Responding to difficulties

Years ago, as a ocllege student, I heard a speaker say something that has stuck with me every since: Everybody hurts. No matter how successful a person is, life can be painful. Personal setbacks are a dialy occurrence. We are continually challeneged adn confronted with problems at work and in other ares of our lives. If you aren't experiencing challenges or difficulties a present, remember that you have in he past and you certainly will again.

Foundation-shaking change, increased competition, displacement, diminishing resources, and uncertainty about tomorrow are part of "business as usual" in the corporate world as well. Even those companies that are successful today realize (or should) that the distance from being a supernova to being extinct can be very short indeed.

Not all people who face challenges and difficulties admit to them. Too often we try to deal with difficulty by ignoring it or anesthetizing it with activity. The healthiest companies and individual see challenges for what they are, accept them, and work to solve them.

People who act as leaders, whether they have a title or not, in some measur eserve as merchants of hope. This doesn't mean that they try to gloss over the difficulties that are being faced. Rather, they deal with them. People who lead show us that the greatest satisfaction often comes from meeting challenges head-on. They ahve hte ability ot focus on what's right and on overcoming what's wrong. They help to find the pony in the pile of manure.