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October 21, 2008

How Great Leaders Thrive in Tough Times

Posted by David Mammano at 11:32 AM

Chester Arthur, who served as President of the United States from 1881 to 1885, will never be regarded as one our great leaders. In fact, many Americans would be hard pressed to identify him as one of our presidents.

Arthur, who served after President Garfield was assassinated, may well have possessed the basic qualities of a great leader. But the time of his presidency was fairly stable, so he was never called upon to step up.

Tough times, on the other hand, are when great leaders show their stuff. If you look at many of the famous leaders throughout history, you'll notice they became famous because they navigated through seemingly impossible times. They held the flashlight at the end of the tunnel.

Legendary leaders such as Abraham Lincoln, Susan B. Anthony, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and, more recently, Rudy Giuliani come to mind. All were faced with incredibly complex or catastrophic situations. Instead of cowering in indecision, they reacted boldly and aggressively. They threw conventional wisdom out the window and developed their own playbooks on the spot.

So what does this have to do with entrepreneurs? In short, it's time to step up as leaders of your enterprises. Extremely difficult economic times are here and may be here to stay. You're time to shine is here.

So what is a business leader to do? The reflexive action is to take a hatchet to the budget, impose layoffs and halt all plans for growth. These steps are relatively easy to take, so leadership skills rarely come into play. And often, they are exactly the wrong things to do.

But great leaders know that only dead fish swim with the current. So they work harder to get through trying times, searching for more creative solutions and inspiring their coworkers to stay engaged. They also take some time to pause and think because they know they shouldn't react impusively. Only then do they act.

So how am I trying to live up to this leadership ideal? After pausing to think, I'm taking the following steps:

1) I asked my coworkers to help me look at our expenses and figure out where we can cut. Engaging the staff in this process is crucial. They need to understand that it's a time for sacrifice, and they'll be happy to be part of the process if you let them.

2) I'm looking for new opportunities that arise from the economic problems we're facing—new trends or market needs that will rise up because of the hard times.

3) I'm enhancing customer service to make sure the people who already love what we do don't slip away. It might be hard to find a lot of new business during a recession, so we need to work even harder to convince our current customers to sit tight?

4) I'm doing more marketing, not less. Many companies reflexively shut off their advertising efforts during tough times. I'd rather shut off the water supply than my marketing. With fewer customers in the market, we need to fight even harder for those that remain! Plus, if my competitors stop advertising, I'll get more bang for my buck in the ad market. And if the market is less cluttered, our marketing efforts stand a better chance of getting noticed.

Bottom line: Don't be depressed about the tough times ahead. Get excited and view it as an opportunity to test your skills as a great leader! Chester Arthur would have relished the opportunity.

35 Comments

Posted by: CW at October 22, 2008 9:53 AM

Excellent perspective! As we have seen in the housing and various other dropping industries, fortunes can be made in the downturn. New product lines can be a blessing for changing needs and those guerrilla marketing ideas you've always wanted to try can become the next test drive.

www.TheHotStickers.com

Posted by: JJ Rusch at October 23, 2008 9:00 AM

Right on David & CW!

I met with an "innovation director" recently; the title sparked energy and excitement in me - I met with stress, yeah-buts and no-can-do's. It's time to focus on solutions only, and give that whole open-mind thing a chance! It's also time to change media messages - that's where I come in.

Onward to innovation! JJRusch

Posted by: C.America at October 23, 2008 10:04 AM

I N N O V A T I O N. The talk about innovation and leadership is spinning my head. Thanks for definitive suggestions as to what that means in this economy. Time to revisit my favorite economic read, Joseph Schumpeter . . . "again out of destruction a new spirit of creativity arises". Thank you Wikipedia.

Posted by: Lee Smith, Ph.D. at October 23, 2008 11:28 AM

This article is right on target. Leaders – take heart! Reminds me of the old saying “When things get tough, the tough get going.” I’m remembering that during 9/11 as I collected articles about what leaders were doing during that tough time, the Merrill Lynch CEO made a remarkable decision – he stepped aside for his COO to run with the upfront leadership of the company during that time. What an amazing thing to do. Leaders don’t have to be all things at all times – they just have to know how to use their people at the right time.
Lee Smith, Ph.D.

Posted by: T Hanumantha Rao at October 23, 2008 9:28 PM

Well constructed article with lot of clarity and not at all cumbersome to understand. I agree with the author about maintaining relation ship with the customers. I feel "taking customers for granted" era has gone and this is the time to add lot of value to whatever we are doing and more importantly instead of brooding about the downturn may be better to replace brooding with out of box thinking. In the falling markets too there are some who make money.

Posted by: John Chisholm at October 24, 2008 8:23 AM

In agreement 100% with the group's perspectives on our times and actions. Recently, I was reminded by a colleague and leader, that we WILL get through this crisis time - the only remaining question being "what will we look look then?"

David, your shared perspectives also call to mind, the book entitled "Who Moved My Cheese", which is a call to action for us all. The points you shared are spot on for many of us, and it will help us to all have and act with a sense of purpose.

I'm excited, and encouraged by all of your preceding commentary - thanks!

Posted by: Phil Davis at October 25, 2008 12:05 AM

David - Spot on with looking at both offensive and defensive strategies. What tends to set in during tough times is a form of business paralysis, aka "hunker down." But by the time the markets start to move, a lot of opportunities are already gone. Then we're playing catch up. I encourage my clients to use slow times to do a brand audit and get clear about their mission, purpose and direction. Many times there are parts of a business that are out of sync, ones that don't get scrutinized in "good times." Now is the perfect opportunity to synthesize a company's product and service offerings into one cohesive, memorable brand message. Once there is clarity, then it's easier to know what to cut and what to acquire. And yes, that requires a certain fearless leadership.

Posted by: JeanAnnVK at October 27, 2008 10:31 PM

I completely agree...it is only in extremely challenging times that we are able to rise to our greatest ability. We can use this time to rise above even our own expectations.

Posted by: Abe Quitl at November 29, 2008 3:16 AM

In the worst of odds, a business leader is confident it can prevail and find great opportunities to test new methods and cut short-term results for the long hall improvement of the company. The poise to ignored the medias constant glorification of this so-called recession, and pledged a resilient business plan is a must. Yes, our economical times are genuinely complicated thou to many years of miss-manage government but that’s not the point. The mantra of leader is to lead in challenging times, and maintain a cohesive productive work environment where opportunities are meet with truth realizations. In the core of dealing with any business issues are employers; they need to believe they can define a leader not by his cars or suit, but by his actions that he embarks to take the business to orthodox or unorthodox solutions. So with that in mind most of the four points are good basics, but like anything in life a business backup plan is practical and yet innovative thinking. Good article.

Posted by: Scott Brooks at December 27, 2008 12:36 AM

David-that's exactly right. Great leaders don't shrink in trying or difficult times. That would be like trying to anchor your boat out in the middle of a storm at sea.

Instead the Captain has to still navigate towards the port(goal), utilizing all of his abilities.

I intend to still move forward with the plans I set 2 years ago. I have just made some minor adjustments to the process, not the goal.

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