crucibles of leadership

HBR AT L A R G E

Crucibleso/LeadershÍD

by Warren G. Bennisand Robert J.Thomas

Everyone is tested by life,

but only a few extract

strength and wisdom

from their most trying

experiences. They're the

ones we call leaders.

As LIFELONG STUDENTS Of

leadership, we are fascinatedwith the notion of what makes

a leader. Why is it that certainpeople seem to naturally inspire

confidence, loyalty, and hard work,while others (who may have just asmuch vision and smarts) stumble, againand again? It's a timeless question, andthere's no simple answer. But we havecome to believe it has something to dowith the different ways that peopledeal with adversity. Indeed, our recentresearch has led us to conclude that oneof the most reliable indicators and pre-dictors of true leadership is an individ-ual's ability to find meaning in negativeevents and to leam from even the mosttrying circumstances. Put another way,the skills required to conquer adversityand emerge stronger and more com-mitted than ever are the same ones thatmake for extraordinary leaders.

Take Sidney Harman. Thirty-four yearsago, the then-48-year-old businessmanwas holding down two executive po-sitions. He was the chief executive ofHarman Kardon (now Harman Interna-tional), the audio components companyhe had cofounded, and he was servingas president of Friends World College,

now Friends World Program, an experi-mental Quaker school on Long Islandwhose essential philosophy is that stu-dents, not their teachers, are responsi-ble for their education. Juggling thetwo jobs, Harman was living what hecalls a "bifurcated life," changing clothesin his car and eating lunch as he drovebetween Harman Kardon offices andplants and the Friends World campus.One day while at the college, he wastold his company's factory in Bolivar,Tennessee, was having a crisis.

He immediately rushed to the Bolivarfactory, a facility that was, as Harmannow recalls,"raw, ugly, and, in many ways,demeaning." The problem, he found,had erupted in the polish and buff de-partment, where a crew of a dozen work-ers, mostly African-Americans, did thedull, hard work of polishing mirrors andother parts, often under unhealthy con-ditions. The men on the night shift weresupposed to get a coffee break at lo PM.When the buzzer that announced theworkers' break went on the fritz, man-agement arbitrarily decided to postponethe break for ten minutes, when an-other buzzer was scheduled to sound.But one worker,"an old black man withan almost biblical name, Noah B. Cross,"

SEPTEMBER 2002 39

HBR AT LARGE • Crucibles of Leadership

had "an epiphany," as Harmandescrihesit "He said, literally, to his fellow work-ers, 'I don't work for no buzzer. Thebuzzer works for me. It's my job to tell mewhen it's ten o'clock. I got me a watch.I'm not waiting another ten minutes.I'm going on my coffee break.' And all12 guys took their coffee break, and, ofcourse, ail hell broke kx>se.''

The worker's principled rebellion-hisrefusal to be cowed by management'ssenseless rule-was, in turn, a revelationto Harman: "The technology is there toserve the men, not the reverse," he re-members realizing."I suddenly had thisawakening that everything I was doingat the college had appropriate applica-tions in business." In the ensuing years,Harman revamped the factory and itsworkings, turning it into a kind of cam-pus-offering classes on the premises, in-cluding piano lessons, and encouragingthe workers to take most of the respon-sibility for running their workplace. Fur-ther, he created an environment wheredissent was not only tolerated but alsoencouraged. The plant's lively indepen-dent newspaper, the Bolivar Mirror, gaveworkers a creative and emotional out-let-and they enthusiastically skeweredHarman in its pages.

Harman had, unexpectedly, become apioneer of participative management,a movement that continues to influencethe shape of workplaces around theworld. The concept wasn't a grand ideaconceived in the CEO's office and im-posed on the plant, Harman says. It greworganically out of his going down to Bo-livar to, in his words, "put out this fire."Harman's transformation was, above all,a creative one. He had connected twoseemingly unrelated ideas and createda radically different approach to man-agement that recognized both the eco-nomic and humane benefits of a more

collégial workplace. Harman went on toaccomplish far more during his career.In addition to founding Harman Inter-national, he served as the deputy secre-tary of commerce under jimmy Carter.But he always looked hack on the inci-dent in Bolivar as the formative event inhis professional life, the moment hecame into his own as a leader.

The details of Harman's story areunique, but their significance is not. Ininterviewing more than 40 top leadersin business and the public sector overthe past three years, we were surprisedto find that ail of them - young andold-were able to point to intense, oftentraumatic, always unplanned experi-ences that had transformed them andhad become the sources of their dis-tinctive leadership abilities.

of self-doubt. But whatever the cruci-ble's nature, the people we spoke withwere able, like Harman, to create a nar-rative around it, a story of how theywere challenged, met the challenge, andbecame better leaders. As we studiedthese stories, we found that they notonly told us how individual leaders areshaped but also pointed to some charac-teristics that seem common to all lead-ers-characteristics that were formed,or at least exposed, in the crucible.

Learning from DifferenceA crucible is, by definition, a transfor-mative experience through which anindividual comes to a new or an alteredsense of identity. It is perhaps not sur-prising then that one of the most com-mon types of crucibles we documented

The skills required to conquer adversity and emerge

stronger and more committed than ever are the same

ones that make for extraordinary leaders.

We came to call the experiences thatshape leaders "crucibles," after the ves-sels medieval alchemists used in theirattempts to turn base metals into gold.For the leaders we interviewed, thecrucible experience was a trial and atest, a point of deep self-refiection thatforced them to question who they wereand what mattered to them. It requiredthem to examine their values, questiontheir assumptions, hone their judgment.And, invariably, they emerged fromthe crucible stronger and more sure ofthemselves and their purpose-changedin some fundamental way.

Leadership crucibles can take manyforms. Stime are violent, life-threateningevents. Others are more prosaic episodes

Warren G. Bennis is a Distinguished Professor of Business Administration and thefounding chairman of the Leadership Institute at the University of Southern Californiain Los Angeles. He is also the author of more than 25 bœks on leadership. Robert J.Thomas is an associate partner and senior fellow with the Accenture Institute forStrategic Change and the author of What Machines Can't Do (University of Califor-nia Press, 1994)- Bennis and Thomas's book Geeks and Geezers will be publishedby Harvard Business School Press this month. They are also at work on an upcomingbook. Crucibles for Leaders.

involves the experience of prejudice.Being a victim of prejudice is particu-larly traumatic because it forces an in-dividual to confront a distorted pictureof him- or herself, and it often unleashesprofound feelings of anger, bewilder-ment, and even withdrawal. For all itstrauma, however, the experience of prej-udice is for some a clarifying event.Through it, they gain a clearer vision ofwho they are, the role they play, andtheir place in the world.

Consider, for example, Liz Altman,now a Motorola vice president, who wastransformed by the year she spent at aSony camcorder factory in rural japan,where she faced both estrangement andsexism. It was, says Altman, "by far, thehardest thing I've ever done." The for-eign culture-particularly its emphasison groups over individuals-was both ashock and a challenge to a young Amer-ican woman. It wasn't just that she feltlonely in an alien world. She had to facethe daunting prospect of carving outa place for herself as the only womanengineer in a plant, and nation, where

40 HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW

Crucibles of Leadership • HBR AT LARGE

women usually serve as low-level assis-tants and clerks known as"office ladies."

Another woman who had come tojapan under similar circumstances hadwarned Altman that the only way to winthe men's respect was to avoid becom-ing allied with the office ladies. But onher very first morning, when the bellrang for a coffee break, the men headedin one direction and the women in an-other-and the women saved her a placeat their table, while the men ignoredher. Instinct told Altman to ignore thewarning rather than insult the womenby rebuffing their invitation.

Over the next few days, she contin-ued to join the women during breaks.

a choice that gave her a comfortablehaven from which to observe the unfa*miliar office culture. But it didn't takeher long to notice that some of the menspent the break at their desks readingmagazines, and Altman determined thatshe could do the same on occasion. Fi-nally, after paying close attention to theconversations around her, she learnedthat several of the men were interestedin mountain biking. Because Altmanwanted to buy a mountain bike, she ap-proached them for advice. Thus, overtime, she established herself as some-thing of a free agent, sometimes sittingwith the women and other times en-gaging with the men.

And as it happened, one of thewomen she'd sat with on her veryfirst day, the department secretary,was married to one of the engi-neers. The secretary took it uponherself to include Altman in socialgatherings, a turn of events thatprobably wouldn't have occurredif Altman had alienated her fe-male coworkers on that first day."Had I just gone to try to break inwith [the men) and not had her asan ally, it would never have hap-pened," she says.

Lix)king back, Altman believesthe experience greatly helped hergain a clearer sense of her per-sonal strengths and capabilities,preparing her for other difficultsituations. Her tenure in Japantaught her to observe closely andto avoid jumping to conclusionsbased on cultural assumptions -invaluable skills in her currentposition at Motorola, where sheleads efforts to smooth allianceswith other corporate cultures, in-cluding those of Motorola's differ-ent regional operations.

Aitman has come to believethat she wouldn't have been asable to do the Motorola job If shehadn't lived in a foreign countryand experienced the dissonanceof cultures; "...even if you're sit-ting in the same room, ostensiblyagreeing...unless you understandthe frame of reference, you're

probably missing a bunch of what'sgoing on." Altman also credits her cru-cible with building her confidence-shefeels that she can cope with just aboutanything that comes her way.

People can feel the stigma of culturaldifferences much closer to home, aswell. Muriel ("Mickie")Siebert,the firstwoman to own a seat on the New YorkStock Exchange, found her crucible onthe Wall Street of the 1950s and 1960s,an arena so sexist that she couldn't geta job as a stockbroker until she tookher first name off her résumé and sub-stituted a genderless initial. Other thanthe secretaries and the occasional ana-lyst, women were few and far between.

SEPTEMBER 2002 41


That she was Jewish was another strikeagainst her at a time, she points out,when most of big business was "not nice"to either women or Jews. But Siebertwasn't broken or defeated. Instead, sheemerged stronger, more focused, andmore determined to change the statusquo that excluded her.

When we interviewed Siebert, shedescribed her way of addressing anti-Semitism - a technique that quietedthe offensive comments of her peerswithout destroying the relationshipsshe needed to do her job effectively.According to Siebert, at the time it waspart of doing business to have a fewdrinks at lunch. She remembers, "Givesomebody a couple of drinks, and theywould talk about the Jews." She had agreeting card she used for those occa-sions that went like this:

Roses are reddish,Violets are bluish,In case you don't know,I am Jewish.Siebert would have the card hand-

delivered to the person who had madethe anti-Semitic remarks, and on thecard she had written, "Enjoyed lunch."As she recounts, "They got that card inthe afternoon, and I never had to takeany ofthat nonsense again. And I neverembarrassed anyone, either." It was be-

cause she was unable to get credit forthe business she was bringing in at anyof the large Wail Street firms that shebought a seat on the New York Stock Ex-change and started working for herself.

In subsequent years, she went on tofound Muriel Siebert & Company (nowSiebert Financial Corporation) and hasdedicated herself to helping other peo-pie avoid some of the difficulties shefaced as a young professional. A promi-nent advocate for women In business anda leader in developing financial productsdirected at women, she's also devotedto educating children about financialopportunities and responsibility.

We didn't interview lawyer and pres-idential adviser Vemon Jordan for thisarticle, but he, too, offers a powerfulreminder of how prejudice can provetransformational rather than debilitat-ing. In Vemon Can Read! A Memoir (Pub-lic Affairs, 2ooi), Jordan describes thevicious baiting he was subjected to asa young man. The man who treated himin this offensive way was his employer,Robert F. Maddox. Jordan served theracist former mayor of Atlanta at dinner,in a white jacket, with a napkin over hisarm. He also functioned as Maddox'schauffeur. Whenever Maddox could,he would derisively announce, "Vemoncan read!" as if the literacy of a young

Geeks and Geezers

We didn't set out to learn about crucibles. Our research for this article and forour new hook, Geeks and Geezers, was actually designed to uncover the waysthat era influences a leader's motivation and aspirations. We interviewed 43of today's top leaders in business and the public sector, limiting our subjectsto people born in or before 1925, or in or after 1970. To our delight, we learneda lot about how age and era affect leadership style.

Our geeks and geezers (the affectionate shorthand we eventually used todescribe the two groups) had very different ideas about paying your dues,work-life balance, the roleof heroes, and more. But they also shared somestriking similarities-among them a love of learning and strong sense of val-ues. Most intriguing, though, both our geeks and our geezers told us againand again how certain experiences inspired them, shaped them, and, indeed,taught them to lead. And so, as the best research often does, our work turnedout to be even more interesting than we thought it would be. We continuedto explore the influences of era-our findings are described inour book-butat the same time we probed for stories of these crucible experiences. These arethe stories we share with you here.

African-American were a source ofwonderment. ¡

Subjected to this type of abuse, alesser man might have allowed Maddoxto destroy him. But in his memoir, Jor-dan gives his own interpretation ofMaddox's sadistic heckling, a tale thatempowered Jordan instead of embitter-ing him. When he looked at Maddoxthrough the rearview mirror, Jordan didnot see a powerful member of Geor-gia's ruling class. He saw a desperateanachronism, a person who lashed outbecause he knew his time was up. AsJordan writes about Maddox, "His half-mocking, half-serious comments aboutmy education were the death rattle ofhis culture. When he saw that I was...craning a life for myself that wouldmake me a man in...ways he thoughtof as being a man, he was deeply un-nerved."

Maddox's cruelty was the cruciblethat, consciously or not, Jordan imbuedwith redemptive meaning. Instead oflashing out or being paralyzed with ha-tred, Jordan saw the fall of the Old Southand imagined his own future freed ofthe historical shackles of racism. His abil-ity to organize meaning around a po-tential crisis turned it into the cruciblearound which his leadership was forged.

Prevailing over DarknessSome crucible experiences illuminate ahidden and suppressed area of the soul.These are often among the harshest ofcrucibles, involving, for instance, epi-sodes of illness or violence. In the caseof Sidney Riftenberg, now 79, the cru-cible took the form of 16 years of unjustimprisonment, in solitary confinement,in Communist China. In 1949 Ritten-berg was initially jailed, without expla-nation, by former friends in ChairmanMao Zedong's government and spenthis first year in total darkness when hewasn't being interrogated. (Rittenberglater learned that his arrest came atthe behest of Communist Party officialsin Moscow, who had wrongly identi-fied him as a CIA agent.) Thrown intojail, confined to a tiny, pitch-dark cell,Rittenberg did not rail or panic. In-stead, within minutes, he remembered



a stanza of verse, four lines recited tohim when he was a small child:

They drew a circle that shut me out,Heretic, rebel, a thing to floutBut love and I had the wit to win.We drew a circle that took them in!That bit of verse (adapted from "Out-

witted," a poem by Edwin Markham)was the key to Rittenberg's survival. "MyGod," he thought, "there's my strategy."He drew the prison guards into his cir-cle, developing relationships that wouldhelp him adapt to his confinement. Flu-ent in Chinese, he persuaded the guardsto deliver him books and, eventually,provide a candle so that he could read.He also decided, after his first year, todevote himself to improving his mind-making it more scientific, more pure,and more dedicated to socialism. He be-lieved that if he raised his consciousness,his captors would understand him bet-ter. And when, over time, the years inthe dark began to take an intellectualtoll on him and he found his reason fal-tering, he could still summon fairy talesand childhood stories such as The LittleEngine That Could and take comfort fromtheir simple messages.

By contrast, many of Rittenberg'sfellow prisoners either lashed out inanger or withdrew. "They tended to goup the wall....They couldn't make itAnd I think the reason was that theydidn't understand...that happiness...isnot a function of your circumstances;it's a function of your outlook on life."

Rittenberg's commitment to hisideals continued upon his release. Hiscell door opened suddenly in 1955, afterhis first six-year term in prison. He re-counts, "Here was a representative ofthe central government telling me thatI had been wronged, that the govern-ment was making a formal apology tome.. .and that they would do everythingpossible to make restitution." When hiscaptors offered him money to start anew life in the United States or to travelin Europe, Rittenberg declined, chtxis-ing instead to stay in China and con-tinue his work for the Communist Party.

And even after a second arrest, whichput him into solitary confinement forten years as retaliation for his support

of open democracy during the CulturalRevolution, Rittenberg did not aJlow hisspirit to be broken. Instead, he usedhis time in prison as an opportunity toquestion his belief system-in particular,his commitment to Marxism and Chair-man Mao."In that sense, prison emanci-pated me," he says.

Riftenberg studied, read, wrote, andthought, and he learned somethingabout himself in the process: "I realized1 had this great feai of being a turncoat,which...was so powerful that it pre-vented me from even looking at [myassumptions]....Even to question was

Fortunately, not ail

crucible experiences are

traumatic. In fact,they

can involve a positive,

if deeply challenging,

experience such as

having a demanding

boss or mentor.

an act of betrayal. After I got out...thescales fell away from my eyes and I un-derstood that...the basic doctrine ofarriving at democracy through dictator-ship was wrong."

What's more, Rittenberg emergedfrom prison certain that absolutelynothing in his professional life couldbreak him and went on to start a com-pany with his wife. Rittenberg Associ-ates is a consulting firm dedicated todeveloping business ties between theUnited States and China. Today, Ritten-berg is as commifted to his ideals-if notto his view of the best way to get there-as he was 50 years ago, when he was soseverely tested.

Meeting Great ExpectationsFortunately, not all crucible experiencesare traumatic. In fact, they can involvea positive, if deeply challenging, experi-ence such as having a demanding bossor mentor.Judge Nathaniel R.Jones ofthe U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth

Circuit, for instance, attributes muchof his success to his interaction with asplendid mentor. That mentor was J.Maynard Dickerson, a successful aftor-ney - the first black city prosecutor inthe United States-and editor ofa localAfrican-American newspaper.

Dickerson inñuenced Jones at manylevels. For instance, the older manbrought Jones behind the scenes towitness firsthand the great civil rightsstruggle of the 1950s, inviting him to sitin on conversations with activists likeThurgixïd Marshall, Walter White, RoyWilkins, and Robert C. Weaver. SaysJones, "I was struck by their resolve,their humor...and their determinationnot to let the system define them.Rather than just feel beaten down, theyturned it around." The experience nodoubt infiuenced the many importantopinions Judge Jones has written in re-gard to civil rights.

Dickerson was both model and coach.His lessons covered every aspect ofJones's intellectual growth and presen-tation of self, including schooling inwhat we now call "emotional intelli-gence." Dickerson set the highest stan-dards for Jones, especially in the area ofcommunication skills - a facility we'vefound essential to leadership. Dickersonedited Jones's early aftempts at writinga sports column with respectful ruth-lessness, in red ink, as Jones rememberstothisday-markingupthe copy so thatit looked, as Jones says, "like somethingchickens had a fight over." But Dicker-son also took the time to explain everysingle mistake and why it mattered.

His mentor also expected the teenageJones to speak correctly at ail times andwould hiss discreetly in his direction ifhe stumbled. Great expectations are ev-idence of great respect, and as Joneslearned all the complex, often subtlelessons of how to succeed, he was moti-vated in no small measure by his desirenot to disappoint the man he still calls"Mr. Dickerson." Dickerson gave Jonesthe kind of intensive mentoring thatwas tantamount to grooming him for akind of professional and moral succes-sion-and Jones has indeed become aninstrument for the profound societal


Crucibles of Leadership • HBR AT LARGE

It is the combination of hardiness and ability to grasp

context that, above all, allows a person to not only survive

an ordeal, but to learn from it, and to emerge stronger,

more engaged, and more committed than ever.

change for which Dickerson fought socourageously as well. Jones found life-changing meaning in the attentionDickerson paid to him-attention fueledby a conviction that he, too, though oniya teenager, had a vital role to play in so-ciety and an important destiny.

Another story of a powerful mentorcame to us from Michael Klein, a youngman who made millions in SouthernCalifornia real estate while still in histeens, only to lose it by the time heturned 20 and then go on to start severalother businesses. His mentor was hisgrandfather Max S. Klein, who createdthe paint-by-numbers fad that swept theUnited States in the 1950s and 1960s.Klein was only four or five years oldwhen his grandfather approached himand offered to share his business ex-pertise. Over the years, Michael Klein'sgrandfather taught him to learn fromand to cope with change, and the twospoke by phone for an hour every dayuntil shortly before Max Klein's death.

The Essentials of LeadershipIn our interviews, we heard many otherstories of crucible experiences. Take jackColeman, 78-year-old former presidentof Haverford College in Pennsylvania.He told us of one day, during the Viet-nam War, when he heard that a group ofstudents was planning to pull down theAmerican fiag and burn it-and that for-mer members of the school's footballteam were going to make sure the stu-dents didn't succeed. Seemingly out ofnowhere, Coleman had the idea to pre-empt the violence by suggesting thatthe protesting students take down thefiag, wash it, and then put it back up-acrucible moment that even now elicitstremendous emotion in Coleman as hedescribes that day.

There's also Common Cause founderJohn W. Gardner, who died earlier this

year at 89. He identified his arduoustraining as a Marine during WorldWar II as the crucible in which hisleadership abilities emerged. ArchitectFrank Gehry spoke of the biases he ex-perienced as a Jew in college. Jeff Wilke,a general manager at a major manufac-turer, told us of the day he learned thatan employee had been killed in hisplant - an experience that taught himthat leadership was about much morethan making quarterly numbers.

So, what allowed these people to notonly cope with these difficult situationsbut also learn from them? We believethat great leaders possess four essentialskills, and, we were surprised to learn,these happen to be the same skills thatallow a person to find meaning in whatcould be a debilitating experience. Firstis the ability to engage others in sharedmeaning. Consider Sidney Harman,who dived into a chaotic work environ-ment to mobilize employees around anentirely new approach to management.Second is a distinctive and compellingvoice. Look at Jack Coleman's abilityto defuse a potentially violent situa-tion with only his words. Third is a senseof integrity (including a strong set ofvalues). Here, we point again to Cole-man, whose values prevailed even dur-ing the emotionally charged clash be-tween peace demonstrators and theangry (and strong) former football teammembers.

But by far the most critical skill of thefour is what we call "adaptive capacity."This is, in essence, applied creativity-analmost magical ability to transcend ad-versity, with all its attendant stresses,and to emerge stronger than before. It'scomposed of two primary qualities: theability to grasp context, and hardiness.The ability to grasp context implies anability to weigh a welter of factors, rang-ing from how very different groups of

people will interpret a gesture to beingable to put a situation in perspective.Without this, leaders are utterly lost, be-cause they cannot connect with theirconstituents. M. Douglas Ivester, whosucceeded Roberto Goizueta at Coca-Cola, exhibited a woeful inability tograsp context, lasting just 28 months onthe job. For example, he demoted hishighest-ranked African-American em-ployee even as the company was losinga $200 million class-action suit broughtby black employees - and this in At-lanta, a city with a powerful African-American majority. Contrast Ivesterwith Vemon Jordan. Jordan realized hisboss's time was up-not Just his time inpower, but the era that formed him. Andso Jordan was able to see past the insultsand recognize his boss's bitterness forwhat it was-desperate lashing out.

Hardiness is just what it sounds like-the perseverance and toughness thatenable people to emerge from devastat-ing circumstances without losing hope.Uxik at Michael Klein, who experiencedfailure but didn't let it defeat him. Hefound himself with a single asset-a tinysoftware company he'd acquired. Kleinbuilt it into Transoft Networks, whichHewlett-Packard acquired in 1999. Con-sider, too, Mickie Siebert, who used hersense of humor to curtail offensiveconversations. Or Sidney Rittenberg'sstrength during his imprisonment. Hedrew on his perstmal memories and innerstrength to emerge from his lengthyprison term without bitterness.

It is the combination of hardiness andability to grasp context that, above all,allows a person to not only survive anordeal, but to learn from it, and toemerge stronger, more engaged, andmore committed than ever. These attri-butes allow leaders to grow from theircrucibles, instead of being destroyed bythem -to find opportunity where othersmight find only despair. This is the stuffof true leadership. ^

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SEPTEMBER 2002 45

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