Leading Through Adversity

Leaders must be able to deal with adversity readily.  In my opinion, adversity is like a forge. The forging process is essentially the art of heating and working hot metal into shape.  By working the metal in this way, it increases many of the metal properties, including structure.  Leaders are strengthened and shaped by going through adversity.  Can you recall a time in your leadership journey where you faced adversity?  Did you come out of it as a stronger leader?

I faced adversity a lot in the period of 1999-2002.  This was a time that defined me as a leader, and crystallized my approach to leadership.

I was in a good job in 1999 after my family had relocated to New Orleans in 1998.  This put us much closer to family after four years in California.  I had very little stress in my vocational life, and decided I would go back to school and get my MBA.  I joined the Executive MBA program at Tulane University at the age of 41.

The intensity of the EMBA program was challenging at the start.  We met every other weekend for class and had study team meetings in between.  I was a member of an amazing study team which stayed together for the entire EMBA program.  We were all located in New Orleans and rotated our meetings at each other’s offices.  In addition, I had a great support network at home.  This changed drastically about six-seven months later, when I was offered a transfer and a promotion to a different role in Houston, Texas.  I had to move my family at a time when our oldest daughter was leaving for college and our younger daughter was going into her sophomore year of high school.  That was tough on the two of them, as well on my wife and I, as we tried to hold our family together.  During this time, I was traveling back to New Orleans every other weekend to attend school.  I was learning a new job with a totally different team at the same time as navigating my family through a significant emotional event.

This time was particularly tough for my leadership – both at home and at work.  At home, I was very fortunate that my wife pulled up the slack.  We wouldn’t have made it through as a family without her leadership.  I’m a blessed man!

As for work, in late 2000 I switched to a complex job from one with a relatively simple scope.  I was now responsible for a global team of crude oil traders and operations personnel.  While my title was West Africa Crude Trading Team Leader, I had no direct reports.  My team included five traders in three locations (London, Houston, and Singapore) and operations personnel in numerous countries (which included Angola, Nigeria, UK, Canada, US, and Singapore). 

In addition to a new team and the pressures of my EMBA program, I was in a new job in a new location.  For school, I was flying back to New Orleans from Houston every other week.  For work, I had a tough international travel schedule.  In 2001 (when I wasn’t in school), I flew to Norway, London, Nigeria (twice), and Angola.  In late 2001, I flew to Europe for the last week of school.  This last trip included my family.  Once school was over, we took a much-needed vacation to London and Europe.  I thought that my stress level would decrease significantly after school.  Unfortunately, this lower stress level only lasted a couple of months.

In late 2001, the merger between Chevron and Texaco was approved and moved forward.  I went into another new job as Planning Manager for ChevronTexaco’s Global Trading division.  I was to have an analyst to help me.  Due to immigration issues from 9/11, my analyst (a Philippine citizen) couldn’t get a visa.  I was on my own to prepare the first business plan for the new Global Trading organization.  I plan to write a post about this time, as it was extremely disappointing and was one of the low points of my 40-year career at Chevron.   I finished out 2001 thoroughly disliking my job.  I was miserable at work.

The next year, there was a small reorganization at Chevron and the Global Trading organization was merged with Chevron’s worldwide fuel oil trading and marketing organization.  This year was another transition year for us in three ways:

1. Our younger daughter graduated from high school a year early and headed off to college in the fall of 2002.
2. I got another new job and transfer to California in the summer of 2002.
3. In the fall, my wife and I became empty nesters!  We were in California; one daughter was in college in Louisiana and the other was in college in Oklahoma.

The new assignment in California turned out to be my favorite job in my entire career.  This was despite being a part of an oil spill response (see https://mrhensonllc.com/incident-command-leadership-insights/).

Was my work life adversity-free after 2002?  Absolutely not!  Almost twenty years later, I can see that the time of 1999-2002 was full of adversity.

This period of adversity truly gave me a stronger level of leadership.  While in my EMBA studies, I articulated my personal leadership model (see https://mrhensonllc.com/my-personal-leadership-model/).  In my new role in 2002, I was able to apply this model deliberately.  I strongly believe it was a key to the high performance of that team.

On a personal note, I’ve noted how my daughters’ independence was forged during this time of adversity for them.  While they made sacrifices for all the moves and transitions, they have both developed into strong women and mothers – fierce leaders!

My belief is that strength does come from adversity.  Adversity in a leaders’ life can make them a stronger leader.

I’d love to hear your thoughts.  What adversity have you gone through?  Did it make you a stronger leader or person?  Have you seen the improvement as a result?