The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets his people to do the most significant things.

A leader needs to strong. Stronger than everyone else because he needs to be the source people draw energy from. And dealing with failure is one thing they have to deal with. It’s not the failure that sets back leaders; it's the way they deal with it because success is the result of preparation, hard work and most importantly, learning from failure.

And how mentally strong a leader is, plays a pivotal role behind the success of the organisation. The most vital factor is optimism. A leader must have a vision for the organisation and people. Translating the vision into a reality is possible only with positivity and hard work.

Resilience is another quality a leader must possess. They should analyse the failures and must recover quickly.

The unknown story of Sandler O'Neill & Partners bouncing back from an unimaginable tragedy is genuinely incredible and sets standards for leadership.

On September 11, 2001, the organisation lost 66 employees out of 171 accounting 40% of their workforce, including 2 out of the 3 leaders. Having lost complete data, Jimmy Dunne was the only head executive remaining. And he refused to give up.

Dunne demonstrated everything a great leader possibly can. He transformed himself into a leader his employees needed. With self-resilience, he succeeded in shifting the team's attitude from grief to moral purpose. And they succeeded. In 8 months, the company was back on track as better than where it stood before the tragedy.

It is clear that no matter how harsh the situations can get, a leader with optimism and resilience can lead the organisation to greater heights.