This was by far my toughest column to write for SRQ Daily. I usually spend the few weeks before the column, looking for inspiration and researching information. But this past week I have spent my time locating a place to stay for my kids and preparing while we ride out the storm somewhere else other than Florida.

I am grateful that we had a chance to leave. I am also grateful for the leadership of our Governor leading up to this storm. His leadership through this has been unmatched. A lot of what you see from him, the calm and steady hand combined with the decisive action are traits acquired as a CEO of a successful business.

The Argus Foundation motto is: “We apply business leadership to important community issues.” We are certainly seeing the advantages of business leadership at the state level now.

The CEO Genome Project is a 10-year study conducted by ghSmart. Its results were printed in Harvard Business Review. The study used the expertise of 14 researchers including experts from University of Chicago and Copenhagen Business School. They assessed 17,000 C-suite executives, which include more than 2,000 CEOs.

From their research and analysis, The Project identified what exactly high achieving CEOs do better than the rest of us. They “decide with conviction and speed, practice relentless reliability, are relationship masters, and are proactive in adapting to changing circumstances.”

We agree, You cannot fully operate government like a business. There are things like open records and Sunshine laws that make that impractical or impossible. But you can take business principles and apply them to make government more successful.

Gov. Scott certainly did that and met each of the criteria listed in the CEO Genome Project with his command of the emergency situation our state was thrust into by mother nature. This is an excellent study for local governments after the clean up, and in some cases, after the rebuild is done.

We hope to see local governments go through a list of lessons learned as a result of this major hurricane. While doing that, they can take the lessons from the state and the CEO Genome Project and use them as a model to improve our emergency response and community.

Christine Robinson is executive director of The Argus Foundation.