Lessons on Leadership from the Little Things in Life: Schrödinger’s Gas Station
Life is full of examples that teach us lessons. That’s why stories and illustrations make learning so much more effective. When a story can be used to illustrate or demonstrate a valuable lesson, the story makes it much more understandable, relatable, and memorable. With that in mind, I want to take some time to do just that – share examples of circumstances and stories experienced in everyday life which illustrate leadership lessons that we can learn and apply. This is one of those examples, and it teaches us a lesson about potential outcomes.
There is a gas station near where my son lives that he likes to use, called TXB. He likes it because it’s clean and modern with excellent service and good quality products, including the options of food and beverages. So, when I was driving with my son in my car and saw that it looked like a new gas station was being built near my house, I said to him, “I hope it’s a TXB!” My son commented, “Dad, it’s Schrödinger’s gas station. It’s a TXB for you until it’s not!” (then he told me that was the first time that the Schrödinger’s cat paradox made sense to him).
As another example of this lesson, my daughter, who is a sixth-grade teacher, called me when she arrived at work to say that something metal seemed to be hanging down under her car. I described what my daughter said to ChatGPT, and asked what it sounded like it might be, so that I could be prepared when I got there. Based on the information from ChatGPT, I drove to her school with an idea in mind of what I thought I was going to have to do, which included using tie straps to hold up her muffler pipe so that I could take it to a mechanic in have it reattached, because that seemed to be the most likely option. When I got there, what I saw was a flat piece of metal sticking down behind her tire, so I laid down on the ground and slid under her car to take a look. What I discovered was that, while driving to school in the dark, she had driven over a metal construction tie-down strap, which had caught under her car. I was able to get it out from underneath the car and checked thoroughly to make sure nothing underneath had been damaged. The problem was resolved, but until I saw it, I thought it was something else. I had to crawl underneath and see it before I knew what it actually was, and could then address the issue and check for damages that might have needed attention (thankfully, there were none!).
Both of these illustrations are examples of what often happens in our leadership responsibilities. We face circumstances or have decisions to make, but we don’t always know what the outcome will be. In that moment, there are different potential outcomes. Our responsibility is to prepare for the possibilities, but allow for something unexpected. There are two very important things that we can do when this happens.
- We need to recognize that the potential outcome is often connected to current behavior. While I may not be able to ensure the outcome I want, I can choose actions and behaviors that may have an influence on which outcome takes place, or that can affect the impact of that outcome.
- We are responsible for how we respond to the outcome. Whether that outcome was something planned for, hoped for, feared, or unexpected, we get to choose what we do next. We choose what we think, we choose our attitude, and we choose the actions we take.
That’s the lesson on leadership from this little thing in life, from a Schrödinger’s dilemma about a gas station that was one brand until it wasn’t. When you have circumstances to manage and decisions to make, there are often variables and factors that can cause something unexpected to happen. You may not know what those things are until they happen, but what you can do is to be intentional about what you do in the process, and choose how you respond after it’s over.
