Most people, at least in the U.S. have heard about the recent airplane which, after colliding with a large flock of birds, landed miraculously in the Hudson River with no loss of life (other than avian life and a lot of feathers). In a recent interview with the pilot, I picked up one key lesson for managing in a crisis that can be applied to the current economic and business challenges as they swirl around us.
Don’t panic.
My thoughts on this are best summarized by referencing one of my favorite movie lines from The American President::
Robin McCall: I think the important thing is not to make it look like we’re panicking. President Andrew Shepherd: See, and I think the important thing is actually not to BE panicking.
There are four things which can help you remain calm in a tough situation, none of which are related to narcotics. The first is preparation. I actually find great peace in understanding what the worst outcome of a situation or decision could be and knowing how I would handle it. Of course, I then work like heck to make sure that doesn’t happen, but being prepared in case it does helps get rid of a lot of fear. The flight team consisted of veterans. They had trained hard and had a lot of experience to draw on. They didn’t have time to refer to a checklist of procedure manual – they just had to act. Knowledge and confidence made that possible. They may have never actually dealt with a bird strike before, but their preparation told them what to do.
The second is taking control of whatever you can control and letting go what you can’t (Shameless plug: this is one of the main messages in my keynote “It’s All About You: Reclaiming Your Personal Power”). The pilot had to accept the situation they were in and work like heck to control what he could. This also goes to the idea of personal responsibility that so many people have lost. The pilot didn’t throw his hands up and say “well, the airline (or airplane maker) really did it this time!’ No time for blame, just time for action.
Third, take a deep breath and dive in. Get your wits about you. Clear your head. Reflect for whatever time is reasonable (a split-second, probably, with the pilot) and then jump into the situation with razor-focus on your goal.
Finally, you have to believe that a positive outcome is possible. The pilot had to have faith that all was not lost. We need to have faith that things will not always be this way; they will change for the better. Sometimes, we just need to believe in miracles.
Miracles do happen, as we saw on the Hudson River. Or was it the calm demeanor of the crew enabled by preparedness, control, and a clear head bolstered by faith? I tend to think it was a combination of all the above. I also believe those of us who are facing a personal economic crisis with a clear head might just see some miracles, too. But don’t just sit back and wait for them…get prepared, take control, take a deep breath and dive in! Oh, and you gotta believe it can happen…
It is nice to know that your efforts are in synch with larger changes going on. In President Obama’s inaugural speech yesterday, he talked of generalities, but one of the things that struck a cord with me is his call for personal responsibility. This has been a key topic of mine, prompting me to create a new keynote/workshop around it last year. It’s called “It’s All About You: Reclaiming Your Personal Power” and it focused on helping people reclaim their personal power and take responsibility for their future.
The problem businesses face with this is they don’t have the right infra-structure or tools to support an ‘empowered’ workforce while making sure their efforts remain consistent with company culture and aligned with company goals. What’s more, infra-structure is generally seen as a way to stifle innovation. It’s time someone stepped up to solve this problem…hmmmm….
I know I talk a lot about how important it is for entrepreneurs and others to make room for failure in business, but when it comes to letting your children fail, I’m having a harder time of it. Read my recent blog post on Working Mother Magazine about the challenges I’m having with my daughter and failure.
In a fun but fast interview this afternoon on our local DC Channel 8’s Let’s Talk, Live show, I shared 4 strategies for recession-proofing your job. These tips work well for entrepreneurs, too, so I thought I would elaborate a bit more on them here:
1. Be proactive. People who feel like potential victims create a self-fulfilling prophecy. They shrink away, waiting for the axe to come, and it does. Instead, be personably accountable for your company’s success. Find out what their recession plan is and then see how you can help. For example, if they’re focusing on energy savings, find fun ways to others involved in an energy campaign. If you or your company don’t have a recession strategy, now would be a good time to help develop one.
2. Go the extra mile. It’s always good business and personal sense to over-deliver. Exceed your bosses’ or customers’ expectations in real, tangible ways. Don’t just work long hours – deliver the results that, if possible, impact the company’s bottom line.
3. Toot your own horn. Now is not the time to be a shrinking violet (unless you’re not being proactive!). Make sure your boss and your customers know the good things that you’re doing. If you don’t have a regular newsletter that goes out to your clients, now might be a good time to create one. Send your boss a weekly e-mail update – short, sweet, and to the point. You can let them know what you’re doing and use the communication to make sure you’re working on the right things, too.
4. Be innovative. As I said in the interview, the idea person rarely gets fired. Innovation doesn’t have to be creating a cure for cancer or saving the company millions, it can be finding a cheaper/faster/easier way to do a task. The more you can focus on ways to increase sales, boost customer service, or deliver products or services faster the better chance you have of being seen as an indispensible innovator. For your customers, find new products or services that meet a new or growing need that they have.
And the one that we ran out of time for:
5. Network! It is true that it isn’t what you know, it is who you know. Network not only within your own company but within other industries and companies so that if something does happen to your job or even your boss, you’ve got some options. If you don’t consider yourself a good networker, grab a copy of the book Make Your Contacts Count.Lynne Waymon is the master of networking and she provides great tips for how to get the most out of meeting new people. For entrepreneurs, now is the worst time to cut back on marketing and networking budgets. The economy will bounce back eventually and you want to be ready when it does!
It’s easy to let the events swirling around knock us off our footing, and watching your 401K turn into a 201K isn’t fun. But as I’ve said before, the only constant is change. Find a way to go with the flow and put yourself in the best possible position by keeping a positive attitude!
Do you have any other tips for recession proofing your job? Have you found anything that works or, worse, doesn’t work?? Please share!
An elevator pitch is what you answer when someone asks you “So what do you do?” Everyone has one regardless of whether you’re in business or not. I came across the following company description on a website the other day and I have one question: What does this company do?
“Our success is built on a commitment to provide quality service, tailored to individual company needs. Our business is in providing high quality services in all areas of service we provide.
We are a team of highly skilled professionals with a proper blend of Experience, Reliability and Skill to provide high caliber solutions for a wide range of Industry challenges. We offer a variety of professional, affordable & personalized service capabilities and our commitment to reliability, quality & excellence is equal only to our dedication to our customer’s satisfaction.”
HUH!? Talk about CONFUSED! I’m not sure if I tuned out after the second sentence or the third. The only reason I lasted that long is because I really wanted to know what the company did. If you tried to rattle this off on an elevator you would have people looking at their watch even if they weren’t wearing one.
To be effective, your elevator pitch has to make sense and ideally get someone’s attention. It has to explain in plain language (English or whatever your native tongue is) what you actually do so that the person listening can relate to it. People are always looking for connections or they wouldn’t have asked you the question in the first place. It is highly possible that they can either make a connection directly with you or know someone else who can.
Here’s one of mine:
“Do you ever get stuck (no, not in an elevator, but in life or work)? I provide people and companies a “Boot in the Butt” to get them unstuck whether they’re trying to launch a new venture or take their existing company to the next level.”
That’s right – you read it right. ONE of mine. I actually have several that I pull out depending on the audience and my mood. Some are more playful, others more serious. All have one thing in common: they try to get your attention and give you enough information about what I do to warrant continued conversation if there’s interest. That’s it!
So what’s YOUR elevator pitch? Share it here and get feedback. You never know who might see and have a connection for you…
How many people are insane enough to schedule a radio interview at 8:00 am on New Year’s Day? Yes, my friends last night thought I was crazy. But I’ve enjoyed every past interview with Jim Blasingame, the Small Business Advocate, so much that when they called and asked me to join him on his show this morning I decided to do it. As it turned out, it was a great way to start the first day of a new year.
Jim and I talked about what was going to be required for businesses in 2009. His take on it: don’t be afraid to celebrate mere survival as an accomplishment in 2009. We’re both optimists but you can’t ignore the reality: the tough times aren’t over yet. Check out the recording of our discussion and let me know what you think about it!
For me, though, I see opportunities in tough times. I think this is a great time to remember a couple of key points and work to build on them. While I don’t believe in New Year’s Resolutions, the following are ideas to keep in focus over the entire year.
1. Your work is not who you are. I ran into this when I cashed out of my first company. I had put so much into it that the separation felt like a painful limb extraction. It took me some time to realize that my business, or my book for that matter, was not my identity. They are merely things I have done. True, actions speak louder than words about our character, but they don’t always have to define us. That’s the great thing about life: we’re given the gift of a new day or a new year to redefine who we are, to change. I believe it is harder to morph the core of who we are, but it can be done. For me the core has remained largely consistent but as I worked to build my faith over the last few years I have seen a resurgence of the things I like about myself and a shrinking of those tendencies and traits I despise and which don’t serve me well, anyway.
2. Focus on that which you can control. There is so much negative going on in the world that it is easy to feel like things are spinning out of control. What many people lose focus of is what you can control: your attitude and your reaction to what is happening around you. I’ve seen a growing deficit in personal responsibility – too many people feeling like victims. Put your big girl (or boy) pants on and deal with it. Bad things happen to everyone whether you see that or not. You can choose to give away your power to outside events and circumstances or you can elect to keep that control for yourself. If you haven’t read Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, I highly recommend it. He was a concentration camp survivor and provides a disturbing story with an insightful look into the psyche that has the power to change your outlook and your life.
3. Keep it all in perspective. In our interview this morning (which you can listen to or download here), Jim told a story about how he helped a CEO keep his business troubles in perspective. Indeed, I’ve found the best way to break out of a cycle of feeling overwhelmed by your own troubles is to help someone else. You’ll find that there are a lot of people who are worse off than you. Someone always has it worse and someone always has it better. Such is life. Getting out of yourself and helping someone else allows you to find things in your own situation you can be thankful for. As we do at our family dinner table, find at least one good thing in every day, even if it is the knowledge that the next day you get to start over.
Although the world and economy have seen better times, I wouldn’t trade where we are right now for anything. We’re exactly where we need to be. We can correct the things that haven’t worked in the past, refocus on the core of what is important, and look for new opportunities to expand and grow our horizons. Forget the New Years Resolution. Resolve to live each day as if it matters, because it does.
Most people, at least in the U.S. have heard about the recent airplane which, after colliding with a large flock of birds, landed miraculously in the Hudson River with no loss of life (other than avian life and a lot of feathers). In a recent interview with the pilot, I picked up one key lesson for managing in a crisis that can be applied to the current economic and business challenges as they swirl around us.
I know I talk a lot about how important it is for entrepreneurs and others to make room for failure in business, but when it comes to letting your children fail, I’m having a harder time of it. Read my recent blog post on 
needs. Our business is in providing high quality services in all areas of service we provide.
