29May/08
The liberating effect of failure
Jeffrey Sonnenfeld knows failure. A professor at the Yale School of Management and founder of the non-profit Chief Executive Leadership Institute, Sonnenfeld has risen to leadership-guru status by becoming the expert on how CEOs stumble and bounce back. He first explored failure 20 years ago in his book "The Hero's Farewell: What Happens When CEOs Retire." Sonnenfeld's latest, "Firing Back: How Great Leaders Rebound After Career Disasters," hits the topic head on. Fortune editor at large Patricia Sellers talked with Sonnenfeld about what he has learned studying failure. An edited version of their conversation: