Resisting the Mood of Doom
A Leadership Message for Challenging Times
What can we do?
The mood of doom and gloom these days is pervasive. At business conferences, budget meetings of local governments, non-profit board meetings, in shops and offices of business owners, the impact of the economic downturn weighs on everyone’s mind.
What can we do?
The problems are real, and for many people the times are disastrous. Those not facing disaster still must contend with reduced net worth and erosion of a sense of security.
In challenging times, leaders must address a core question in the minds of everyone: What can we do?
Leaders who step up and address this question help build resilience in their followers. The priority in addressing this question is on actions people can take, with emphasis on we, i.e. that actions apply collectively to leaders as well as followers.
In addressing the question, leaders must above all set an emotional tone that will contribute to successful navigation through stormy waters. Emotions amplify our ability to think and act, both positively and negatively. In challenging times, what we don’t need to do is amplify our problems. Unchecked gloom will not only make the situation feel worse but undermine our capacity to respond. It’s incumbent for leaders to build resistance to the mood of doom and gloom.
In my role as mayor, I included the following seven actions that we could do as individuals and as a community in my annual state of the town address. While originally addressed to our small town, no doubt they will also apply to your organization, business, and personal life.
What can we do? We can...
- Master Our Attitude
- Face Reality While Keeping Faith
- Stick to Our Knitting
- Seek and Seize Opportunities
- Focus on Action Within Our Control
- Work Together
- Live With Renewed Intention
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Play Well to Excel
People Skills Still Rule
Hands down, people competency is the most distinguishing feature of top performers.
By ‘people competency” I mean emotional intelligence, interpersonal effectiveness, and team related skills - in short, playing well with others.
Technical competence is a threshold requirement for excellence, but typically won’t differentiate top from average performers.A study at Bell Labs found all their engineers performed their engineering functions the same way. What differentiated top engineers from the average? Top performers created relationships that measurably contributed to effectiveness, e.g. top performers had telephone calls returned in an average of 20 minutes, compared to 4 hours for less stellar peers...
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Leadership Quotes
You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.
~ Admiral Jim Stockdale
Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature.... Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.
~ Helen Keller
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The Power of Nice
How to Conquer the Business World with Kindness
Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval (2006)
"Nice is the toughest four letter word you'll ever hear." Or so the authors tell us in this small volume. We reminded that nice does not mean Pollyanna, passive, or wimpy. Nice brings business success.
I acquired this book from the authors following an excellent presentation at the National Speakers Association National Conference. The book is short, easy to read in one sitting (or on a plane trip), and anecdotal. There are plenty of stories and examples to illustrate the author’s points. We are reminded to be respectful, empathetic, and upbeat to everyone, not simply to people who can immediately benefit us. Be nice to everybody, because you never know...is certainly not a bad strategy to go about life. There are plenty of other tips offered - “nice” is too narrow concept for the broad interpersonal best practices covered in this book.
Anyone reasonably well-read in business literature won’t find much unexpected or particularly new. That being said, it's a nice book, a pleasant read, providing reminders of things we need to hear no matter how sophisticated a leader or professional we may be. Jay Leno does the forward - how nice is that!
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