When the leaders led the leaders

“When the best leader’s work is done the people say: We did it ourselves.”  -Lao Tzu-

The 2010 saga of the recovery of 33 trapped Chilean miners, after 69 days of sustenance underground in the San Jose mine is replete with lessons for all of us. This unique rescue operation, located in the remote Atacama Desert of Chile has been studied and written about multiple times, recognizing the leadership roles of Andre Sougarret, the supervisor of the operation; Luis Urzua, the shift supervisor who led the miners while himself being trapped with them underground; Sebastian Pinera, the President of Chile; and Laurence Goldborne, the Chilean mining minister.

A relatively less emphasized facet of the story is about the leadership traits and the resilience of the trapped miners. The miners collectively responded to the signals of the rescue team even in the first 17 days of the accident, even though the outside world was unaware of their location and their survival status. It was remarkable at how the trapped miners could establish the team dynamics of democratic leadership very efficiently, despite their dire predicament.

Every leader needs a team which is vibrant, cohesive and who thinks on their own. It is easy for leaders to have good rapport with the individual members of their team, but building strong interpersonal ties among them can be the hardest part. The leadership roles that occurred in this incident could only have happened at the team level. This can happen quickly if there is a common goal for the team, which was very much the case for these teams, both above and below the ground.

During this crisis, each one of the 33 took personal responsibility for performing their typical daily chores. As their confinement progressed, the miners’ also developed a conflict resolution mechanism.  They managed rationing of available food and water; worked to maintain their health and physical fitness; managed the available electricity and the lighting to simulate natural circadian rhythm. They had even developed a management method for sewage disposal. This cohesive leadership had solidified their interpersonal bonds, which paved the way for sustaining hope and safeguarding their existence for several months in the severely compromised environment.

At the outset, President Pinera set the tone for the rescue team with his mandate of: “Bring home the miners, dead or alive”.   Even though the probability of locating and rescuing the lost miners alive was recognized to be less than 1%, this clear communication from the top leadership resonated throughout the many hopeful rescuers assembling above the miners. It also bridged the gap between the harsh reality facing the men- and the high expectations of their family members gathered anxiously on site.  Another important message from his leadership was that he specially ordered a cross to be erected, to memorialize the trapped men just in case they failed to find them alive.

Team leader Andre Sougarret, though an outsider at the San Jose mine, quickly organized the entire operation. He adopted a well-balanced strategy of open mindedness in regards to making decisions. He empowered the members of his team, yet kept very involved himself in the operation.  Of note, Sougarret encouraged the teams to fail quickly, but then to learn and innovate from each failure.  Several attempts at drilling shafts to locate the miners were initiated, most failed in the difficult conditions, but due to his leadership, no one gave up.

On August 22^nd, after 17 days of drilling, the first major success occurred, when 8th borehole reached an open space, deep underground.  Within their shelter, the trapped miners managed to attach a message to the drill bit that broke through. When the drill bit was extracted, the rescue team discovered the now-famous note: “we are well in the shelter”.  These words energized the rescuers on site, and became the catalyst for a lengthy, but successful international rescue operation.

The operation culminated successfully on October 13, when on the 69th day, the last miner was brought to the surface in a steel rescue capsule built by Chilean Navy, in collaboration with NASA. The whole world celebrated!

Following the successful rescue, the details of the 33 miners plight became known. Trapped 2600 feet below ground, the leadership of shift supervisor Luis Urzua had been very challenging for the first three days. He very efficiently learned to manage the fragile physical and mental health of the 32 men under him, all the while being threatened by feelings of uncertainty and limited supplies. During the first 17 days, Urzua and his men developed a strong will to live and worked to manage their limited resources to last until they could be brought back to the surface.

The survival instinct of the miners was in perfect alignment with the determination of the rescue team, whose goal was to get them all out alive. This took place even without any form of communication between the groups until when the drill bit broke through, many days into the rescue effort.

I believe that it would be impossible for us to conceive of what it took for them to keep their hopes alive.  I am sure that many of the trapped men envisioned the grim possibility that rescue might not be possible. That they still held on to hope, and worked together to stay alive is a credit their boss, and to them all.

Luis Alberto Urzua, 54, shift foreman, is widely credited with helping the men survive. Even after their rescue had begun, and his team needed a moral boost, he demonstrated his high standards of leadership by deciding to be the last miner to be pulled out.   On October 13 at 9.30 PM, after waiting for nearly 24-hours for his turn, the leader entered the rescue capsule to follow his men to freedom.

“I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.”  -Alexander the Great-

Mahendra Bhandari MD, MBA

drmbhandari.com