Narrator: A wall of fire, thirty feet high, is racing up the canyon at the speed of a running horse. For the fifteen smokejumpers in Montana’s Mann Gulch, the situation has turned from a routine firefight into a desperate struggle for survival. Their crew chief, Wagner Dodge, suddenly stops, lights a match, and sets fire to the dry grass directly in front of them. As the new blaze burns away the fuel, he yells for his men to lie down in the ashes. But his crew hesitates. They see a leader who has already made a series of questionable calls, and now his command seems like madness. One man is heard shouting, "What the hell is the boss doing, lighting another fire in front of us?" They believe he has gone nuts. They run.

This single, terrifying moment—a leader’s desperate, innovative command met with fatal distrust—is the essence of what author Michael Useem explores in The Leadership Moment. The book examines nine true stories of triumph and disaster, revealing that leadership is not a title or a position, but a series of critical choices made under immense pressure. It argues that by dissecting these moments, we can prepare ourselves for the inevitable tests we will all face.

Narrator: In a crisis, a leader's most valuable asset is not authority, but credibility. When that is lost, even a life-saving command can be ignored. The tragedy at Mann Gulch in 1949 is a stark illustration of this principle. Wagner Dodge, the smokejumper foreman, was an experienced firefighter, but on that fateful August day, his leadership faltered.

First, he led his men down the gulch toward the fire, only to realize the wind had shifted, trapping them. He then reversed course, ordering them to drop their heavy tools and run uphill—a sensible command, but one that went against their training. This series of confusing decisions eroded his crew's confidence. So when Dodge lit his "escape fire," a brilliant but unheard-of technique, his men saw it as the final act of a panicked leader. They couldn't understand his logic because he failed to communicate it, and his credibility was already shattered. They chose to outrun the flames, a decision that cost thirteen of them their lives. Only Dodge and two others who found a separate refuge survived. Dodge’s story reveals a critical lesson: leadership depends on a foundation of trust. Without it, communication breaks down, and in high-stakes environments, the consequences can be catastrophic.

Narrator: Leaders are often faced with a fundamental conflict between narrow self-interest and a broader sense of responsibility. The path they choose defines their character and their legacy. Michael Useem presents two powerful, contrasting stories to explore this dilemma.

The first is that of Roy Vagelos, the CEO of the pharmaceutical giant Merck in the 1980s. His scientists discovered that a drug for animals, ivermectin, could cure river blindness, a horrific disease devastating communities in Africa and Latin America. The problem was, the people who needed the drug were too poor to afford it. Developing and distributing it would cost millions with no chance of financial return. This was a direct conflict with the prevailing business wisdom, championed by economist Milton Friedman, that a company's only social responsibility is to increase its profits.

Yet, Vagelos was guided by Merck’s long-standing ethos: "medicine is for the people. It is not for the profits." After failing to secure government funding, he made a historic decision in 1987: Merck would give the drug, now called Mectizan, away for free, forever. This act of corporate courage has since saved the sight of millions and revitalized entire communities.

In sharp contrast is the story of Bowen McCoy, an investment banker trekking in Nepal. High on a mountain pass, he and his group encountered a nearly naked, dying holy man, or sadhu. Each person in the group did a little something—gave him food, clothed him—but no one took ultimate responsibility for ensuring his survival. McCoy, focused on the personal goal of completing his trek, continued on, leaving the sadhu's fate uncertain. He was haunted by his decision for years, realizing that in a moment of ethical crisis, his individual goal had eclipsed his shared human responsibility. Vagelos and McCoy faced different scales of the same choice, demonstrating that true leadership often requires prioritizing collective welfare over personal or financial gain.

Narrator: While some leaders seem born with natural charisma, many of the most effective ones develop their skills under fire. The dramatic rescue of Apollo 13 in 1970 is a masterclass in crisis leadership, orchestrated by a man who embodied calm competence: flight director Eugene Kranz.

When an oxygen tank exploded 200,000 miles from Earth, crippling the spacecraft, the mission to land on the moon instantly became a desperate mission to get three astronauts home alive. Panic was not an option in Kranz's Mission Control. His first words to his stunned team set the tone: "Let's solve the problem. Let's not make it any worse by guessing."

Kranz immediately organized his teams, pulling key experts into a "Tiger Team" dedicated solely to generating solutions. He didn't dictate answers; he demanded options. He fostered a culture where the best ideas, no matter their source, could rise to the top. This collaborative environment, built on years of rigorous training and simulations, allowed engineers to devise ingenious solutions, like building a carbon dioxide filter from spare parts and creating a power-up sequence for the command module with only minutes of battery life to spare. Kranz’s unwavering optimism and his structured, team-based approach turned a "successful failure" into one of history's greatest examples of crisis management, proving that leadership is a skill that can be honed through preparation and executed with discipline when it matters most.

Narrator: Sometimes, the most damaging leadership failure isn't making the wrong decision, but making no decision at all. The downfall of John Gutfreund, the powerful CEO of Salomon Brothers in the early 1990s, serves as a powerful warning. Gutfreund was known as the "King of Wall Street," but his reign ended because he failed to act.

In April 1991, he was informed that his head of government bond trading, Paul Mozer, had submitted an illegal bid at a U.S. Treasury auction. This was a serious federal crime. Gutfreund and his top executives discussed the matter but took no immediate action to report it to regulators. For four months, they sat on the information. When the scandal finally broke, the cover-up was seen as a far greater crime than the initial offense.

The market's reaction was swift and brutal. Salomon Inc. was on the brink of collapse, its reputation in tatters. The firm was only saved when its largest shareholder, Warren Buffett, stepped in as interim CEO. Buffett's message to employees was clear: "If you lose money for the firm, I will be very understanding. If you lose reputation for the firm, I will be ruthless." Gutfreund was forced to resign in disgrace, banned from ever serving as a CEO of a securities firm again. His story demonstrates that in a leadership moment, hesitation and inaction are choices in themselves—and they can be just as destructive as any misguided action.

Narrator: The most profound leadership moments involve not just navigating a crisis, but fundamentally transforming an organization or even a nation. This requires a clear vision, a willingness to delegate, and the patience to build consensus among warring factions.

Alfredo Cristiani’s presidency in El Salvador is a prime example. In 1989, he took office in a country ravaged by a brutal 12-year civil war. A wealthy businessman with no political experience, Cristiani was an unlikely peacemaker. Yet, he approached the presidency with a manager's mindset, viewing the seemingly intractable conflict as a problem to be solved. He held a firm conviction: the war had to end through negotiation.

He empowered his associates, delegating authority to a capable team to handle the complex peace talks. He consistently worked to reconcile the deeply entrenched interests of his own right-wing party, the powerful military, and the leftist FMLN guerrillas. Even after horrific events like the army’s murder of six Jesuit priests threatened to derail the process, Cristiani persisted. His unrelenting efforts culminated in the 1992 peace accords, ending the war and setting the nation on a path to democracy. Cristiani’s leadership shows that even the most deep-seated conflicts can be resolved when a leader combines an unwavering vision with the practical skills of management, delegation, and reconciliation.

Narrator: Across battlefields, boardrooms, and mountaintops, The Leadership Moment reveals a single, unifying truth: leadership is ultimately defined by vision plus action. It is not about innate traits but about the deliberate choices made when stakes are highest. The book’s power lies in showing that whether you are facing a literal fire or a corporate crisis, the core principles remain the same: build credibility before you need it, act with integrity, empower your team, and never underestimate the damage of doing nothing.

The stories of Wagner Dodge, Roy Vagelos, and Eugene Kranz are not just historical accounts; they are blueprints for behavior. They challenge us to ask not if our leadership moment will come, but what we will do when it arrives. How will you prepare for that unforeseen test?