The Website of Dr. Mark Goulston

“Mark, I’m giddy with excitement,” Jim Mazzo, CEO and chairman of Advanced Medical Optics, told me last May, in the middle of what most people would consider a crisis.

Jim is one of the most competent and ethical leaders I have ever met. Without approval from his board, he had just ordered a voluntary recall of an eye solution as soon as he received information that it could contribute to serious corneal infections. I had called Jim to tell him how much I admired him and how his prompt response reminded me of Johnson & Johnson’s Jim Burke, who quickly pulled Tylenol of the shelf after several bottles were found to be contaminated with cyanide.

He said, “We are a great company, with total transparency, a set of values, and a code of conduct that we all respect and follow. I am thrilled, because I know that this is one of those rare opportunities that will make both our company and me even better and I am excited to find out just how it will do both.”

We spoke for a few minutes more and he related an important leadership lesson he had already learned from meeting prior challenges: “When bad things happen, if you resist the temptation to do anything that will make matters worse, you will discover valuable things about your company and yourself that you would never have learned had you not taken the hit.”

Finding inspiration in a most unlikely place

Jim then shared with me an even greater insight that I wrote down and keep at my desk (as should you): “A mistake is no longer a mistake when you learn the lesson it has to teach you and put it into action.” A great company is not one that doesn’t make mistakes, it just doesn’t keep making the same mistakes.

Jim is the corporate equivalent of Tiger Woods. Neither Jim nor Tiger go out of their way to cause adversity or problems. But when they occur, both of them savor it as an opportunity to become sharper. It’s easy to understand how their peers who react to adversity with fear and anger come off pale in comparison to both Jim and Tiger.

I am also reminded of another great athlete’s use of adversity to bring out his best. Greg Gumbel once asked hockey’s greatest player, Wayne Gretzky, “What is it like to be in overtime of thedeciding game of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, knowing that there are 10 seconds left and that the puck will be passed to you?”

Wayne flashed that huge, delighted grin and responded: “I live the whole season for that moment.”

How could you grow as a leader — and as a person — if you looked at adversity as an “opportunity for growth” as opposed to some calamity you had to suffer through?

Mark Goulston, M.D. is an executive coach with a focus on emotional intelligence. He helps high performers reach their full potential by becoming aware of and correcting counterproductive behaviors that cost them the trust, confidence and respect of people around them. He is the author of: Get Out of Your Own Way at Work…and Help Others Do the Same.

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