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publicity from an arrest would jeopardize his job at Tech. Within days, Emory’s president, William Chace, had called senior people at Georgia Tech about Sonnenfeld; Tech then failed to proceed with the approval of Sonnenfeld’s appointment at the state board of regents. Shortly after killing Sonnenfeld’s new job, Chace talked to a reporter at the New York Times and soon the strange case of Jeffrey Sonnenfeld was all over the media. By the end of December 1997, Sonnenfeld had no job and no prospect of one and his reputation was in tatters. Many doubted that those who had given money to the leadership institute or his academic friends would stand by him, and some worried for his physical and mental health.8

Many, although not all, of his supporters and faculty colleagues did remain on Sonnenfeld’s side during the protracted struggle with Emory. Today Jeffrey Sonnenfeld is a professor of management practice and associate dean for executive education at the Yale School of Management. He has coauthored a book about overcoming setbacks, using examples from politics and industry. The book also reflects his own experience about how to survive reversals of fortune.9

DON’T GIVE UP

When Jon, the successful director of a major American ballet company, lost his position as head of the organization in a falling-out with the board, his first reaction was embarrassment. It didn’t matter that he had positively affected a number of quantitative measures of the troupe’s operations—he felt uncomfortable talking about the circumstances of his departure. Rudy Crew had trouble admitting in public or even to himself that he had been fired by Rudy Giuliani and the New York City school board. Jeff Sonnenfeld’s first reaction to the tempest in Atlanta was to curtail his normally frenetic outreach and networking because he felt bad about what had happened. Embarrassment is the normal reaction to losing one’s job, even if it isn’t your fault. And why not? We are as subject to the just-world effect—believing that we get what we deserve—as are outside observers, so when people lose a power struggle, the first thing they do is blame themselves.

This reaction may be natural, but it is not helpful. Jon, Rudy Crew, and Jeff Sonnenfeld all had a story to tell—their story, about what happened to them and what it reflected, not just about them but about those taking the actions against them. Telling that story requires getting over any embarrassment and the associated tendency to retreat from view. If you are going to persevere and recover, you need to stop blaming yourself, letting your opponents dominate the discussion of what happened, and feeling bad about your complicity in your demise.

The best way to overcome the embarrassment is to talk about what happened to as many people as possible as quickly as possible. You will probably learn that you have more support than you think, and that others, rather than blaming you, will want to come to your aid. Also, the more you tell the tale, the less the telling will stimulate strong emotions in you. You will become acclimated to the story and desensitized to its effects. Making what happened less emotionally fraught is absolutely essential for your being able to think strategically about your next moves.

CONTINUE TO DO WHAT MADE YOU SUCCESSFUL

People who reach senior-level positions in any field are good at what they do. Even if job performance is not the most important determinant of career success, it does matter and, moreover, once you reach a high-level position, unless you go to sleep, over time you will become more capable at doing the job through your accumulated experience. That means that when you face a setback, don’t take the advice of those who advocate finding another area of work. Your experience and contacts are all context-specific—you have human and social capital in a particular job domain. Moving to something else, whatever else the virtues of that new career path, will rob you of the resources and competence you have built doing what you do.

Jeff Sonnenfeld got lots of advice in early