From below the mountaintop was totally shrouded in low, gray cloud. Not a good sign since this was the day that we were taking our participants to the mountaintop for an exercise in inspiration. How inspired would folks be if they could see no more than a few feet in front of themselves?

The sense of dread only increased as we proceeded up the mountain by gondola, watching each of the cars slip quietly into grayness and disappear. Inside the gondola little was visible other than the cable towing us skyward.

But, as if by some divine spirit, all became clear; our little gondolas were bathed in sunlight. We had broken through the clouds and all around us the pine, the moss and the early spring snow became crystal clear. The air was fresh and crisp. What was gray and foreboding moments ago became fresh and invigorating.

A metaphor for our troubled times or bad cliché? Perhaps a bit of both! But every time I return from a teaching venture at Banff Centre nestled in the Canadian Rockies, I am rejuvenated. It is not simply the mountain location; it is the opportunity to work with so many bright executives who put themselves through a leadership development exercises in a quest that is both reflective as well as participatory.

The outcome of a successful leadership course is not what happens in the classroom; it is what happens outside of it. Taking what you have learned from others, coupled with a deeper understanding of one’s own abilities, and putting it to work for your team is critical. Again, it requires courage to put aside old habits in favor of new ones that will help your team grow. Like a climber learning a new technique, it takes time for the body to adjust. Same for leaders. Change does not occur overnight; it may take time. What matters is the commitment to the process.

Attending a leadership course does not make you a leader; it creates an opportunity for you to gain insight into yourself so that you can decide if you want to lead or not. Just as you can lead an animal to water, but cannot make it drink, you can teach leadership but it is up to the individual to make the decision for herself.
Coming down the mountain the spirits of the participants were in contrast to the descending motion of the gondola. Since the cloud layer had burned away, the valley below was crystal clear.

Such clarity is essential for leaders. Few of us live on top of the mountain; we live in the proverbial valley where daily people seek ways to make it through their work days which are at times overcast and gloomy. It then falls to leaders to remind people that their visions and goals, like mountains shrouded in clouds, can be fulfilled if they are willing to take the journey upward. The sun is shining somewhere if you look for it.

To the victor belong the spoils. While that may have worked when the Visigoths sacked Rome in the fifth century AD, it does not work so well in corporate America. All too often we see talented executives leave their companies when they do not achieve the top slot. That’s too bad because very often these executives were critical to the running of their companies. But for many being number two is not an option; their ego is too big.

One person who has put aside ego in favor of service to a cause larger than herself is Hillary Clinton. No one hungered for the presidency more than Mrs. Clinton and she took Barack Obama to the wire during the Democratic primaries of 2008. But once the election was over, she put aside her disappointment and agreed to serve in the Obama Administration as Secretary of State. While I am not privy to behind the scenes dealing, in public Hillary Clinton has shown herself to be an exemplary subordinate and in that she can teach all those who do not become CEO how to serve as excellent executives in their own right. Here’s what Secretary Clinton has done so far.

Carry the flag. Mrs. Clinton has travelled in the globe meeting with allies as well as adversaries in an attempt to restore confidence in American foreign policy. Talk is cheap, yes, but as a former First Lady, she is known to many heads of state and carries a certain aura that generates respect. The fact that someone of her stature would take the role indicates the importance that the new Administration places on diplomacy. Her tackling of the piracy issue is an example of her willingness to tackle tough issues and demonstrate resolve in the face of adversity.

Instill pride. Morale inside the State Department was quite low when Mrs. Clinton took office. Immediately she set about restoring pride in the service by holding town hall style meetings in Foggy Bottom. More importantly, she has worked to integrate diplomacy into foreign policy. Stability in Afghanistan will depend mightily on winning over the populace not through force of arms but through civilian collaboration to rebuild the infrastructure.

Maintain focus. The biggest headlines since January have been about the economic meltdown. As a Senator or candidate, Mrs. Clinton would have voiced her ideas. Not so as Secretary of State. She speaks in public only about matters of State and in doing so she demonstrates how to keep the focus on her job and the work of her people. So far she is not garnering big headlines but abroad she is re-enkindling faith in American foreign policy, which ultimately is necessary for global economy recovery.

Part of Mrs. Clinton’s success so far goes to her boss, the President. He has shown her deference and respect. Repeatedly he paid her homage as one who taught him to become a better candidate. And now that she’s heading State, he gives her the latitude she needs to run policy in accordance with Administration aims. She has a seat at the big table and her voice is heard.

There is no shame in not being number one. And for many executives staying on at companies where they have made their careers can be a good thing. They have the knowledge and expertise to make things run. Some may need to move on, and often they do make good CEOs. Jim McNerney (ex-GE) is doing a good job for Boeing and Alan Mulally (ex-Boeing) is keeping Ford alive and competitive. But for those who want to stick around awhile longer the lessons of Hillary Clinton may be instructive.

If you have a tough job to do, call a woman!

Judged by what it happening at Yahoo, the CEO position is challenging and the woman in charge does not back down easily. Bartz, who as CEO of AutoDesk, helped make that company a leader in its segment as well as a well-respected and managed company. Her retirement was voluntary and planned well in advance.

Her move to Yahoo struck many by surprise and is designed to shake up a once dominant Internet pioneer. Thanks to some serious and ongoing reporting from the Wall Street Journal’s Jessica Vascellaro , we are getting an inside look at how a determined outsider, Bartz, is seeking to shake up the loose, cozy culture at Yahoo. In doing so Bartz is demonstrates what it takes to wield the carrot and the stick.

Create order. Bartz implored her team to stop talking to the media. Bad for reporters, yes, but it was a way to stop the gossiping outside the company. She also asked everyone to be on time for meetings. Small stuff, yes, but a way to get people focused on reality.

Listen and learn. Like all savvy leaders who take over from the outside, Bartz did not pretend to be a know it all. She convened many meetings with employees at multiple levels of the company. She also sought their input on direction, asking them, “What would you do if you were me?”

Impose discipline. After six weeks of a listening and learning tour, Bartz imposed what was labeled as a “more centralized” management structure. This structure will give Bartz and her leadership team more direct decision-making authority control over the company’s operations and offerings.

Hold yourself accountable. Bartz herself does not bring her Blackberry to meetings, something she asked employees to do as well. More important, her bonus compensation is dependent upon performance.

As challenging as the CEO spot at Yahoo is, it may pale in comparison to her personal story. As reported in The Economist , Bartz was raised on a farm, worked her way through college as a cocktail waitress. A math whiz in high school, Bartz took a job at 3M but left when her path to management was blocked. She took a job in the computer industry that eventually led to Autodesk. At 43, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, but after undergoing a mastectomy she went back to work while enduring seven months of chemotherapy.

Time is running short on Yahoo; if it cannot stand alone it must find someone to buy it. Microsoft may be that suitor but in the meantime, Bartz is running the company hard. Time will tell if she succeeds.

We like our leaders to be decisive. But is this enough? Very often it is the job of a leader to point people toward the next horizon, to get them to think about alternate possibilities. We need our leaders to help decipher the unknowns.

Consider opposing points of view. Big decisions affect the destiny of organizations. Therefore, it may be prudent to consider alternate courses of action. This sounds easy, but it is not because the momentum of the moment can quash dissent. Ronald Reagan is famous for standing up to the Soviet Union, but he made a colossal blunder when he sent the U.S. Marines into Beirut as a peace-keeping force in 1983. A lone Republican congressman stood up and told the president he was wrong because the Marines could not be protected. Tragically the congressman proved to be right; more than 240 service personnel (220 of them Marines) died in a Hezbollah-engineered suicide attack that blew up the barracks. The congressman who argued against their deployment was John McCain.

Think of the consequences of your decision. Before you decide big things, you had better think through what happens next. CocaCola wanted to reinvigorate its brand in the early 1980s so it developed New Coke. The launch was a disaster because Coke brand loyalists thought they were being cheated. To its credit, CocaCola was trying to create new business; to its detriment it acted without thinking about the effect of their decision on existing consumers. [Note: As per the law of unintended consequences, Classic Coke, as traditional Coke was named, did well, as did the reformulated product, New Coke.]

Decide and move forward. It is the job of leaders to make the big decisions. Upon the death of Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman became the de facto leader of the free world. But the former Army captain, haberdasher, roads commissioner, and senator was ready to make big decisions. Four months after taking office, he approved the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan to shorten the war; two years later he pushed the European Recovery Act, known as the Marshall Plan, and shortly afterward he made a controversial decision, not supported by the State Department, to recognize the tiny state of Israel. In each case, Truman weighed the options, decided and pulled others along to his point of view.

Decisiveness is an important leadership trait, but it must be used judiciously. Unilateral decision making can be perilous. Therefore, acting decisively means getting others to support your point of view and act on it for the good of the organization.

Rick Wagoner, former CEO of General Motors, learned Friday afternoon that he would leaving the company after being called into a private meeting with an official from the Obama administration. Moments later, as reported in the New York Times , he walked out of the office and informed Fritz Henderson, who had accompanied him to Washington, that Henderson would be succeeding him. Wagoner then participated in a subsequent meeting advocating for the restructuring plan that he and his team had developed. As Henderson put it, “It’s just the kind of guy Rick is that he was trying to make sure we understood the task force’s conclusion. It was, and always is, about the company, and not about Rick.”

Regardless of where you stand on Wagoner’s sacking it deserves noting that how a leader exits provides insight into his character. Had Wagoner thrown a tantrum, as we have seen some financial executives do when being denied their perceived right to bonus compensation, he would have shown himself to be a cad. Instead Wagoner took the opportunity on the following Monday to address GM employees one final time. He spoke of his belief in the people and the company and his overriding sense of "optimism." Wagoner left with grace and that is something that leaders at every level need to employ. Here are some ways to do it.

Keep it together . When things get hectic, especially during times of crisis, it is so easy to get so wrapped up in urgency that you forget who you are. That can be fatal for leaders. When employees see their manager coming unglued due to pressure, they lose faith in her ability to lead. They shy away from contact for fear of getting sucked either into conflict or confusion. Leaders need to maintain composure.

Act for the good of the team. Focus on what the team can do. By giving the team specific directives, the leader demonstrates the he knows what needs to be done and will do. At the same time, the leader needs to invite others to contribute suggestions and act upon them if they are sound. This creates a sense of joint purpose.

Follow up. When the dust settles, good leaders make an effort to reconnect with their people. Hold a formal debrief on what happened and why. Review what went right as well as wrong. And sometimes you want to meet individually with employees. It is an opportunity to reconnect and lay the foundation for continued collaboration.

Demonstrating grace under pressure is not the same as giving up easily. Wagoner, after all, had clung long and hard to his position. Only when pushed did he leave. That is a lesson for executives who are advocating for tough propositions. Organizations, by and large, are more often to cling to the status quo and resist change. It takes strong character and belief in self to keep pushing aggressively for change that one perceives will make the organization more productive.

Consider grace a kind of leadership elixir. When applied in small doses it makes the leader appear to assured and confident. It also makes the leader more appealing because its appeal comes not from ego but from action. Winston Churchill who experienced many defeats in his life put it this way, “If one has to submit, it is wasteful not to do so with the best grace possible.”