“Know the moments when you have to step up on stage and lead the troops and be a person that people look up to. And then be the one who is the ember to everyone else’s flame. That’s when you’re an effective leader — when you learn to balance both roles.”
–Christine Day, CEO of lululemon athletica (LULU), at Fortune‘s Most Powerful Women dinner in San Francisco in July. Day recalled being told that while she had mastered the role of “servant leader,” she needed to learn to be the “hero leader” as well in order to truly excel.
Day spent two decades at Starbucks and rose to president of its Asia-Pacific division. She became CEO of Vancouver-based lululemon in June, and she has certainly had her mettle tested. The stock is down by a third since she became CEO in June, but it rallied 9% to $20 a share after lululemon reported strong second-quarter earnings this morning.