In May I met a woman at a friends’ wedding whom I would eventually fall in love with. And then two weeks ago she said “we need to talk.” You can see where this is going. I thought this was my stop on the romance train, instead it turned out just to be another end of the line.
For the last two weeks I ruminated over what went wrong, observed my confidence plummet and shelled off from many of the activities I typically enjoy. TMI? Well, I picked myself off the ground and learned a lot about the power of having a “crucible moment.” B2B executives stay tuned because a crucible is as important to your plan to gain market share as it is to my plan to regain my swagger.
The American Heritage Dictionary characterizes a crucible as a “a severe test of patience or belief.” Essentially, a crucible is that moment where your knocked off your behind, your life is transformed and your goals come into sharp focus.
Am I being overly dramatic when it comes to a break up? Maybe. However, for me it is undeniable that events over the last month have caused me go through what Professor Warren Bennis describes in a seminal book on leadership, Geeks & Geezers, as a “defining moment that unleashes abilities, forces crucial choices, and sharpens focus.”
As terrible as I felt, and continue to feel, I know I will be better off because I got rejected. Similarly, some businesses will take to heart lessons from our time in a deep and dark recession. Some executives will take the pain their employees, customers and investors went through personally. These businesses and executives that feel as if the recession was a crucible moment will come out strongest. The view of the last two years as a defining moment, not only for the economy, but for your business will help restore trust with the communities you serve.
When was your crucible moment? Mine was September 2009.
No related posts.
