Wall Street Leaders Should Learn from Sully

Early on in this most difficult year for the global corporate community, business leaders were given exemplary lessons about the personal qualities and practical imperatives that define leadership. On Jan.15, Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger successfully ditched US Airways (LCC Quote) Flight 1540 on the Hudson River, saving the lives of all 155 passengers aboard.

The dramatic climax occurred a stone's throw or two from Wall Street, then as now struggling with a few crash landings of its own.

We don't have to surmise what those lessons in leadership are. There's a black box bearing eloquent testimony.

The first lesson is all about speed and transparency. After deciding immediately that it was not feasible to land at LaGuardia or head for New Jersey, Captain Sullenberger advised his stakeholders - i.e., the people on board - that they would have to land on the river and that they should "brace for impact." There was no sugar-coating, no temporizing. There was no instinct to shift blame (to the birds, to mechanics, to whomever).

Importantly, Sullenberger was imparting the bad news all at once. He respected his stakeholders enough to trust them with the unvarnished truth and, because he did so, his subsequent assurances were all the more credible. When, in those agonizing moments, Sullenberger told them that they were indeed going to make it, they had every reason to believe. When he said they'd be ok if they listened to him, he had already built up a trust bank based on candor. Wherever he directed, his stakeholders would follow.