I have been on the road the last two weeks, traveling to Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Singapore, Malaysia, and London. I’ve been in eight airports and slept in four hotels—a typical trip for me…something I’ve done 100’s of times. But several things made this trip “feel” different from other trips.

Emptiness

The thing that first struck me was how empty the airports were.  This is very unusual. San Francisco, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore Changi, and London Heathrow are typically very busy airports, but now they were empty.  No lines/queues for check-in or security.  On United, the cabin’s were half empty. Last time they were this empty was after 9/11. I hate lines and crowds, but this emptiness was utterly disconcerting. I thought the end of 2008 was all about fear.  Stock market shocks.  Fear of the future.  Unbounded uncertainty.  Death of industries.  Layoffs.  A “will we survive?” mentality that permeated business and personal lives.  All of this leading to empty airports.

Cautious optimism

I sat through about eight country/regional business reviews for 2009 by our sales teams.  Our Q4, like nearly every company on the planet, was tough.  But I got a clear sense of “cautious optimism” from our field teams.  The message was “there is still business out there.  We can still grow.”  I tend to trust the opinions of the local field sales people who are on the front line of business.  Of course this optimism could be misguided as uncertainty still rules, but give me optimism over pessimism any day.

Hope

On the last day of my trip, I walked out of my meeting at the end of the day in a London hotel to find the bar packed with people watching a large flat screen.  I immediately thought: “I’m in England … there must be a good rugby or football (soccer) game on.”  But it wasn’t a sports game.  It was the inauguration of Barack Obama.  I didn’t see it personally, but the papers were plastered with it the next morning, so I was able to read the complete text of the speech.  It was well written and moving, filled with caution and hope, conciliation and strength, pragmatism and lofty aspirations.   A fitting bookend to a trip that started with the nagging dread of emptiness.

Leadership

“…in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope could survive,…the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet it.”

This was the quote from George Washington that Obama used to end his speech (shortened and paraphrased by me).

My blog is about leadership, and leadership is what is most needed now, everywhere.  Leadership in government. In your company.  In your family.  Somebody that is willing to make hard choices, hard decisions, and steer the boat in the right direction.  Everybody around the world is looking to Obama to provide that leadership.  He is untested.  But he has demonstrated he can lead and prevail against insurmountable odds.  Most of all, he gives other leaders something they need most now.  A role model.  As leaders we’d do well to follow his lead.