Leadership and the Art of Struggle

6Navigate Tensions

Got to be the worst place in the world, inside a oven.You in here, you either cleaning or you getting cooked.

—Kathryn Stockett, The Help

SANDY JONES, WHO HAD DREAMED OF BECOMING A CHIEF MERCHANT for a major retailer, emerged from her struggle to find herself on a different path that promised greater meaning and fulfillment. That was a very different struggle trajectory than the one followed by Kathee Tesija, who actually did become the chief merchant of one of the largest retailers in the world, Target Corporation.

Kathee Tesija’s Struggle

Tesija became Target’s top merchant in May 2008, just as Target, a $70 billion retailer, was noticing early signs of a softening market. Those warning signals foreshadowed the most precipitous ...