Essays from West of 98: Reading the Room
This was a difficult week for many in Stamford, in Texas, and in America. A massive winter storm plunged many states into prolonged, bitter cold. As you know—all too well if you are in Texas—early in the morning on February 15, Texas’ electric grid effectively failed, leaving millions of Texas in darkness and without heat, for anywhere from a few hours to a few days.
It was a stunning turn of events, the likes of which I have never experienced and surely hope to never experience again. In Stamford, electricity was cut to our water and wastewater facilities, rendering us unable to provide basic water and sewer service to our citizens. We have spent successive days restoring services to our citizens and battling the numerous line breaks that arise when a water system loses pressure and then is jarred back into service. But today, I’m here to talk about how leaders respond in times of crisis.
There’s an idiom called “reading the room,” where you recognize the mood of a setting and act accordingly. If everyone else is quiet and attentive, you should be too. If you walk into a room of grief-stricken people, you do not crack jokes. It is a straightforward concept. And yet, it became abundantly clear this past week that many leaders are terrible at reading the room. A Texas mayor opined that people should suck it up and find their own water and electricity. A former Texas Governor boasted that Texans were proud to sit through blackouts to prevent federal regulation of the Texas electric grid. And yes, a U.S. Senator from Texas decided to fly to Cancún while millions of constituents were without power, water, or both.
To be clear, recent questionable decisions by leaders amid crisis are widespread and bipartisan. The pandemic gave us mayors taking vacations after instructing their citizens not to travel. Governors shut down restaurants and then attended private parties at restaurants. Sadly, there are many other examples to list. As a community leader, I find them personally disturbing and infuriating.
I recently read Erik Larson’s new masterpiece ‘The Splendid and the Vile.” It tells the story of Winston Churchill becoming Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the dark days of World War 2, then leading the British people through The Blitz, the brutal German aerial assault that lasted over a year, killed 40,000 civilians, and destroyed millions of homes. It is one of the best books I have read in years. To today’s point, Churchill was an absolute master at reading the room. He understood the mood of the people and his constant radio addresses said what was needed in a given moment. Sometimes he was grim and brutally honest because the situation demanded it. Other times, the people were weary and he was rosy and optimistic to boost their spirits. Churchill was not the only such master in British leadership. King George VI and Queen Elizabeth famously stayed at Buckingham Palace throughout the War, even though the palace suffered NINE(!) direct hits from German bombs. The King and Queen constantly toured bombed areas to reinforce their care for the British people. I have written recently about Lincoln and the importance of empathy in leadership. The War was not won or lost because the royal family stayed in London, but their empathy surely mattered to the British people.
Not every leader is a Churchill or has historic levels of empathy. But there is a base standard we can expect and I’ll leave you with a light-hearted description. On the NBC sitcom, “The Office” (a favorite of mine), clueless manager Michael Scott is preparing a speech to a business school class. He asks his top salesman, “what’s the most inspiring thing I ever said to you?” The salesman, a deranged part-time beet farmer named Dwight K. Schrute, says, “Don’t be an idiot. Changed my life.” He then elaborates: “Whenever I’m about to do something, I think, ‘would an idiot do that?’ And if they would, I do not do that thing.”
It sounds silly, but think about it. How many of our life decisions would benefit from us enacting that simple principle? How many leaders would benefit from it? Sometimes, leadership is just that easy. This world needs more Churchills and Lincolns. But at a very minimum, we need leaders who will read the room and abide by the Dwight Schrute Principle when they make decisions, especially in times of crisis. If they did, I bet we’d be a lot better off.
James Decker is the Mayor of Stamford, Texas and the creator of the “West of 98” website and forthcoming podcast. Contact James and subscribe to these essays at westof98.substack.com.