“Leaders need to understand that some of their ability to lead a team comes from the tendency of people to respect the chain of command. But to really reach the next level of organizational performance, the leader must earn it through exhibiting traits like the ones shown by Manus Duggan.”

In 1917, the North Butte Mining Company owned and operated one of the most productive copper mines in North America in Butte, Montana. In the early twentieth century, underground mining was one of the most dangerous lines of work to have and there were very few safety measures in place with most of those being voluntary. These lax conditions led to the worst mining disaster of the twentieth century. Just before midnight on June 8, 1917, a fire broke out in the Granite Mountain Shaft of the mine complex. The fire began when a shaft cable snapped and as it fell the lead sheathing was stripped away that insulated the electric wires within. Extremely flammable oil-soaked cloth that insulated the electrical wires became exposed and was ignited by an open-flame carbide lantern used by a maintenance worker at the 2,600-foot level of the shaft. The flames spread quickly in the wood timbered shaft, and, over the next few hours, one hundred and sixty-four mine workers would perish.

Most of the mine workers deep in the shaft who became aware of the fire struggled to save themselves by finding clear passageways that would get them past the flames and most importantly, the toxic fumes. Tragically, most failed. One man named Manus Duggan led a group of twenty-seven men from the 2,400-foot level to safety, the only ones trapped that deep in the mine that survived. Duggan was a worker called a nipper, which consisted of traveling throughout the mine gathering tools to sharpen and then return them to the miners. A man in this position would have no company rank to cause other men to follow him and heed his orders, so why did they?

One factor was that Duggan showed commitment to his team. When news of the fire reached him, Duggan went from the 2,400-foot level down to the 2,600-foot level (twenty stories of mine shaft) to find other miners and warn them. He then went up to the 2,200-foot level to do the same before returning to the 2,400-foot level. The men that he found could readily determine that Duggan had risked his own safety to find and rescue them.

Duggan was also a subject matter expert regarding the mine. Due to his job as a nipper, he was very familiar with the mine and its vertical shafts and horizontal tunnels that led to neighboring shafts. Many of the miners would only have limited knowledge of the entire mine. But Duggan knew which tunnels were closed and which had passable doorways. He knew where to find water as well as possible electric power. Possessing this information was vital to the group’s survival.

Duggan was also focused and confident. In the early hours of his involvement in the disaster he was focused on gathering men and supplies, knowing that the best strategy would be to shelter in place for a period of time even though the instinct for most was to get out of the shaft. Duggan convinced the men to build a bulkhead wall in the safest part of the shaft to stave off the toxic gas instead of trying to reach the surface immediately through the fumes. Without his type of leadership to guide them, dozens of other men died trying to go up through dangerous shafts.

As time passed and water supplies dwindled and air quality worsened, the men began to challenge Duggan’s decision making. But only two of the original twenty-nine miners in the group defied his leadership and went their own way. They were later found dead. Duggan was able to keep the others in the fold and they eventually were rescued even though the rescuers by that time had practically lost hope of finding anyone else alive.

In general, people will tend to follow the leaders that are assigned to be in charge by their organization. Leaders need to understand that some of their ability to lead a team comes from the tendency of people to respect the chain of command. But to really reach the next level of organizational performance, the leader must earn it through exhibiting traits like the ones shown by Manus Duggan. Being committed to your team, being a strong subject matter expert and having focus and confidence are among the traits that can help a leader reach top organizational performance. All of these skills need to be demonstrated through actions and not just claimed as popular buzzwords in a social media profile. As a matter of fact, using these or similar phrases in a LinkedIn profile is so overdone that it tends to be unconvincing and ineffective. But actually modeling these traits goes a long way in establishing yourself as a leader who can be trusted in challenging times.

Reference:

Michael Punke, Fire and Brimstone, The North Butte Mining Disaster of 1917, (Harper Collins, London), 79-125.