Yesterday watching Carrie Underwood calmly and professionally manage a difficult situation brought me back to my own uncomfortable moments at work. If you didn’t watch the Inauguration of President Trump, you missed the part where Underwood was to sing America the Beautiful accompanied by piped in music. Something went wrong and the music wouldn’t play. After a few uncomfortable moments, Carrie Underwood asked the audience to join her as she sang the song a cappella. Talk about pressure under fire.
If you’ve been in a similar situation (not that you are called to sing in front of millions of people), you totally understand the stress of the situation. Seconds can feel like hours.
Carrie’s situation reminded me of something that happened to me many years ago when I was a young, junior Learning & Development Specialist with the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies.
I was asked to make remarks to a class of students who were graduating from our computer studies school. It was an outdoor late afternoon ceremony with over three hundred invited guests including family, instructors, and members of the Chubb executive board. It was a big deal. My job was to explain the program to the audience and introduce our company CEO.
All day long we were outside testing the equipment. Our administrative staff had extra batteries for the microphone although we didn’t think that we would need them. We shifted chairs, arranged the dais, and did everything according to plan.
Four O’clock rolled around and the guests and graduates started to arrive. I was especially nervous because I’d never addressed this many people before, and I wanted to make a good impression. In addition, one of my peers was recently promoted and my manager explained to me that I needed more polish and experience before I was promoted.
As soon as I kicked off the ceremony, my microphone died. I thought it was because we used it so much to practice but I later found out that our Admin forgot to use fresh batteries. I froze and here again, the seconds felt like hours. Everyone was watching to see what I would do. I finally realized what was happening and knew that I had to do something. I passed the microphone to the admin who ran up to the stage and I stepped down into the audience. I walked down the middle aisle loudly saying my remarks. As I walked back towards the dais, I was handed the working mic, and I was able to end my presentation and introduce the CEO. Thank goodness, the mic worked properly for him. Overall, the rest of the ceremony went well, and the world and my job didn’t end.
I learned so much from that day, especially to always double check the equipment. I learned that a sense of humor can sometimes break an uncomfortable situation and that it’s critical to have a back up plan and to think on my feet.
Since that day, I’ve had other mishaps but got through them with humor and what I’d like to think of as grace. So, bravo Carrie Underwood. Those of us who have had mishaps at work truly understand and applaud your professionalism.
