Leading Your Business Out of the Recession

All businesses agree we are in a time of volatile change. Yet business leaders all take different actions in response to that change. 2010 is going to be a year that sorts out the winners and the losers, the leaders from the laggers. If you choose to be a winner, then you need to be a leader. This article outlines three key steps leaders must take to be successful in 2010.

Get Real

The first thing to recognize is that this recession is not the same as previous recessions. What you did then to recover will not necessarily work this time. You need a new set of data and a new set of strategies and decisions. Recessions are not a time for passive management, they are a time for strong leadership. 2010 is a year of leading businesses out of the valley and back on the climb to the peak.

Good leaders are not fearful of getting out of the valley – they are fearful of staying there with everyone else. 2010 is a year of change – and many people are fearful of change. Yet change leads to prospering.

It is natural to feel fear when times are so uncertain. However, if you can overcome that fear if you choose to recognize your truth about change – once you have done so, you are ready to build your plans based on that. Ask yourself these two questions – what should I be believing, and what should I be doing?

Some leaders get frozen by fear, and choose not to do anything. This largely results in a lot of activity and very little productivity. This type of activity is typically unfocused and frenetic underpinned with a false sense of urgency. This type of action can be very dangerous, it makes you think you are moving forward, when in reality you are moving down into a bigger hole. Deeper into the valley.

Urgency can be delusional. Paralysis of not taking action can be just as damaging.

Activity is NOT Productivity

Get Focused

If you market is dropping, your marketing is not working – what do you do? At these times it is easy to think, ‘we have to do more’. However in such times it is easy to do too much. Half of the success is in stopping when enough is enough. Only do the half that makes you more effective. Easy to say, but how does one know which half. Well, if you don’t have an effective Strategic Performance Management system in place that tells you – then you really are in trouble. The best thing you can do is to step back, go a little slower and really get clear about those few things that will really help you succeed. Really find out what your market really, really needs. Then offer the best service or product you can at the best price you can. If you keep doing what you usually do, or what everyone else is doing, the valley will just keep getting deeper.

Get Going

Get your whole business involved in defining the 4-5 critical success factors that make your business successful. Then focus on only 1 or 2 at a time, creating a real urgency focused solely on doing those 1 or 2 things better. Measure your results, and once you have those items nailed, agree on the next CSF to tackle.

Get real, get focused and get going!