrigued with reports (see here and here, for example) about 54 year-old foreman Luis Urzua and the impressive steps he is taking to oversee, organize, protect, and tend to the emotional needs of the 33 men trapped in the mine in Chile — a group that faces months trapped underground.  Urzua kept the men alive by immediately rationing food (two spoonfuls of tuna and a glass of milk every 48 hours for each man), which enabled them to survive and to avoid dysfunctional conflict until food started arriving through a small hole drilled be rescuers — a crucial move because none the miners had run out of food 48 hours before despite the rationing.  Uruza has organized the underground space (he is a skilled topographer) into a work area, sleeping facility, and so on, and is keeping the men on 12 hour shifts by using the headlights of trucks in the mine to simulate daylight.  He not only needs to keep the group healthy and focused to survive the ordeal, he  needs to stay in control because, under some rescue scenarios, the men will need to remove many tons of rocks to help with their own rescue operations.

    I was also taken with reports about the "leadership team" that has emerged.  The New York Times tells us that the oldest miner, 62 year-old Mario Gomez has "become the spiritual guide to his men, government officials said. He has organized a small subterranean chapel and is serving as unofficial aide to the psychologists working on the surface to cope with the miners' sadness and fear."  In addition, another miner, "Yonny Barrios, 50, the group's impromptu medical monitor. He is drawing on a six-month nursing course he took about 15 years ago to administer medicines and wellness tests that health officials are sending down through the 4-inch borehole and then analyzing in a laboratory on the surface."

    This case is so striking to me because Urzua and his team have taken such impressive action to tend to both the performance and human needs of the group — the blend of their competence and compassion is striking.  Moreover, if I go through the mindset of the best bosses discussed in the opening chapter of Good Boss, Bad Boss, the key elements are all there:

    1. The men are being pushed by their leaders (especially Urzua) hard enough to maintain their discipline and order, but not so hard as to be overwhelmed (consistent with the notion that the best bosses strive to be perfectly assertive).

    2. Uruza is showing extreme grit; in particular, a hallmark of gritty leaders is they treat life as marathon rather than a sprint,

    3.  In related fashion, Uruza and his team — and their advisers above — are treating this ordeal as a small wins situation, where the final goal of escape (and not getting overwhelmed by this big hairy goal) depends on one tiny victory after another.

    4. Uruza is clearly not suffering from detachment or power poisoning, as he is hyper-aware of how the large and small things he does affect the miners' moods, actions, and ability to survive; and he is not taking more goodies for himself than others.

    5. There is no doubt that he "has his people's backs," that he will do whatever is possible to protect them.  One way that good leaders protect their people is by limiting outside intrusion, and you could see this mindset when he urged experts to keep the medical conference call short because "We have lots of work to do."

    This is clearly an extreme situation, and you could argue that parts of it don't transfer well to the mundane organizational settings where most us work.  But I do think that extreme situations sometimes bring into focus what human groups need to thrive in terms of both performance and well-being, and what the best leaders do to help make that happen.  Indeed, I gleaned the five elements of the mindset of great bosses — being just assertive enough, grit, small wins, avoiding power poisoning (and being aware that followers are watching the boss very closely), having people's backs largely from research and cases in ordinary and mundane settings.

    P.S. For a take on how the miners can best survive this ordeal, check out this New York Times piece by psychiatrist Nick Kanas.