Jim Olson, Chief Communications Officer: How to Turn your Setback Story into your Comeback Legacy
Stumbling Blocks: How Great Leaders Are MadeShow Notes
Most crisis experts have never actually sat in the room when everything fell apart. Jim Olson has. He was head of communications at US Airways when Flight 1549 landed on the Hudson. He was at Starbucks when its flagship store in Jakarta was bombed. And he was at United Airlines the night Dr. David Dao was dragged off a plane and it became one of the first viral crises in business history.
Then the crisis came for him. In 2024 Jim was diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma that had spread to his lung and his brain. During treatment he lost his eyesight. He is now legally blind. And he wrote a book about all of it called Tailwind.
We talk about the 2am back pain that had no medical explanation and ended up saving his life. The "do hard things" tattoo he got a month before he went blind. And why he now prays in gratitude for the healing that's already happening instead of begging for the healing he wants.
If you're carrying something heavy right now, this one is for you. In this episode:
00:00 The monster storm none of us escapes 00:25 Welcome to the Treehouse 02:00 The Dr. David Dao crisis, from the comms chief's chair 06:00 The fog of war, and why the first information is almost always wrong 10:54 Inside the Good Morning America apology 13:00 When your policies get in the way of your values 14:30 Miracle on the Hudson and the three flight attendants nobody named 18:36 The unsung heroes in Jim's own life 20:53 The 2am back pain that saved his life 25:00 Stage 4, and then the brain tumor 29:00 Losing his sight 33:30 "Cancer made me stronger. Blindness made my world brighter." 35:00 Writing Tailwind blind, on short-term disability 38:49 Ambition without purpose is a sailboat without a compass 41:00 Why me? Oscar Munoz and the two kinds of patients 44:49 Faith, gratitude, and a letter to God 47:37 Praying for what's already being made
Get Jim's book, Tailwind: https://www.amazon.com/Tailwind-Compass-Turning-Setback-Comeback/dp/B0GXCCZ1QY
Hear the Oscar Munoz episode referenced throughout: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/oscar-munoz-ceo-united-airlines-why-its-never-too-late/id1849573843?i=1000744337146
Stumbling Blocks explores the stumbles, crises, and formative moments that forge great leaders.
Hosted by Jonathan Block and recorded at the Treehouse Studio.
Questions? Comments? Email me: [email protected]
More from Stumbling Blocks: How Great Leaders Are Made
In 2016, a former PEOPLE reporter named Natasha Stoynoff said Donald Trump attacked her during an interview at Mar-a-Lago. Sandra Sobieraj Westfall, the Washington Bureau Chief for PEOPLE Magazine, made a business and editorial decision: She would stand by her friend and colleague. The magazine would cover the President's policies, but it would not cover his family the way it had covered every other First Family. This is the story of that decision... and what happened next.
Tim Creasey: Chief Innovation Officer, Prosci: How to Lead Change
On 9/11/2001, Scott Stanzel was 28 years old, working his dream job at the White House when Secret Service agents came running down the halls, throwing open doors and shouting at everyone to get out. They had two minutes.
Kelli Arena spent her career at CNN telling the public what powerful people would rather keep quiet. She covered the Justice Department, won an Emmy, and reported the Moussaoui trial, the only 9/11 case tried in an American civilian courtroom. After Kelli left journalism, she went into another form of public service, serving as Chief of Communications for the National Security Agency, spending eight years helping the Agency find its voice.
Shalene Gupta, staff editor for Fast Company's Work Life and Leadership section, interviewed 35 middle managers at some of the biggest companies in the world for her piece "The Middle Manager's AI Survival Guide." What she found is that the contradictory headlines about AI at work aren't actually contradictory. There are two different worlds, and which one you're working in makes a world of difference.