Leaders: Formed by the crucible

The late scholar Warren Bennis, who pioneered leadership studies, believed that leaders were formed through transformative experiences — crucibles — during which an individual comes to a new identity, of sorts.

In his many books on leadership, Bennis describes people who are faced with circumstances in which, to overcome, they had to adapt and engage others. Some transformative experiences are tragic, some joyous, Bennis and co-author Robert Thomas write in their 2002 book Geeks and Geezers.

The lessons are, perhaps, instructive today, nearly 20 years later, in an era where people tend to seek out their tribes and stay put. But, Bennis writes, it is the moment when you don’t have your tribe that leadership is forged.

Jack Kahl, the late founder of Manco, maker of Duck brand duct tape, was 7-years-old when his father died, leaving his mother and six children. His mother made the family into a team, with Jack getting a newspaper route and the other children getting jobs, too. Each put their earnings in a savings account and each was responsible for putting their earnings toward a single goal. It was the model on which Kahl built his business.

In 2002, Bennis and Thomas wrote in the Harvard Business Review about Sidney Harman, CEO of an audio components company, who had an epiphany one day courtesy of a laborer. Laborers in a particularly exhausting department had started a rebellion in the plant because of an arbitrary management decision that delayed their break time. The buzzer that was supposed to signal their 10 p.m. break was on the fritz. Management decided they should work until the buzzer was fixed. One employee refused saying he did not work for the buzzer, the buzzer worked for him. That one experience led Harman to completely revamp the company.