Gratitude in Crisis: A Leadership Superpower

Aug 6

Illustration of a camper that lost its’ wheel

Imagine you’re heading out on summer vacation. Your 4 year old and 7 year old are all excited and jabbering away in the back seat. You double check the trailer hitch to make sure the camper is securely attached and pull out of the driveway at 9:30am. You figure you’ll be at today's destination by 3pm and you think back to when you were one of the kids in the back seat. You glance at your partner, “It’s beautiful out, I’m really looking forward to the drive.".

You’re not one kilometre from home and you hear a loud noise and then see one of the camper tires careen ahead of you, cross the road and into the ditch. Fortunately the tire didn’t hit any of the oncoming traffic.

You’re wondering, "How did the tire come off—I wasn’t even going 20km/hr (12mph) ?" Upon closer inspection, the only explanation is that overnight, someone removed the lug nuts from the tire. Very disappointing.

This is when Lyn and I enter the picture—we’re one of the oncoming vehicles. I drop Lyn off at the dealership just ahead—she’s picking up her vehicle. “I’ll stop on my way back and see if we can help.”

I arrive on the scene. The vehicle is safely parked on the shoulder. The Dad is routing through the ditch across the street for the wheel. The Mom is surveying the damage from the back of the camper. The kids are in the back of the vehicle, “Mommy, when are we leaving ?"

I say, “Do you need any help ? What can we do ?”

The Mom leaves me gobsmacked.

“We are so fortunate. This could have happened when we were on the highway. No one got hurt and we’re only a short distance from home.”

I’m thinking, “You are something special—some thug vandalized your camper and put your whole family at risk and within five minutes of the accident, you’re able to find the good and be grateful ?"

There’s a lesson here for me and there’s a lesson here for you. It’s a simple yet powerful lesson—a lesson so powerful that it will be a superpower for you.

No matter what happens, we can find something good if we look for it.

Does this lesson resonate with you ? I would love to hear one of your experiences.

And just so you know, they didn’t need our help and were able to reinstall the tire and were on their way within a couple hours. I’m sure it’ll be a vacation they talk about for years to come.