Leadership Lessons Learned From Being Trapped in New Orleans During Hurricane Katrina.

It was the fourth day after Hurricane Katrina had struck New Orleans. As I stepped out of the elevator in my four-star French Quarter hotel, I was met with a scene that stopped me in my tracks: the lobby was completely empty, and the front doors were chained and padlocked. Just the night before, the lobby had been so packed with sweaty, desperate people that I could barely move without stepping on someone. Now, only eight hours later, I was the last person left in the entire hotel. I had been abandoned.

Standing alone in that locked lobby, it became instantly clear: if I was going to get out of New Orleans, it would have to be through my own efforts. I would have to take on the leadership I had been expecting from local authorities and find my own way out of that hotel—and out of the city.

Want to hear what Katrina taught me about leadership? Listen in.