Defining Moments

Preface

Several years ago, I listened closely as a promising young manager

at a well-known consumer products company described a difficult

conflict between her responsibilities at work and her personal values.

Later, after the issue was resolved, she drew several lessons from her

experience, and one of them has stuck in my mind:

It was a wake-up call in a lot of ways—definitely on how organiza-

tions work. You can get stranded alone. I learned that you alone

are responsible for yourself, for your personal and professional devel-

opment.

This statement is both realistic and distressing. Managers do get

stranded. The experience can be painful and difficult. But when it

happens, are they entirely alone? Where can they turn for guidance

on the moral dilemmas