A Leadership Lesson Lost

(MoneyWatch)  A dining incident this evening got me thinking about the leadership opportunities that can be found (or ignored) in any crisis, big or small.

My husband and I were on a date tonight (because, you know, Thursday is the new Friday). However, our outing was marred when P.F. Chang's served us mu shu chicken with a twist: meat with robin's-egg blue streaks in it. That's not a color found much in nature, other than in actual robins' eggs.

After we asked our waiter about this oddity, the manager, a youngish sort who looked like a kid playing dress-up in his dad's shirt and tie, sauntered over about five minutes later. Skippy (not his real name) suggested the cerulean tint might have come from the cabbage in the dish. When I pointed out that the cabbage was deep purple, not blue, he shrugged and said, "Well then, to be honest, I really have no idea where the color came from."

Long pause.

At this point, Skippy should have done several things: apologized profusely for the Technicolor chicken, comped our meal, offered us his business card and assured us that if we felt any ill effects from the meal, P.F. Chang's would take care of us.

But no. It wasn't until I suggested we receive a refund for our blue mu shu that he acted. We ended up with a gift certificate for $10 (note: the price of the dish was $11.50.) The only reason we didn't squawk was that we had to run to catch our movie.

It would have been a no-brainer for Skippy to hit a leadership home run by taking responsibility for the situation. Instead, he struck out in an easy at-bat. A leader facing a crisis must triage the problem, take any possible action to remedy it, and protect his team's and the company's interests. Tonight, Skippy did none of these things. Granted, this was small potatoes. But how would he react to a kitchen fire, a staff walkout, or a seriously ill customer?

Every incident, whether trivial or titanic, is a chance to practice your leadership skills. And an opportunity missed can have repercussions you might not consider... like being scolded in a blog for all the world (and your boss) to see.

(image by gargoylesoftware via Flickr, CC 2.0)