How to Turn Obstacles into Assets

Here is another valuable Management Tip of the Day from Harvard Business Review. To sign up for a free subscription to any/all HBR newsletters, please click here.

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Successful people work with what they have to achieve their goals.

This includes surprises, obstacles, and even disappointments.

Next time you face a challenge, think about how it can help you.

•  Use negative feedback to gauge whether to invest more resources or pull the plug before it’s too late.
•  Take your boss’ rejection of your idea as a chance to come up with a better one that she will love.
•  Use discouraging market research findings about your product to develop a feature that customers can’t live without.
•  Instead of setbacks, see these events as gifts and make them work for you.

Today’s Management Tip was adapted from “How to Turn an Obstacle into an Asset” by Leonard A. Schlesinger, Charles F. Kiefer, and Paul B. Brown.

To read that article and join the discussion, please click here.

Also, you may wish to check out Management Tips from Harvard Business Review by clicking here.

Leonard A. Schlesinger is the president of Babson College. Charles F. Kiefer is president of Innovation Associates. Paul B. Brown is a long-time contributor to the New York Times. They are the co-authors of Just Start: Take Action, Embrace Uncertainty, Create the Future (HBR Press 2012). Learn more at juststartthebook.com.

Kyle Zimmer (First Book) in “The Corner Office”

Photo credit: Librado Romero/NYT

Adam Bryant conducts interviews of senior-level executives that appear in his “Corner Office” column each week in the SundayBusiness section of The New York Times. Here are a few insights provided during an interview of Kyle Zimmer who is president, C.E.O. and co-founder of First Book, a nonprofit that provides books for children in need. To encourage initiative, she says, the organization occasionally bestows awards for promising ideas that somehow fail.

To read the complete interview as well as Bryant’s interviews of other executives, please click here.

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“So, Your Idea Hit a Brick Wall. Congratulations!”

Bryant: What were some early leadership lessons for you?

Zimmer: After I graduated from law school, I felt like I had something to prove. I remember thinking that if I was a bigger pit bull, that would somehow turn into a win. There are times when you have to do that. But it’s really unusual when that’s appropriate and even helpful. Over time, I learned that the best business deals are the ones that are brilliantly crafted so that everybody has a reason to play. I think it took me longer than it should have to figure that out.

Bryant: What else did you learn early in your career?

Zimmer: I thought I had to have all the answers myself. I don’t think I had the humility or the perspective to understand that that’s never the game, and that reaching out to as many brilliant minds as you can find is where the real strength is. When I started First Book, I was learning about the publishing industry from the ground up. But by that time, I had learned that it really didn’t matter if I knew anything. What mattered is whether I could get people to the table who did, because you’re never going to know enough.

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Adam Bryant, deputy national editor of The New York Times, oversees coverage of education issues, military affairs, law, and works with reporters in many of the Times‘ domestic bureaus. He also conducts interviews with CEOs and other leaders for Corner Office, a weekly feature in the SundayBusiness section and on nytimes.com that he started in March 2009. In his book, The Corner Office: Indispensable and Unexpected Lessons from CEOs on How to Lead and Succeed, (Times Books), he analyzes the broader lessons that emerge from his interviews with more than 70 leaders. To read an excerpt, please click here. To contact him, please click here.