Fires in Yosemite Taught Me Leadership
In the most recent Master of Scale podcast, Reed Hoffman (co-founder of LinkedIn) teaches:
If you try to put out every fire, you’ll only burn yourself out. The best entrepreneurs? They let fires burn. Knowing which problems not to solve is just as critical as knowing which problems must be solved.
I learned this lesson recently when wild fires were burning near Yosemite National Park. After spending many days planning a trip for undergrad students, a wild fire closed the road to our campground. We decided to try our luck and traveled to a hotel about half way to Yosemite. That night in the hotel room I stressed about what we should do since I was responsible for the safety of the students. I stayed up late looking at alternative destinations, activities, and lodging. I finally went to bed with no clear direction.

The next morning it hit me. Why was I stressed? These are smart students learning about problem solving processes as part of our course of study. Why not throw it in their lap? So at breakfast I unloaded the weight of decision directly on their strong backs.
They settled on moving the destination to Lake Tahoe and we jumped in the rental van and headed out with nothing concrete planned. This unnerved some of the students since they are used to having everything meticulously mapped out. However, on the way, students found an Airbnb and activities and it turned out to be an amazing trip of hikes, water activities, sunrises on the beach, soccer in the sand, and smores from the oven.
I will ever remember to empower others to fight the fires or simply let them burn.
