The emotionally intelligent CEO

In the afternoon of 27 April 1977, we were all called to an impromptu townhall meeting in the Perth offices of Agnew Mining Company. I was the Personnel Research Officer, hired five months earlier by the CEO, Barry.

At the time, most of us occupied a single floor of the National Australia Bank building on St Georges Terrace. Only a few were at the mine site of Leinster, 300 kilometres north of Kalgoorlie in the Great Victoria Desert during the construction phase. It didn’t take long for us to gather in the boardroom.

Barry was ashen-faced.

He told the room that five miners had been killed in an accident at the mine site that morning. Apparently, the winder in the headframe over the mineshaft had malfunctioned. Instead of lowering the bucket carrying the men down into the mineshaft it had inexplicably reversed. The bucket accelerated up and collided with the headframe, flinging the occupants into the air.

This was the first multiple fatality of any mining operation in Western Australia since 1951. The company mining engineer on site was my age and, like me, he had only graduated the year before. We were all shocked. Barry’s only concern was for those miners and their families, not his company.

That afternoon was the first and only time I have ever seen a CEO weep openly. His compassion was on display and we were all moved by it. There were more than a few tears in the room. Barry displayed an authenticity in his grief that day that became the hallmark for me of what it means to be an emotionally intelligent CEO. He could have chosen to hide his feelings from us that day, but he didn’t.