This country is experiencing some difficult times at the moment. Whether we like it or not, revolutions in technology and the marketplace have combined to produce seismic shifts in the way we work, we relate to one another and in our attitudes towards our employers and employees.

Whether we like it or not, we have been propelled into the global village era as we struggle with a series of previously unheard problems such as a weak economic performance, a textile industry under siege, rising unemployment, a hesitant tourism industry, the slowing down of direct foreign investment, and so on. These tough times are enough to make us cringe, wring our hands and for some of us, even despair.

For others however, this is the ideal occasion to rise to the challenges and create meaning and opportunity out of this seemingly all-encompassing gulf of pessimism. It is now or never for true leadership to emerge in each one of us.

True leaders are those leaders who create meaning out of events and relationships that devastate non-leaders. True leaders are those who do not see themselves or their situation as hopeless, or find themselves paralyzed into inaction.

True leaders are the Nelson Mandela of this world who, in his famous autobiography, wrote about how he used his strong character and powerful imagination to thwart his jailers? attempts at dehumanizing him. ?Had I not been in prison,? he once told Ophra Winfrey during a television interview, ?I would not have been able to achieve the most difficult task of my life ? to change myself.?

Mandela is not the only person to have strength in adversity. History is full of other such leaders. We all enter life with one burden or another and it is how we cope with this burden that make us true leaders. Mandela had an ethnic burden ? he was black in a society dominated by whites.

Frank Gehry, the famous American architect, was a Jew in a society dominated by non-Jews. It is said that he was so troubled by this fact that shortly after the birth of his first child, he decided to change his surname to Golderg. Both these men went on to exert a significance influence on their times.The key difference between leaders and non-leaders is this rare ability to turn adversity into something positive.

To become true leaders, I believe we need a magical quality, one that lies at the very heart of our leadership development model, here at our Business School?s Leadership Development Centre. That quality we call ?adaptability? and define it as our ability to maintain effectiveness during periods of change and duress. It is our willingness to adjust to multiple demands, shifting priorities, ambiguities and rapid changes.

It is our capacity to show resilience in the face of adversity, constraints and frustrations ? to demonstrate flexibility. It is our ability to process new experiences, to find their meaning and to integrate them into the canvass of our life. It is indeed an extraordinary quality to possess, cherish and develop.

Let?s dig deeper ? what is the very source of this adaptability? Where does it emanate from? As a psychologist, I believe that it has at least three roots. Firstly, it stems directly from our inner sense of optimism ? the inner conviction that no matter how bad things appear to be at the moment in our life, one day the sun will shine again.

Secondly, it has something to do with our ability to be tenacious ? to fight for what we believe in, not to give up but to persevere. Thirdly, it comes from our self-confidence ? our faith in ourselves, that adversity can be turned to profit and that we can do something about it all if we devote enough energy, passion and time to make it happen.

Within each one of us lies a wellspring of abundance and the seeds of opportunity. For each one of us there is a deeply personal dream waiting to be discovered and fulfilled. This will happen when we invest energy, passion and tenacity in fulfilling it. This will happen when we use the tough times we are experiencing as springboards for opportunity and growth.

Prof E. Charoux

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