Leadership in the downturn

Following the Chancellor’s autumn speech last week, we are all contemplating the gloomy news, and resigning ourselves to a prolonged period of economic austerity. The forecasted “lost decade”, is going to either be a time of stagnation, or a time of enlightenment.  This is the real Leadership challenge.

Leaders know that this situation demands something else from them, and many leaders will be doing their best to adapt to make sure their business survives, and indeed thrives.   It’s not easy, but it can be done.

A number of years ago, I personally experienced some very hard times.  It was initially a depressing time in my life.  I owed more than I earned, I ended up out of work, and the future looked bleak indeed.

At the time, I was the main breadwinner and I felt that circumstances had conspired to make me fall flat on my face.  I knew that I couldn’t keep doing what I had been doing, and things had to change. What I didn’t know then, and what I came to realise was that which had begun as a monumental disaster, turned out to be the biggest gift life could have handed me.

As I pondered on what had gone so wrong, I wanted to blame everyone and every situation for what had happened.  The truth was that there were some external and some internal factors which had led me to that low point.   What I realised was that blaming or focusing on external factors was getting me absolutely nowhere fast.  My first “light bulb” moment was:

I had to take total responsibility for my experience.   I couldn’t control everything that happened to me.  None of us can.  What we can control is our response to what life throws at us. Focusing on whose fault it was and wanting to point the finger of blame, actually deflects from the energy needed to move beyond the situation.

Secondly, I began to pay attention to my intuition.  Everyone has the ability to tap into their intuition.   I had learned to override my intuition pretty much of the time.  The rot had  begun early in my life,  times when I wanted to be like my peers;  I wanted my relationships to be harmonious, I didn’t want to rock the boat with my parents.  Lots of situations and lots of overriding my own internal truth later, I realised that my own best friend was inside of me.

Once these factors were in place, this was all I needed to begin what I thought would be a slow and torturous journey out of the fix I found myself in.  On the contrary, it has been the most enlightening and exciting of journeys.  It hasn’t all been easy, but it has been transformational.   I went from being broke, dispirited and in despair, to a place where I was financially secure, optimistic and at peace with myself.  The experience has been like replacing the house of straw with a house of bricks, with very solid foundations.  These were the steps I took.

I developed my vision: I pictured what I wanted my life to be like.  I set myself goals for my working life, I set figures for my income, how I would feel about my work and how good I would be at it.  I achieved them all, it took 3 ½ years.

I developed a detailed plan.    The plan included my finances.  I developed a plan to pay off my debts, increase my income and save.  My initial idea was to get out of debt over 7 years.  I did it in 3.  I knew I had to develop certain skills and gain certain experience.   I articulated the detail of what this meant in my plan. I achieved all of my learning goals and I got the job I wanted before I had the qualifications.

I engaged my team.  I realised I needed a support network around me.  This is true whether in a domestic situation as well as in the workplace.  I let my family and my friends know that things had changed, and I got them on board to help me.

I focussed on my successes and goals.  I just didn’t waste time thinking about the reality of the situation I found myself in.  I had faced up to it, identified the gaps between where I was and where I wanted to be, and I concentrated on the journey, not the past.  In the present moment, I chose to be grateful for what I had achieved and all of the help and opportunities which came my way.

I let go of doubts, thoughts and beliefs that were unhelpful.  We simply don’t understand how powerful our minds are.  If you aren’t getting what you want, or you doubt that you are able to reach certain goals, then you create the very resistance that makes it all seem so difficult.

Over the years, I have used this technique in the workplace.  Making sure that all of the steps worked for the teams I led.  The system has delivered some great results.   So for all leaders who may be trying to find a way out of the current situation, there is a way.  It is a somewhat less traditional way; as it primarily harnesses the power of the mind to get you to your destination.  It is like programming your SAT NAV.  If you put in the right post code, you will surely reach your destination. That’s true leadership