We (Judy Aanstad, Catherine Jourdan, Pamela Corbett, and Roger Pearman) want to make sure you have examples and illustrations when informing others about the power and usefulness of the 54 people skills we covered in our handbook.
You can order the handbook from Amazon.com through this link: People Skills Handbook.
To get us started, Consider the following.......
# 31. Optimism
“Expecting
that things will turn out well, that good will triumph; finding positive
meaning or perspective in any situation”
______________________________________________________________________________
Breaking through the Clouds
When the sales figures were
reviewed in the Monday morning huddle, Alexandria (Director of Sales), Amir
(Director of Marketing), Bob (Director of Regional Operations), Kahn (Director
of IT), Margaret (Director of Finance and Accounting) and John (President) were
shocked. It was the worst month in ten
years; the overall market share had been cut in half. Based on the projected expenses and revenue, the
company would have to borrow significant funds to make payroll. There was a long silence as the group
absorbed the information.
Alexandria said that she knew
things were trending down but had no idea of the magnitude of the loss.” Margaret, sounding angry and annoyed, said,
“Why don’t we have systems in place—either in sales or our IT processes—to
alert us so we can take corrective action?”
Amir commented, “We knew some market changes were occurring and some of
our competitors had integrated some new technology giving them an advantage but
I didn’t think the impact would be this fast?”
“Well, having lost the plot, we
need to start thinking about how to save this company,” Margaret said with some
urgency. “We’ll need to cut at least 50%
of the staff within two weeks to keep us out of significant debt,” Margaret
said with a raised voice. “There is
plenty of pain to go around,” Khan declared with a hint of disgust.
John had been silent and was
leaning in so he could hear all of the comments. When he was sure that everyone had their say
for the moment, he said: “We have faced
difficult moments before and we have found creative solutions to our
problems. I believe we have the talent
around this table and throughout the organization to help us figure out a best
strategy. So we have a stark wake-up
call. Obviously, we need more
information. Let’s talk about how we can
quickly gather a great deal of information about the market and our recent
customer behavior so we can identify our strengths and our weak points. We don’t know if some new marketing
information was ill timed or if communication from our services group needs
adjusting, or a host of many things. We
also need a short term and long term plan for dealing with our current
situation. For example, if we think it
is going to take us six months to get market share back, how many furloughs
will be needed to balance the books? Let’s
approach this situation with the perspective that we want to keep our talent
and we need their efforts to turn this around.
Our employees, our customers, and all of us on the management team are
partners and we need to act like that.”
Suddenly the mood changed and
the group starting brainstorming all of the issues and challenges facing
them. What market information was
needed? What internal changes were needed? How to engage the employees? How to get customers involved? By the end of
the morning everyone had signed off on next steps, the need for a morning
huddle each day, and ways to work interdependently on finding quick wins.
For the reflective reader:
It is apparent that when we have our backs against the wall,
we become defensive and immediately move into blame mode. Just how many times have you seen tough
situations occur where the team members but their own throats with blame,
accusations, and defensive strategies?
John’s response is a positive one.
John is upbeat, confident and positive, assumes best, and shows that he
sees things differently so they can find constructive solutions.
What “real life” examples come to mind when you think about
an optimistic leader who transforms tough situations? Alan Mullaly (now retired) at FORD is a very
public example of how optimism and relentless communication of a hopeful
future, combined with smart business actions, saved a company. What examples have you seen—small or large?
People Skills
Handbook: Action Tips to Improve Your Emotional Intelligence, (2012). Aanstad, J, Corbett, P, Jourdan, C, and
Pearman, R.
No comments:
Post a Comment