The Crucibles of Leadership

What is it about great leaders which make them great?   Well one aspect is that they’ve been through the mill more than once.  Going through these difficult experiences and coming out of the other side wiser, stronger and more resilient is what Robert Thomas calls Crucible Experiences.

Many of us experience these crucible moments, but how many of us really extract the value from them and learn what we need to learn?  Very often because of the pain we can be tempted to put the event in a black bag, seal it up and get back on with life.  As a short term approach it can keep us sane, as a long term approach it means we’re missing the gift in what we went through.  It’s as if we had the pain but couldn’t be bothered to hang around for the pleasure.  This may sound odd, but one of the universal laws is the law of polarity.  You can’t have hot without cold, up with out down.  If there is only a small risk, then there is only a small reward.

In this book Crucibles of Leadership Robert describes 3 kinds of crucible moments:-

New Territory – Dealing with a totally unexpected event.

Reversal – Something not going according to plan.

Suspension – The in-between state, rather like transition.

He then goes on to help you discover your Personal Learning Strategy.  This includes what kind of leader you’d like to be, why you want to be a leader and your learning style and approach.

The past is the past and as they say in financial circles, it’s no indicator of the future as investments can go down as well as up.  However mining your past to uncover hidden resources and become more self aware is invaluable.  Being an authentic leader is a warts and all affair.  Right now given the current economic climate many people will be embarking on another crucible experience, what better way to equip yourself and extract as much juice from it than to read this book.