Firing Back: How Great Leaders Rebound After Career Disasters JEFFREY SONNENFELD ANDREW WARD W hether it is movie or media stars, artists, politicians, business leaders, or even academics, there is a fascination with those who fall from grace, who get knocked off their pedestals either through their own slipups or by external overthrow. For many, the derailment of a career of high accom- plishment compounds adversity, because their path has been so all consuming that much has been sacrificed in its pursuit. Pri- vate dreams became public possessions, which were then cavalierly tossed away by an unappreciative, fickle society. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s famous admonition that there are no second acts in American lives casts an especially dark shadow over the derailed careers of leaders and those focused on crea- tive expression. For leaders, life’s adversity can turn hard-earned assets into monumental barriers to recovery. Leaders can enjoy such resources as great popular recognition, vast networks of supporters, and gushing pools of finances. Yet celebrity, popularity, and wealth do not insulate them from fate. Indeed, fortunes can change in an instant—one moment we can be on top of the world, and the next, trodden underfoot. While prominent leaders may be presumed to have the resources to rebound from any disaster, those very presumed advantages can easily turn into great obsta- cles to recovery. Nonetheless, some do recover with their careers brighter than ever, while others flame out into obscurity. Consider the resilience of John Irving, Mike Nichols, Robert Altman, Carlos Santana, and John Travolta against the retreats of Kurt Vonnegut, J. D. Salinger, Alan Jay Lerner, Judy Garland, and Orson Welles. Some were energized by their losses, while others were forever haunted by the specter of their own early careers. What dis- tinguishes those who stare down setback, determined to rebuild, from those who stare despondently into a void, never able to recapture the spark that ignited the flames of past glory? And what are the lessons for all who suffer career setbacks, at whatever level? Former president Jimmy Carter chal- lenged a group of chief executive officers (CEOs) at one of our conferences to consider how they would recover if the American public had fired them. Despite failing to be reelected, Carter continued tirelessly in his humanitarian, public health, and diplomacy missions, heavily promoting democratic reform around the world. Carter has become revered by virtually all as the United States’ greatest former president and recognized as a Nobel Laureate for Peace. Leaders should not be measured by how they bask in the grat- ification of their accomplishments. Rather, they should be measured by how they Organizational Dynamics, Vol. 37, No. 1, pp. 1–20, 2008 ISSN 0090-2616/$ – see frontmatter ß 2007 Published by Elsevier Inc. doi:10.1016/j.orgdyn.2007.11.007 www.organizational-dynamics.com 1