What's Possible

"One of the redeeming things about being an athlete is redefining what is humanly possible." -- Lance Armstrong, cancer survivor and repeat winner of the Tour de France

I attended the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Germany. The event was marred by the murder of 11 Israelis, but it was also marked by some extraordinary achievements, including American swimmer Mark Spitz and his matching set of seven gold medals and world records, and the first captivating heroine from behind the iron curtain, gymnast Olga Korbut.

I am not a fan of weight lifting. But that didn't stop me from marveling at one Olympic athlete who surpassed the rest: Russian super-heavyweight weight lifter Vasili Alekseyev.

Alekseyev had earned all the honors Moscow could bestow, yet his wife remained nonchalant, even irreverent, about the accomplishments of this sensitive, gentle giant. She often expended more energy buttoning his jacket at award ceremonies than cheering for his accomplishments at weight-lifting competitions.

Alekseyev later returned to the 1976 Olympics after breaking his own world records for four grueling, exhilarating years. I had to question why he kept doing it.

"It's hard to beat a person who never gives up." -- Babe Ruth, baseball legend

I watched the 1976 Olympics in Montreal on television. One day, a reporter conducted a 10-minute interview with Alekseyev. He recounted the weight lifter's world records and asked him why he continued to compete.

Alekseyev spoke in a manner that belied a man of his size. He talked of purpose and of testing man's limits -- of experiencing what he called "the white light" by lifting weights.

He spoke of how he lives for a "moment's moment" when he reaches a sense of perfection -- a time of peace and harmony with himself, with others, with life itself. A moment of doing something no one thought possible.

"What we need are more people who specialize in the impossible." -- Theodore Roethke, poet

To the best of my recollection, Alekseyev told the reporter: "When I am ready to lift more weight than any man has ever lifted, I visualize the moment when my arms will lift straight into the air with the weight moving toward the sky. As I stand in front of all those people, we are together for that one moment. We all know that I have been able to do something that no one, not even myself, could do before.

"When I feel the weight rising and I know I will make it, I experience an instant of pure joy. Once I have lifted that weight, I am bathed in a sudden flash of white light. It comes from inside my brain, inside all of me, and sends through me a feeling of indescribable joy, of true contentment.

"I work hundreds of hours in the gym each month, hoping to have a chance to experience the sense of the impossible again -- of that white light one more time. That wish fills me with happiness each day. It is my quiet. It is my peace. It is my knowing that I have a purpose in this world, today and for generations to come."

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." -- Margaret Mead, anthropologist

I have met many business leaders who have redefined what was possible -- for themselves, for women in the workplace, for retirees, and for their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. How did they do it?

How can we, like Alekseyev, help others -- and ourselves -- achieve what was once thought impossible? How can we realize that white-light euphoria? We can do so by developing three key attributes of great leaders.

Exhibit a High Level of Competence: Livelihoods Depend on It

"The best thing a leader can do for a great group is to allow its members to discover their own greatness." -- Warren Bennis and Patricia Ward Biederman, leadership experts

"Competence" means more than any dictionary lets on. It's not just lifting the weight. It's not letting others down.

If you want to build a distinctive career, you should strive to accomplish your own goals, but you should also be able to provide an environment, support tools, and a career path that bring out the best in others. After all, your success will ultimately be tied to how well you help other people find their "white light."