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Robert Thomas: Learning from Crucible Experiences
This is from the July 3rd update at EnterpriseLeadership.
Robert Thomas
Author and Executive Director
Accenture's Institute for High Performance Business Leadership
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Almost everyone agrees that anyone who seeks to lead must get firsthand experience. Experience, however, by itself doesn't guarantee learning. What matters most is what one makes of experience, particularly traumatic and often unplanned crucible events that challenge one as a leader.
This conclusion comes from research done by Robert Thomas, executive director at Accenture's Institute of High Performance Business Leadership and an associate professor at Tuft University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.
Most of the information analyzed in Thomas's new book, Crucibles of Leadership: How to Learn from Experience to Become a Great Leader, comes from interviews with leaders selected on the basis of their proven ability to grow and to sustain an organization during times of trial.
In this podcast, Thomas talks about what some CEOs have learned from their crucibles, how even CIOs can leverage their crucibles to move up the ranks, and how C-level executives can help emerging leaders learn from their experiences.
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