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

Charles Stoner and John Gilligan

Business Horizons

November-December 2002, pp. 17-24

The authors of this article interviewed 35 senior executives about their experiences with adversity. Adversities fell into three general categories: business, career, and personal. The authors noted that: "First, adversities, for the most part, are unexpected. They are perceived as adversities precisely because we do not see them coming. Second, they are disruptive, twisting and thwarting the expected pattern of planned action. At least for some period, adversities generally break whatever routine executives have been able to carve. Third, a level of uncertainty and ambiguity generally surrounds adversity. The path through it is often not immediately clear."

The study indicated that leaders follow a surprisingly consistent three-stage path when confronted with the disruption of adversity:

1. the disillusionment phase—The leaders do not deny the presence and impact of their emotions, but they also understand that they cannot languish in emotional disillusionment. One of the main ways they used to work through this phase was to turn to family and friends for support. This allowed them to begin to "move on" towards overcoming the adversity;
2. the reflection phase—The leaders approached reflection from two angles. First, they spent time with themselves in introspection. Second, they sought input from trusted business colleagues and recognized experts in order to make sense out of the adversity. The four key character insights which emerge from this phase are: rediscovering significance and what really counts; reaffirming core values; understanding and accepting limits; and recognizing both what one can affect and what one is unable to control;
3. the transformation stage—This stage involves doing something different based on what has been revealed through adversity. It includes cognitive reframe (stepping back from adversity and placing it in the Big Picture perspective), challenge reframe (seeing adversity as a challenge), control reframe (realizing what they cannot control and concentrating their energies where they can have an impact), courage ("courage is an act of movement, an act of doing something different that seems to make sense"), and seeking help and support (in the forms of emotional support, diversionary support/release, and advisory support).

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