Leader Rebound: How Successful Managers Bounce Back From the Tests of Adversity

Original publication by Charles R. Stoner and John F. Gilligan
In Business Horizons Volume 45, Issue 6, November-December 2002, Pages 17-24.
Synopsis by Maggie Fromm, Claremont McKenna College '06

When applying for a job at a high-profile firm, an applicant is rarely asked about his failures. Instead, he or she is asked to describe successes in both the business world and the community. Is this to say that the great leaders of today have nothing behind them but a list of impeccable achievements, free from the smudges of failure with which the rest of the job market seems to come into contact? In their article, Charles R. Stoner and John F. Gilligan argue just the opposite—that a leader’s success is the result of many triumphs over failure. It is this act of overcoming adversity that better prepares each person for the next task, and only by slaying the dragons of the business world can one be truly accomplished.

The presence of adversity has been around for as long as humans have been trying to advance themselves. It is present in every facet of life: careers, relationships, families, hobbies, and sports. The trials and tribulations of life seem all the more challenging when one is in charge of a multi-million dollar company, when one is a CEO, an executive director, a senior executive. In these cases, individuals are required not only to overcome whatever obstacle presents itself, but also to do so in a manner which exudes leadership, ability, and competence. The question then becomes not who is affected by adversity, but rather what separates those victorious from those less fortunate leaders. By conducting a series of semi-structured interviews and applying content analysis, Stoner and Gilligan were able to create a summary of those features that determine one’s ability to triumph over adversity. Thirty-five senior executives, most from mid-sized firms, participated in the interviews.

For the leaders in the study, success was more closely associated with meaningful accomplishments than with concrete results. The leaders noted that making a difference and being able to contribute to others was an integral part of success and that success was not measured in monetary terms alone. Even beyond this definition of success, however, was the leaders’ ability to associate it with adversity. “The nature of success implied a risk of failure” because one cannot succeed if there is nothing to overcome. Herein lies the “paradox of success”: the greater the barrier to achievement, the greater the feeling of success once that barrier is surmounted. This adversity manifests itself in three different areas of a person’s life: business, career, and personal. Furthermore, the adversities reported by the leaders of the study all had three things in common: an unexpected nature, a disruptive influence, and an aura of ambiguity and uncertainty, making it all the more difficult for a leader to find a path through the misfortune. Once the adverse event is recognized, there seem to be distinct steps that the triumphant follow in order to overcome it.

The first stage when faced with an unexpected obstacle is disillusionment. Overwhelming feelings of worry and self-pity can accompany this stage. True leaders, however, are keenly aware of the fact that these feelings are fleeting and that the only logical next step is to work through the disillusionment. This often requires emotional support from friends, family, and esteemed colleagues. Such support is given by providing a sounding board, encouragement, and perspective. After this period of support, the leaders force themselves to move on toward taking action, realizing that not getting past the emotional aspect of adversity would negatively affect their ability to actually solve the problem.

The second stage of dealing successfully with adversity requires a time of reflection during which a leader is immersed “in a search for meaning.” Such a search demands the leader to be acutely aware of himself/herself and to come to terms with his own perspective of the issue at hand. The leader is forced to ask himself why the adversity occurred and what it reveals about his business and about him personally. Successful leaders also sought the opinions of trusted colleagues and experts. On top of whatever business related advice they had to offer, these outsiders could also offer the leader something infinitely more valuable: perspective.

Finally, the transformation stage involves taking action. It involves, “doing something differently based on what has been revealed through adversity;” it involves making decisions; it involves courage. During this stage, successful leaders were able to step back and see the problem in terms of a greater picture, thus they viewed the adversity not as a complete lack of success but as one of the many steps one must take in order to reach greater goals. This portion of the transformation stage evoked previous memories for many of the leaders as they realized that, like past adversity, this new problem could and would be overcome. It also required the leaders to see the adversity not as a problem but as a challenge, thus allowing them to feel more successful because they were able to test their skills and prove themselves. Perhaps the greatest task of the transformation stage is the reframing of control. Successful leaders were able to differentiate between those things they could control and those things they could not control. Even more important though, was their ability to let go of those “uncontrollables” and instead focus precious time and resources on those aspects of the problem that they could control. This in itself requires tremendous courage—not a bold-faced, confident courage, but one marked by a realization that, though no guarantees of success can be made, action must be taken. The true mark of a leader is the ability to realize that action and decision with the possibility of failure is far more advantageous than remaining stagnant in the face of adversity.

In the midst of each stage, one aspect was agreed upon by a majority of the leaders: the need for support. “The image of the strong, individualistic commander who forges through crises with Rambo-like fortitude is . . . probably a myth.” Leaders cannot be expected to tackle the setbacks of life by themselves. The people who compose a leader’s rebound networks offer emotional support by listening and encouraging. They offer diversionary support by giving the leader’s mind a temporary break from the emotional weight of the problem, and peer networks in particular can offer guidance in the form of input and information.

Rebound leaders view adversity as an interruption rather than a dead end on the road to overall success. They rely on the memories of overcoming past adversity for confidence that this current crisis will also be overcome. Most importantly, they are aware that without those adversities, they would not have gained the strength required for new successes.