Posts from — September 2007

Each day I am inspired by individuals taking small and powerful actions towards leadership. Today I received a call from a young man I met three months ago. He is 19 years old. He is the first in his family to attend college, the first to graduate from high school.

When we met I was struck by his poise, his confidence, his tremendous smile and his willingness to help three younger students. I gave him my card when we met and encouraged him to call me. I knew when he called that he was taking steps to be a leader.

If you lead for any length of time, you have experienced one (or both) of these situations:

* Your team achieves a major goal, finishes a big project or lands the big client.
* The team tries for but doesn’t reach the big goal, finishes a big project late or loses a big client.

While these two sets of situations are quite different – some are big successes and the others disappointments – both lead to something very challenging for us to deal with.

Once you’ve climbed the mountain, what’s left? Once you’ve failed, what’s next?