Surviving trying times can help build character—and careers. In many ways, former Republican Senator Bob Dole, who died Sunday at age 98, certainly lived through and survived some trying times which molded and shaped his character, career and leadership style.
Surviving trying times can help build character—and careers. In many ways, former Republican Senator Bob Dole, who died Sunday at age 98, certainly lived through and survived some trying times which molded and shaped his character, career and leadership style. How Dole led through challenging and difficult times in his life provides important lessons in leadership for corporate executives. President Joe Biden said in a statement that, “In the Senate, though we often disagreed, he never hesitated to work with me or other Democrats when it mattered most. He and Ted Kennedy came together to turn Bob’s lifelong cause into the Americans with Disabilities Act—granting tens of millions of Americans lives of greater dignity. “On the Social Security Commission, he led a bipartisan effort with Pat Moynihan to ensure that every American could grow old with their basic dignity intact. When he managed the bill to create a federal holiday in the name of Martin Luther King, Jr.—a bill that many in his own caucus opposed—I will never forget what he said to our colleagues: ‘No first-class democracy can treat people like second-class citizens.’ Jameson Sharp is a former senior policy advisor in the Kansas House of Representatives and now an investment group partner at Neptune Capital. He observed that, “Bob Dole’s heroism and leadership to serve his fellow Americans did not stop on the battlefield of World War II. It continued onto the Senate and onto when he ran for President of the United States. “Every business executive in Corporate America could certainly take this single important leadership lesson and put it to work right away. And that lesson is to keep marching forward through the fear, uncertainty and the painful result of defeat. Because on the other side is what we call personal growth.” Jonathan Smith, founder of CamperGuide said, “The important leadership lesson that we should learn from Senator Bob Dole that we can use in business is the value of making yourself as an example. “We should be at the forefront of everything.
