"I Just Hopped On There": What a Store Clerk and a Runaway School Bus Teach Leaders About Stepping In

Rank Doesn't Lead · Oct 27, 2026 · 4m

A school bus rolled past a St. Paul, Minnesota, convenience store with its door wide open and its driver in a medical emergency. A 27-year-old store clerk sprinted after it, jumped aboard and stopped the bus with nineteen middle schoolers on board. Keith Clicque looks at why leadership shows up in the gap before anyone with rank arrives, why scared people need a job, why calm is a skill you can borrow, and how leaders build a culture where people step in instead of waiting.

Read the companion article: https://rankdoesntlead.com/articles/st-paul-school-bus-clerk-stepped-in/