Beyond the Crucible

How you think and what you feel as you move beyond your crucible is critical. It's just as important, in fact, as what actions you take to get past it. Michelle Dickinson shares this truth as a corporate well-being strategist. She and BEYOND THE CRUCIBLE host and Crucible Leadership founder, Warwick Fairfax, discuss the lessons she's learned about resilience from growing up with a bipolar mother. She also shares what she teaches executives about addressing the mental-health challenges faced by their employees. Millions of us are working to create a new normal after the myriad setbacks and traumas of the COVID-19 pandemic. That's why, she says, we need to be extended the grace – and give it to ourselves – to realize we are stronger than any circumstance we face.   To learn more about Michelle Dickinson, visit www.careforyourpeople.com To explore Crucible Leadership resources, and to pre-order Warwick Fairfax's book, CRUCIBLE LEADERSHIP: EMBRACE YOUR TRIALS TO LEAD A LIFE OF SIGNIFICANCE, visit www.crucibleleadership.com 

Shawn Harper has learned from his crucibles – which include extreme poverty as a boy, suffering from learning disabilities and being kicked out of two schools – that the only way to move beyond those challenges is to move through them. What he discovered on the journey changed his life – leading first to an NFL football career and now professional fulfillment as a business owner and sought-after motivational speaker. But don’t call him a success. That’s a word and a pursuit, he says, that’s rooted in image, not reality. It’s something you chase but never achieve. So for Harper the goal is winning, which he defines as pouring yourself into your hopes and dreams and making a difference in the lives of others where and when you can. In Crucible Leadership terms, that means living a life of significance.   To learn more about Shawn Harper, visit www.shawnharper.org   To explore Crucible Leadership resources, and to pre-order Warwick Fairfax's book, CRUCIBLE LEADERSHIP: EMBRACE YOUR TRIALS TO LEAD A LIFE OF SIGNIFICANCE, visit www.crucibleleadership.com  

Have you suffered setback and failure? Then you probably have struggled with anger and maybe bitterness as you think of those who contributed to your pain. In this episode, Crucible Leadership founder and BEYOND THE CRUCIBLE host Warwick Fairfax discusses with cohost Gary Schneeberger the critical need to forgive those who have wronged us (or even ourselves) in order to move past our crucibles and toward a life of significance. Warwick lays out seven steps you can begin practicing today to cultivate what he calls the noble character to practice forgiveness. From understanding the difference between forgiving someone and condoning their actions, to channeling your pain in more productive ways than being consumed by bitterness, you will walk away from this discussion with practical action steps you can take beginning today to start walking in this truth expressed by Marianne Williamson: “The practice of forgiveness is our most important contribution to the healing of the world.”    To explore Crucible Leadership resources, visit www.crucibleleadership.com 

How do you find purpose in your life and work that allows you to create a legacy that stretches beyond the bottom line of balance sheets and the showy flash of corporate perks? Kevin Edwards, host of the Real Leaders podcast, has discovered through hundreds of interviews with high-powered high achievers – interviews that date back to college – that one of the greatest crucibles most face is settling for success and not pursuing significance. The antidote? Finding a calling that allows you to do good for others even as you do well for yourself.   To learn more about Kevin Edwards' podcast and Real Leaders, visit www.real-leaders.com   To explore Crucible Leadership resources, and preorder Warwick's book Crucible Leadership: Embrace Your Trials to Lead a Life of Significance, visit www.crucibleleaderrship.com 

John Sikkema had it all. Except peace. Having carved out successful careers in insurance sales and finance, he felt in his 40's that his life was careening out of control. Soon his car was, too. It was the combination of the accident he was surprised he survived, and the damage his obsession with making money was doing to his marriage and his faith, that led him to something better than the bottom line.  When he heard a message at church about pursuing a greater purpose, one that involved serving others, he began a journey to the kind of joy money absolutely cannot buy. Today, as chairman of Halftime Australia, an executive coaching and mentoring organization, he helps other business leaders build lives of significance in the next act of their careers.   To learn more about John Sikkema and Halftime Australia, visit www.halftime.org.au. The organization also has a U.S. branch: www.halftime.org   To explore Crucible Leadership resources, and preorder Warwick's book Crucible Leadership: Embrace Your Trials to Lead a Life of Significance, visit www.crucibleleadership.com 

How do you maintain the delicate balance between pursuing a vision that you are passionate about and treating well the men and women who are sharing that journey with you? Crucible Leadership founder and BEYOND THE CRUCIBLE host Warwick Fairfax unpacks practical tips to follow in this conversation with co-host Gary Schneeberger. From keeping your ego in check … to focusing on the process, not on chasing an outcome … from making sure team members know you value them as much as you value your vision … to walking the talk so they believe it, they lay out a roadmap to both bouncing back from past crucibles and avoiding future ones.   To explore Crucible Leadership resources, and to pre-order Warwick's book Crucible Leadership: Embrace Your Trials to Lead a Life of Significance, visit www.crucibleleadership.com.

Despite being born with small hands and shortened ligaments that left him unable to even hold a cup as a boy, Wael Farouk has diligently – some would say miraculously -- carved out a career as a celebrated concert pianist. This spring, in fact, he performed Rachmaninoff's piano concerti Nos. 1, 2 and 3 in one evening -- the first time the prodigious musical feat has been done. Farouk lives and works in Wisconsin, where he is an assistant professor of piano and director of the Keyboard Studies at Carthage College in Kenosha. In this conversation with Warwick, Farouk explains how he has embraced his physical limitations, and endured the crucible of religious persecution as a Coptic Christian in his native Egypt, because of his strong belief that it is through what he calls “rough waters” that he improves and progresses. To learn more about Wael Farouk, visit www.waelfarouk.com. To purchase tickets to a streaming recording of his Rachmaninoff performance, visit https://www.atthemac.org/events/np-rachmaninoff/   To explore Crucible Leadership resources, visit www.crucibleleadership.com  

We’ve all heard that living with your purpose top of mind – what we at Crucible Leadership call a life of significance – leads to a more joyful and impactful life. But did you know it also can lead to a longer life? Author Marta Zaraska makes an eye-opening case for that truth in her best-seller, Growing Young: How Friendship, Optimism and Kindness Can Help You Live to 100 – a book steeped in science (she studied more than 600 research papers in her research) that points to the health benefits of living life in community and in service to others.  That means those steps you're taking to overcome your crucibles -- deepening authentic relationships, growing in character and kindness, leaning into the power of meditation and prayer -- can lower your mortality rate more effectively than a fad diet or obsessing over whether you're getting your 10,000 steps in every day.   To learn more about Marta Zaraska and Growing Young, visit www.zaraska.com   To explore Crucible Leadership resources, visit www.crucibleleadership.com

Chris Leeuw had his entire life ahead of him -- and it looked very bright. A self-described "adrenaline junkie," he reveled in outdoor activities like water-skiing and kayaking and loved his job in local TV news. It all changed in a tragic instant. Chris, at 28, was paralyzed from the neck down in a freak recreational diving accident -- and thought he'd never walk or be able to care for himself again.  But despite the physical and financial crucibles he faced, he refused to give up. Chris let every physical sensation he began to feel again fuel his drive to pursue the most cutting-edge treatment and rehabilitation -- and work tirelessly to achieve the healing he once dared not imagine was possible. Now, just more than a decade later, he has regained much of his mobility and something just as life-changing: a passion for helping others with spinal-cord injuries via the nonprofit rehabilitation center he founded.   To learn more about Chris Leeuw, visit www.neurohopewellness.org   To explore Crucible Leadership resources, visit www.crucibleleadership.com

Your soul is the you that you don't have to think about, where your essence, your truest self, lives. But how do you discover what your soul reveals about you? More importantly, how can drawing on the insights you find there help you bounce back from a crucible and lead a life of significance? Crucible Leadership founder and BEYOND THE CRUCIBLE host Warwick Fairfax and cohost Gary Schneeberger take a deep dive into those questions, offering up 7 ways to live with your soul top of mind. The beliefs, values and passions you find there, Warwick says, will allow you to begin living your legacy today.   To learn more about The One Thing Core Values Deck discussed in this episode, visit www.the1thing.com/shop/corevaluesdeck/   To explore additional Crucible Leadership resources, visit www.crucibleleadership.com  

Some people may look at John Ramstead's life and say he’s lost a lot. Crucibles cost him his dream of being a Top Gun fighter pilot, almost ruined him professionally and financially and nearly killed him in an accident that led to dozens of surgeries over two years -- and still left him with physical challenges. Yet Ramstead, an in-demand leadership coach and successful podcast host, says those "losses" helped him find the most important things in his life: his faith and his purpose. He recounts it all in his new book On Purpose, With Purpose: Discovering How to Live Your Best Life -- which offers readers insights and action steps to find the true north essential to navigating the journey of their lives.    To learn more about John Ramstead and his book, visit www.beyondinfluence.com   To explore more Crucible Leadership resources, visit www.crucibleleadership.com

Adversity, Taryn Marie Stejskal says, is a trip we take.  Resilience paves the road we walk to move beyond it. As one of the foremost international experts on building and exercising resilience in business and in life, Stejskal has crafted the Five Practices of Particularly Resilient People through exhaustive research into the subject ... and informed by her harrowing experience of being stalked in high school by a man who eventually assaulted another victim.  It's not the absence of crucibles that determines our future, she tells Warwick, but what we learn from them and how we apply that wisdom.   Learn more about Stejskal and her practical and empirical insights into resilience by visiting www.resilience-leadership.com or her Facebook page (@drtarynmarie) and her Instagram account (@drtarynmarie).   To explore more Crucible Leadership resources, visit www.crucibleleadership.com  

Gregory Robinson's crucibles piled up in his youth: raised without a father, kicked out of the house at 16, eking out a day-to-day existence swiping soap from restaurants to wash up and making ends meet hustling pool while flopping with other boys from hardscrabble backgrounds. But his life began to turn around after a stint in juvenile detention set him on a path to get a job, join the military and build the responsibility and resilience that has led him to help others employ the principles that have made him The Unbreakable Man. The key, he says, is to never let defeat you.   To learn more about Gregory Robinson, visit www.theunbreakableman.live   To explore additional Crucible Leadership resources, visit www.crucibleleadership.com

The Greatest of All Time. Shorthand, GOAT -- especially in sports contexts. But the single-minded pursuit of being the best (fill in the blank) in your sphere of influence can invade your professional and personal life, too. And when it does, it can be dangerous. Crucible Leadership founder and BEYOND THE CRUCIBLE host Warwick Fairfax talks with cohost Gary Schneeberger about why we should avoid chasing GOATdom – and, more importantly, how to do it.  Warwick unpacks five insightful steps we can take to decouple our achievements from our identity to help us pursue a life of significance and a legacy we can be proud of. "Truly great leaders," he explains, "don’t focus on their own greatness."   To explore more Crucible Leadership resources, visit www.crucibleleadership.com

He was, in his own words, an "intense goal-setter" from the third grade. And Hank McLarty achieved most of what he set his mind to a football scholarship to Auburn, a financial services career at prestigious firms, recognition and wealth as one of the youngest and best in his industry. But when he started to "drink the Hank Kool-Aid" and believe he was as fabulous as the press coverage he earned said he was, his world collapsed. Living in a hotel with his two boys for two years, needing its free breakfasts to make ends meet, he slowly began to recast his vision -- away from success and toward significance. Today, he says he's blessed to have found both through Gratus Capital, the firm he founded on the principles of gratitude and humility.   To learn more about Hank McLarty and Gratus Capital, visit https://gratuscapital.com/   To explore more Crucible Leadership resources, visit www.crucibleleadership.com

Seton Hall University students who attend the Buccino Leadership Institute discover early the value of learning and leveraging the lessons of their crucible experiences. That's because the institute's executive director, retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Bryan Price, teaches a freshman course in which students share their most painful setbacks and failures with their classmates as a means of building confidence in themselves and camaraderie among their peers. It's leadership authenticity Price learned as captain of the baseball team at West Point -- spotlighting how vulnerability for a purpose pays big dividends in our lives and careers. And the sooner we learn our identity is not tied to what we do but rather to who we are, the better we become at the essential skills of reframing failure and not falling victim to imposter syndrome.

From the outside looking in, Tracy J. Edmonds' life couldn't have been sweeter: a high-profile executive job with a Fortune 30 company at which she excelled. But on the inside, where she discovered it really counts, her career had come at a high cost because of a self-imposed crucible: not being her authentic self. So she decided to embrace both her figurative and literal wild hair -- trading her corner office for a cubicle and tackling a vision that not only meshed with her gifts and passions but also allowed her to live who she truly was rather than conforming a corporate mold. She's found her life of significance in coaching other women of color that to be the best versions of themselves, they have to be the real versions of themselves.   To learn more about Tracy J. Edmonds and her book Wild Hair: A Courageous Woman’s Guide to a Bold and Authentic Career, visit https://tracyjedmonds.com/   To explore more Crucible Leadership resources, visit www.crucibleleadership.com

Visionaries who are also mavericks, who prefer to conquer what needs to be conquered as a solo expedition, often find themselves foiled by crucibles that could have been overcome had they taken a team approach. Crucible Leadership founder and BEYOND THE CRUCIBLE host Warwick Fairfax unpacks why some leaders reject the aid of a team as they pursue their vision while others embrace tackling a mission together -- and why the latter are usually more successful than the former. Yes, pursuing your vision with a team requires more patience on your part and a willingness to share the credit and let others have a substantive say in the goals you're going after.  But the benefits of camaraderie, the right mix of skills needed to get the job done and valuable input that can actually make your vision better while helping make it a reality are more than worth it.    To learn more about Crucible Leadership, visit www.crucibleleadership.com

He was born with Poland's Syndrome, a rare disease that left his right hand malformed and his muscle development non-existent. But Johannes Atlas was also born to parents who, as he puts it, "refused to baby him." Their support led him to overcome his physical challenges on a variety of sporting fields and his emotional challenges by believing -- as his mom and dad told him often -- he was "enough." Coming under the tutelage of business mentors as a young adult and inspired by his faith, Atlas has launched a growing speaking career and is encouraging others to overcome their own crucibles en route to a life of significance through his Pressing Toward the Mark events.   To learn more about Johannes Atlas, visit www.instagram.com/jo_speaks     To learn more about Crucible Leadership, visit www.crucibleleadership.com 

What do you do as a thought leader when crucible experiences force you to face that you're a "practice struggler"? That's the situation Kaley Klemp faced when she and her husband, Nate, hit a patch in their marriage so rocky they wondered if it might be the end. But they fought their way back by changing their mindsets from seeking fairness from each other to showing radical generosity to each other. In the process, they applied some of the very team-building skills each had learned in their careers to bolstering their relationship -- a journey they capture in their new book, THE 80-80 MARRIAGE: A New Model for a Happier, Stronger Relationship. Kaley explains in this interview with Crucible Leadership founder and BEYOND THE CRUCIBLE host Warwick Fairfax that strong marriages, like strong leaders, need ample doses of vulnerability and authenticity.   To learn more about Kaley Klemp and The 80-80 Marriage, visit www.kaleyklemp.com   To learn more about Crucible Leadership, visit www.CrucibleLeadership.com

From the tragic beginnings of being orphaned then abused by his guardian uncle, to his adulthood as a crack addict who fathered seven children by five woman, Marvin Charles was an unhappy story just waiting on a sad ending. But then he got sober and embraced God as his anchor -- and dramatically rewrote his destiny. Divine Alternatives for Dads -- D.A.D.S. -- the nonprofit he founded 20 years ago after navigating the legal system to put his family back together, has helped 5,000 men reclaim their roles as fathers and learn the practical and emotional skills to knit their own families back together.    For more information about Marvin Charles and D.A.D.S, visit www.aboutdads.org   For more information about Crucible Leadership, visit www.crucibleleadership.com

It's no secret we live in a divided world, especially in the U.S. But disagreeing over issues and how best to solve the crucibles we face in our world and communities does not mean those who think differently than us are the enemy or evil. BEYOND THE CRUCIBLE host and Crucible Leadership founder Warwick Fairfax explains the danger in demonizing "the other side” from the comfort of our own echo chambers, and the breakthroughs that can occur if we refuse to judge and commit to listen to and understand the views of those with whom we disagree. Seeking unity, he explains, creates opportunities and growth in our pursuit of lives of significance.   To learn more about Crucible Leadership, visit www.crucibleleadership.com

Ruza Markovic had dreamt of and studied for a career in journalism -- when war intervened to change the trajectory of her life.  While her family had emigrated to the U.S. from their native Yugoslavia when she was just 4, Markovic didn't think twice when she was asked to return to her homeland in the early '90s as a communications liaison to the teetering government while political unrest and then war-ravaged the Balkans. What she saw and experienced, she says, laid barren her faith in country, politics, the media, and herself.  Those trials and traumas, though, did not sap her spirit. They steeled her resolve to live her life in service to others -- in part as an advocate for the liberating power of education.   To learn more about Ruza Markovic, visit www.proonemedia.com   To learn more about Crucible Leadership, visit www.CrucibleLeadership.com

Leadership is not, in Daniel Harkavy's eyes, a complex equation. Its essential elements are the decisions you make and the influence you cultivate. But putting that into practice, especially after a crucible, can certainly be challenging. In his new book, THE 7 PERSPECTIVES OF EFFECTIVE LEADERS, the president of Building Champions unpacks the mindset shifts that remove the either/or restrictions many leaders feel while simultaneously pursuing success and significance. From understanding current reality to crafting a vision rooted in your passions and putting together a team to bring that vision to reality, Harkavy offers a blueprint for pursuing your personal and professional goals with purpose and excellence.    For more information on Daniel Haravy and Building Champions, visit www.buildingchampions.com   To learn more about Crucible Leadership, visit www.crucibleleadership.com

In this special 50th episode of BEYOND THE CRUCIBLE, host Warwick Fairfax and co-host Gary Schneeberger take a look back at some of the most powerful guests who have shared the trials and triumphs of not just surviving their crucible experiences but moving beyond them to lead lives of significance. You'll meet inspiring men and women from all walks of life who have overcome physical, emotional, and professional setbacks, failures, and tragedies to live lives on purpose, rooted in their passions and talents. From the Hollywood actor/writer/director whose first film flopped so badly it was almost his last to the young woman selling her gourmet cookies out of her driveway, from the motivational speaker who grabbed the brass ring only to realize it was lead to the former NFL quarterback who couldn't live up to the MVP career of his father but has carved out a post-football calling that helps marriages and families, you'll find hope and healing in these conversations filled with wisdom and vulnerability.   To hear any of the full episodes referenced on the show, visit www.crucibleleadership.com

It's the most wonderful time of the year, right? Except it doesn't always feel that way. The holidays can bring on some serious emotional crucibles -- from tensions among family members, sadness over those who are no longer with us, even struggling to overcome our disappointment in decisions made by loved ones. That's what BEYOND THE CRUCIBLE host and Crucible Leadership founder Warwick Fairfax  faced after a long-ago picture of his late father gave rise to emotions he wasn't expecting.  How did he move beyond those feelings? As he discusses in this episode, he focused on the blessings of the present and the opportunities of the future. 

She set out on a quest to become the first woman to sail solo around Antarctica. But 72 days in, when a horrific storm with waves as high as a two-story building caused her mast to topple and nearly sank her boat, Lisa Blair's journey changed from setting a record to staying alive. In the hours that followed, she called on her months of preparation, all the courage she could muster, and her indefatigable spirit to steady her craft -- then broke off pursuit of the record to head to port in Cape Town, South Africa, for repairs. But she refused to let the myriad and monumental crucibles she'd endured derail her dream. She launched a second run at the record books that secured her a place in nautical history.          To learn more about Lisa Blair and her book, Facing Fear, visit www.lisablairsailstheworld.com   To learn more about Crucible Leadership, visit www.CrucibleLeadership.com

She's known internationally as the first woman to sail solo around Antartica, a celebrated explorer who fought through unimaginable trials en route to setting her world record. But before she ever stepped foot off dry land, Lisa Blair was a shy, reserved Australian girl bullied at school. She headed off to university determined to shed the mask she wore in high school, and later learned the importance of viewing failure not as falling short, but not trying at all. She found her life's calling when a sailing journey with a friend led her to fall in love with the sea ... and the beauty and adventure it offers.   To learn more about Lisa Blair and her book, Facing Fear, visit www.lisablairsailstheworld.com   To learn more about Crucible Leadership, visit www.CrucibleLeadership.com

In more than 20 years of playing football, as an amateur and in the NFL, Jeff Kemp was only once earmarked as his team's starting quarterback before the season began. His career never did match that of his legendary dad, AFL standout Jack Kemp -- whose shadow loomed even larger thanks to a distinguished career in politics and public service after he retired from the game. But while Jeff got knocked down a few times, he always got back up. He learned his life had a greater purpose than just achieving, and he's crafted a post-gridiron career helping others huddle up to build stronger marriages, more faith-filled lives, and deeper relationships at home and at the office.     For more information about Jeff Kemp and his book, Facing the Blitz: Three Strategies for Turning Trials into Triumphs, visit www.jeffkempteam.com   To learn more about Crucible Leadership, visit www.CrucibleLeadership.com   NOTE: The photographs mentioned in the episode are available to view on the Crucible Leadership Facebook blog page: www.crucibleleadership.com/blog/

Life, Dom Brightmon freely admits, can be crappy sometimes. But each of us has the power to flip the switch to "happy" -- the key is to view our crucible experiences as crystal experiences. Through books (like CRAPPY TO HAPPY), public speaking, and working with men and women going through setbacks and failures, Brightmon (a member of the John Maxwell-certified leadership team) is both a teacher and practitioner of the truth that when you advance others, you advance yourself.   To learn more about Dom Brightmon, visit www.DomBrightmon.com   To learn more about Crucible Leadership, visit www.CrucibleLeadership.com 

Moving beyond your crucible is hard work, even harder when the circumstances that knocked you off your feet seem to linger forever. How do you get going again when it feels like your crucible is a bottomless pit, a black hole? Crucible Leadership founder and BEYOND THE CRUCIBLE host Warwick Fairfax lays down a roadmap for getting back on track toward a life of significance. "It's not an easy cycle to break when you're at the bottom of your crucible," he says. But it can be done ... if you embrace the power of one small step. To learn more about Crucible Leadership, and to take the Life of Significance Assessment to help you take your first small step, visit www.crucibleleadership.com

Her resume is wildly impressive: best-selling author, award-winning screenwriter, successful entrepreneur, celebrated fitness trainer and health activist -- she even won Miss Congeniality at the Miss California USA pageant. But Kimberly Spencer's accomplishments hid her demons -- bulimia, trying to be who others wanted and expected her to be, a victim of emotional self-sabotage. When she realized she had the power to crown herself whole, she stopped breaking off pieces of her personal and professional selves to fit into others' boxes. That revelation has led to a career as an internationally acclaimed speaker and high-performance coach who helps audiences and clients reassemble the diamonds within and build lives of joy and significance.   For more information about Kimberly Spencer, visit www.crownyourself.com   To learn more about Crucible Leadership and to sign up to receive regular updates, visit www.CrucibleLeadership.com

She baked her first batch of cookies in the California sun at age 3 -- with mud as the secret ingredient. Ever since that day, Whitney Singletary-White has dreamed of being a baker, and she's made that dream come true with her gourmet Nuttin' Butter Cookies. She sells the exotic nut-butter confections from her driveway these days, rising above the crucible of the COVID-19 pandemic with the same kind of grit that saw her fightback from a brutal assault that almost cost her much more than her business. Her motivation through it all? Building a life of significance with her two boys.    To learn more about Whitney Singletary-White, visit www.nuttinbuttercookies.com    To learn more about Crucible Leadership and to sign up for regular email updates, visit www.CrucibleLeadership.com

We know them when we're in them. Or avoiding them. Uncomfortable conversations when it feels like one wrong word -- or even one right word expressed wrongly -- can explode like a hand grenade. But we can avoid the detonation and destruction, Harvard Negotiation Project and Harvard Law School lecturer Sheila Heen explain in unpacking the insights and action items in her books Difficult Conversations and Thanks for the Feedback. The key, she says, is recognizing that in tough conversations we're speaking words but exchanging emotions.

Want to be a leader known as strong, confident, honest, transparent, and secure? The vulnerability can pave your way to all those adjectives -- if you employ it wisely. Host Warwick Fairfax discusses with co-host Gary Schneeberger the helpful and the not-so-helpful ways you can be open about yourself. When vulnerability works, they explain, it can help your team members weather crucibles they're going through today -- and inoculate them against those yet to come. To learn more about Crucible Leadership, and to sign up to receive regular email updates, visit CrucibleLeadership.com

At 19, Ryan Campbell became the youngest pilot to fly solo around the world. Two years later, a horrific plane crash threatened more than the dream he birthed at 6 to make a life and a living streaking through the skies. Left a paraplegic after the accident, he fought back physically and emotionally to walk -- and hope -- again. Today, he's an in-demand motivational speaker who inspires audiences to build a mindset toolbox to conquer their crucibles. To learn more about Ryan Campbell, visit www.RyanCampbell.co To learn more about Crucible Leadership and to sign up to receive regular e-mail updates, visit www.CrucibleLeadership.com  

In 8th grade, after dreaming for years of competing in the finals of the National Spelling Bee, Adom Appiah got knocked out of the competition early. Instead of wallowing in the disappointment of that crucible, though, he turned his attention to consoling the other kids who had also fallen short. That's just one example of how this 16-year-old -- author of two books and founder of the fundraising nonprofit Ball4Good -- is living a life of significance and already focused on building a legacy of service to others. To learn more about Adom Appiah and Ball4Good, visit www.Ball4Good.com To learn more about Crucible Leadership and to sign up for regular email updates, visit www.CrucibleLeadership.com

It's hard enough to get through failures and setbacks -- we only make them worse by beating ourselves up or trying to move past them too quickly. Author and wellness coach Cami Smalley stresses the importance of looking at crucibles through the lens of our strengths and being intentional about taking mindful pauses to fuel our recovery and build resilience.

It can make a professional paper cut feel like a full-fledged crucible. It leaves you wondering why you and your work are never good enough. But perfectionism, for all its insidiousness, can be overcome. Show yourself some grace, find the humor in your missteps, and realize that good enough usually is, in fact, good enough. To learn more about Crucible Leadership, and to sign up to receive regular email updates and insights, visit www.CrucibleLeadership.com  

There never seems to be enough time to finish all your work -- let alone think about it, especially when crucibles hit. Harvard Business School professor Joseph Badarocco says that's because we view reflection all wrong. It doesn't need to be a mountaintop experience, he writes in his new book, Step Back: How to Bring the Art of Reflection into Your Busy Life. It can be a mosaic pursuit, one you find time for in the margins of your life -- while driving, exercising, doing household chores. He also discusses an earlier book, Leading Quietly, spotlighting the benefits of not always aiming to be the hero in your leadership.

She had a great corporate job, doing what she felt called and equipped to do. Then Toni Munoz Kaufman contracted SARS, which nearly killed her and did cost her a lung. As she recovered, she was laid off. But her joyous spirit and wisdom passed down from her father pushed her to persevere and help other Baby Boomers overcome their crucibles as entrepreneurs. To learn more about Toni Kaufman, visit www.tonikaufman.com To learn more about Crucible Leadership and to sign up for regular e-mail updates, visit www.crucibleleadership.com

Understanding what science has to say about learning the lessons of a crucible experience -- from reframing what happened to embrace forgiveness -- can be an overlooked key to moving past the pain and toward healing and significance   To learn more about Dr. Suzy Green, visit www.thepositivityinstitute.com.au/   To learn more about Crucible Leadership and to sign up to receive regular updates, visit www.crucibleleadership.com  

Heroic leaders like Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln get movies made about them -- just like superheroes such as Batman and Captain America. But the rousing triumphs that echo through history, or comic books, aren't the whole story -- or even sometimes the best story. Quietness, patience and humility are key qualities of success and significance even for great leaders. To learn more about CrucibleLeadership and sign up to receive regular email updates, visit www.CrucibleLeadership.com.

His big-deal career and its big-money perks left him unsatisfied. So he stopped viewing success as outperforming others and started serving others. Today he's the best-selling author of The Millennial Whisperer and making a lasting impact on the leaders of tomorrow.  To learn more about Chris Tuff, visit www.22squared.com To learn more about Crucible Leadership, visit www.CrucibleLeadership/com

After losing her husband to a military training accident, she fought for joy for herself and her four children by moving beyond surviving. To learn more about Sarah Nannen, visit www.sarahnannen.com To learn more about Crucible Leadership and to sign up for regular email updates from Warwick Fairfax, visit www.crucibleleadership.com

Mike Valentine was a blue-collar kid who grew into a blue-collar young man, a longshoreman's son who began working as a steelworker as a teenager, walking his first skyscraper beam at 14. His was a hardscrabble existence: He spent the next decade and a half addicted to alcohol and beset with its devastations -- bar fights, car accidents and times behind bars. All that changed when his daughter was born -- and he turned his attention to living life in pursuit of a worthy purpose. Today, as founder of On Purpose Now, he helps clients address the psychological, emotional, practical and spiritual aspects of life and business to awaken dormant energy and harness real power. What have his 30,000 hours of coaching others through crucibles and crossroads taught him? That every one of us has a gift to give, a purpose to live and a vision to build ... and that the purpose most people want to aim for is characterized by love, grace and peace. In this episode, he tells BEYOND THE CRUCIBLE host and Crucible Leadership founder Warwick Fairfax that pain offers us a great awakening. "What we find at ground zero," he says, "is the bottom of our hearts."    To learn more about Mike Valentine, visit www.onpurposenow.com    To learn more about Crucible Leadership and sign up to receive updates from Warwick Fairfax, visit www.CrucibleLeadership.com

Listening is one of the most necessary, and least practiced, leadership skills in business and life today. And lest you think lack of listening is a new phenomenon, brought on by the last few decades of tech advances that have created tech distractions, think again. Harvard Business Review found in 1957 that people remember only about half of what they hear, even when they're trying really hard to dial in. In this episode, BEYOND THE CRUCIBLE host and Crucible Leadership founder Warwick Fairfax explains why great leaders listen -- and how they can do it better to get past crucible moments and avoid additional ones. One of the critical keys, he tells co-host Gary Schneeberger, is asking good questions of your team to gather information from them that can help enhance your vision and, just as important, signal to them clearly that you're not just paying "ear service" to the insights they're sharing with you. "The price of engagement from your team," Fairfax notes, "is listening."  To sign up for regular Crucible Leadership emails from Warwick Fairfax, visit www.CrucibleLeadership.com

Fewer than 10 percent of those living with Parkinson's Disease are under 60. Tim Hague is one of them. As a nurse for two decades, he sensed immediately what was wrong when, at age 46, he noticed a tremor in his left toe. His self-diagnosis was soon confirmed, and in the months that followed he pressed deeply into his Christian faith to grasp "Why has God done this to me?" But he refused to wallow in regret or self-doubt, and just three years later he was competing on and winning, The Amazing Race in his home country of Canada. The platform the show provided led him to see Parkinson's as winning the lottery, as he began a successful speaking career and launched a nonprofit to put his medical training to use helping others with the disease. In this episode of BEYOND THE CRUCIBLE, he tells host and Crucible Leadership founder Warwick Fairfax that he's learning every day to live the lessons of his book, Perseverance: The Seven Skills You Need to Survive, Thrive, and Accomplish More Than You Ever Imagined. "I have to believe that there is something good in this for me," he says. "It doesn't make sense otherwise."

Ernest Shackleton and the men he was leading on an expedition to cross Antarctica had piled up a breathtaking number of life-threatening crucibles by late 1915. Stuck motionless in polar block ice for months, hundreds of miles off course with no way to communicate their location to anyone who could help, Shackleton and his men were running low on the supplies they had already been forced to ration in miserly fashion when their greatest disaster struck: The ice that had trapped their ship now closed in to crush it, leaving the men fully exposed to the bitter cold with no choice but to traverse the ice floes that surrounded them in desperate search of safety. Shackleton's mission had changed for good from one of discovery to one of survival for himself and his men. On this episode of BEYOND THE CRUCIBLE, Harvard Business School Professor Nancy Koehn, who profiles Shackleton in her Wall Street Journal best-seller Forged in Crisis, explains in detail how the British polar explorer's only hope was to forget the disasters he and his crew had endured and "face forward" with grit, ingenuity, and improvisation. "Crisis leaders get better and better and better," she tells host Warwick Fairfax. "You can see it iteratively if you study them as I do." To learn more about Nancy Koehn, visit www.nancykoehn.com To learn more about Crucible Leadership, visit www.crucibleleadership.com

Nancy Koehn was on track for an administrative leadership role at Harvard Business School, where she taught the history of leadership to the world's best and brightest. But a series of personal crucibles -- the death of her father, a divorce that came without warning and decimated her finances, a cancer diagnosis -- caused the floorboards of her personal and professional lives to crumble beneath her. Her career aspirations drydocked, her sleep interrupted nightly at 1 or 2 a.m., she sought solace in the love of her intellectual life: history. When she picked up a book on Abraham Lincoln to help pass the agitated hours, she discovered in the trials of the 16th president that there was not only a way through her setbacks but a way beyond them. In this interview with BEYOND THE CRUCIBLE host and Crucible Leadership founder Warwick Fairfax, Koehn explains how her search for lighthouses of hope in the lives of great leaders who were dented by crucible experiences helped her find healing through FORGED IN CRISIS, her best-selling book about their trials and triumphs. Host and guest take a deep-dive look at the incredible story and important leadership lessons of British polar explorer Ernest Shackleton -- a conversation they conclude in next week's episode.