CrowdStrike: Adaptive Leadership and Trust

When the CrowdStrike outage grounded flights and disrupted systems around the world last year, I was—of course—traveling. Stranded in Atlanta with no clear path home to Tampa, I made a split-second decision: drive the 450+ miles... with four total strangers.

Flight delays and gut instinct led me to recruit a band of four strangers to join me on a drive from Atlanta, Georgia, to Tampa, Florida.

(I do not recommend doing this under normal circumstances.)

There was the trauma nurse.

The regional sales manager/drummer.

The U.S. Department of Defense contractor.

A driver visiting from Mexico.

And me.

We scored the second-to-last rental car available, and took off.

We didn’t have cash, stores weren’t taking cards, and we weren’t sure we’d have enough gas to make it. But something bigger than logic took the wheel: a shared goal, trust built moment by moment, and the human instinct to help one another. Oh, and the adventure.

Along the way:

▪️The trauma nurse jumped on a conference call, and the rest of us gave her input on an org development problem.

▪️The DoD contractor slept (his kids at home wouldn’t care how tired he was).

▪️The drummer shared stories about his gigs.

▪️I squeezed in a phone appointment with my doctor.

▪️The driver? Just visiting the U.S. for fun, and fully up for the ride.

We went from strangers to teammates in just a few hours. We listened, supported, adapted. And we made it.

It was chaotic, exhausting, and also kind of beautiful.

👉🏾 How do you choose to take a leap of trust?

👉🏾 What have unexpected moments taught you about leadership or humanity?

Let’s hear your story.