Every summer, Arkansas’ electric cooperative directors gather for several days of training and educational seminars on topics essential to their role. The theme of this year’s conference was “Resilient Leadership,” and I can’t think of a time in recent history when this has been more critical.
The original electric cooperative founders had to overcome numerous obstacles and be Resilient Leaders just to establish the system and bring power to rural Arkansas. And there have been challenges along the way that required Resilient Leaders, such as the national mandate in the 1970s to transition from natural gas to coal power for electric generation. This shift nearly bankrupted Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corporation (AECC), the electric cooperatives’ wholesale energy provider, and required a series of rate increases that totaled 56% between 1980-1984. I can only imagine former CEO Carl Whillock’s stress level during this time, well, actually, I can totally relate. Why? Because history is repeating itself in reverse.
Over the last 20 years, there has been a shift away from coal to natural gas to reduce national carbon emissions. This resulted in several of AECC’s coal power plants being mandated to prematurely retire in 2028 and in 2030. This means replacing approximately one-third of our power generation in a very short time frame at a cost of about $3 billion. The only technology that can meet our needs for reliable, affordable and responsible energy for our members is natural gas. Hence my statement that history is repeating itself in reverse — a mandated shift in fuel source in a short period of time resulting in rate increases for electric cooperative members.
This is also coming at a time of historical electric load growth with demand for electric generation and transmission equipment exceeding global supply causing the cost of this equipment to double and triple. Imagine sitting in a cooperative boardroom, knowing many of your members are already struggling with the rising cost of everyday necessities while also knowing it is your duty to keep their power as affordable, reliable and responsible as possible. So, this is no easy day, and this is why we discussed Resilient Leadership in detail this summer.
The idea for this year’s theme came to me the week before Christmas last year. I got a call from my sister that my mom was not doing well, and the hospice nurses recommended I get home to be with her for her last days. As fate would have it, there was a major winter storm in progress in Illinois, and my drive was in blowing snow and the temperature was -14 degrees when I pulled up in front of my mom’s house.
I had not visited in over a year, so imagine my guilt as I walked in and saw her fighting to hang onto life. My mom was always a fighter, figuratively and literally, and she fought for over a week. It was during this time of serious reflection — with four hours between administering doses of morphine for pain relief in shifts with my two sisters (Melanie and Savannah) in a small 713-square-foot home — that I figured a few things out.
My relationship with my mother was complicated. She suffered abuse as a child that she never talked about but everyone in the family knew about. It was always the justification for the strained relationship between me and my brothers and her once we reached our teenage years.
If you have seen the movie “Dolores Claiborne,” then you have by proxy met my mother. My mom got pregnant with me at 17, was thrown out of the house, lived with her aunt and uncle when I was born, never graduated high school, never had any material possessions and died with $300 in her bank account.
Conversely, I made straight A’s in high school and college and went on to have an amazing career in the nuclear submarine force and now with the Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas. My success only caused my mom to put more forced distance between us, and while I know she was secretly proud of me, she was outwardly detached.
My mom passed on Christmas Eve, and during the week that I stayed at her house, one of the things I gained greater appreciation for was the extra bedroom that she had converted into her personal library with many shelves full of books. Not dime-store novels but books on medicine, law enforcement, politics, military history, religion, animals and veterinary medicine, and entire sections dedicated to great leaders in history she admired. Men like Abraham Lincoln and Sir Ernest Shackleton. It was her love of Resilient Leaders like Lincoln and Shackleton that captured my attention and planted the seeds of this summer’s conference.
Like it or not, a lot of who we are comes from our childhood, and it was in that library that a light came on for me. The mother who loved me warmly as a young boy but distanced herself from me as an adult had also transferred a lot of values and knowledge to me. She played a key role in any success I have achieved in life, especially in leadership. She took the best traits from her heroes and tried to instill them in me.
I have written many stories about my stepfather, who was transformational in my life, but precious few about my mom. Maybe someday I will write a book about her. I shared some of the lessons in Resilient Leadership that she taught me at our conference this summer. And I will share a couple with you now.
While sitting at her bedside, I opened a small jewelry chest on her nightstand to see a small 3×5 card in her handwriting that read, “Be a leader. Leaders are not followers, leaders lead. Humility is the key.” As I thumbed through her book titled Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage, I saw this on the inside cover: “In appreciation for whatever it is that makes men accomplish the impossible.” Beneath that, a small note in my mother’s handwriting read, “I found this book after a long 22-year search. It cost me $1 at a bargain bookstore in Macomb, IL. God does answer prayer if one is patient enough to wait.”
Thanks, Mom — we all needed that.