Last week I had the privilege of travelling, once again, to the beautiful country of South Africa. The newly named Rainbow Nation is truly a land of contrast; beauty and opulence and the ugly post apartheid legacy of devastating poverty.

Whilst there I had the opportunity to spend some time with the leadership team of the Desmond Tutu Peace Foundation. In the midst of our conversation we began to reflect together on who the likes of Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela would have been in countries other than their own? Who, for example, would Bishop Desmond Tutu have been in a multi-racial democracy like the UK, where as a Bishop he would have had voting rights on matters of Government policy and national politics? What would have become of the man who was honed and refined through the fires of the apartheid struggle that has such respect and stature right around the world? How else, other than through the path of hardship, would a chuckling Bishop have created such a remarkable global reputation?

I further considered this on my visit to Robben Island. This was a place where Nelson Mandela, and the many others who have created the modern democracy that is South Africa, were incarcerated for many years. I was shown around by Indres Naidoo who was one such political prisoner. He shared the fact that so much of the current constitution was talked through and debated in the quarries on the island during the many hours of hard labour endured by the prisoners. I reflected again as to who Nelson Mandela would have been without the challenges of 27 years of imprisonment? Is it possible that a leader of such stature can emerge without having journeyed through such things?

My reflections were not solely caused by my context but rather through my own deliberations and reading on leadership in recent days. Jim Collins in his book 'Good to Great' (Baker Book House) notes that of the CEO's they studied that were most successful in creating truly great companies, the vast majority of them shared that their leadership and life had been profoundly impacted by some kind of crucible challenge. This has had a significant impact upon who they were and consequently how they led their organisation to success.

In a similar vane, Warren Bennis in his very helpful book 'Geek's and Geezers' (Harvard Business School Press) also notes that many of the leaders that they studied, particularly for the older generation who had gone through the war, talked also of the challenge and the growth that takes place for leaders in the crucible of difficulty.

Also, any of us who reflect on leadership would have noted over this last year since 9/11 that some leaders have been tested in the crucible and have been found wanting whilst others, from whom little leadership was expected, have emerged as giants. This I think poses some interesting questions for any of us responsible for developing leaders and interested in our own development.

1. For many of us the likelihood of us confronting significant hardships in our day-to-day lives is unlikely. From where then do the opportunities come to grow in the ways that many of the great leaders we have talked about have done, to create the depth and substance of truly significant leadership?

2. If we do find ourselves as leaders within the crucible what do we do with it? Do we flee or do we confront it, embrace it and grow through it? The lesson of history would encourage us to embrace. In spite of the obvious difficulties that come when we find ourselves in the crucible of hardship, there is often a richness to be found there which should not be wasted.

3. Finally, I was left pondering again the age-old question as I thought about these leadership icons of our day. 'Does the leader make the moment or does the moment make the leader'? In truth it's almost impossible to answer and maybe for those of us in leadership positions, maybe even facing something of our own crucibles, the only important question is, "What will I, as a leader, make of this moment?"

Phil Wall
CEO