Sun Tzu in the Art of War talks about the perils of a leader who lacks the ability to be decisive. When battling in business today, you are watched very closely as a leader. One thing that teammates of a leader will not forgive is lack of certainty. By your words, voice qualities and body language - you either transfer certainty or you transfer doubt. People want to follow a leader who can clearly paint a compelling picture of the future. The events of the past several years have shaken that trust in corporate America with a sting of disappointments.

Maybe your company saw it stock price chopped by 80% or more, had repeated downsizings or even went out of business. There still are many companies and individuals in the survival mode today. They are concerned with surviving and not thinking how they can out innovate, out think and out hustle the competition.

What difficult leadership situations have you found yourself in the last few years? One simple concept to remember when facing adversity is that there is a difference between difficult and impossible. A couple years ago when playing for the Arizona Cardinals, Jake Plummer and his team found themselves down my 21 with twelve minutes left against the Eagles in Philadelphia. Most teams would fold in that situation, but the Cardinals had Jake. According to an article in Sports Illustrated, this was not a new situation for him. In six seasons there he directed 21 game-winning drives in the forth quarter or overtime.

The story in the newspaper by the AP quoted Jake as saying,