Your Creative Mind

Four

The Success Spiral

SEVERAL YEARS AGO, I was hired by a leading multinational consumer goods company that specialized in household, healthcare, and personal products, to coach an employee named Bernardo. An extremely successful marketing director, Bernardo had been promoted to a top managerial position in a Latin American business unit. They had offered him this three-year assignment in hopes that he could turn the company’s sales around in the face of some significant challenges. If he succeeded, he would be guaranteed an even bigger executive leadership position in the near future.

Bernardo made the move to the country full of energy and anticipation. He had notebooks full of ideas and enthusiasm to spare. Unfortunately, after two years, ...