There is an interesting article in the McKinsey Quarterly on Leadership Lessons for Hard Times.
You can view it here: http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/newsletters/2009_08.html. The article is a result of interviewing leaders of 14 major companies, all seasoned CEOs or chairmen, asking them to reflect on what they felt they had learned. The companies they lead are in different industries, face different challenges, and have performed quite differently. What emerges from the interviews is agreement on some broad principles that can help guide behavior in the executive suite and the boardroom, as well as interactions with employees, customers, and investors.
The basic principles are:
1. Confront Reality: Few companies saw coming the magnitude of the current crisis but those who were able to take a guess at the future were further ahead than those who were caught blind-sighted. One of the attributes of resilient organizations is to learn from the past as a key to foresee what lies ahead.
2. At Board Meetings - Put strategy center stage. At a time of rapid change - most CEO's see the need for frequent communication with the board and many of those meetings discuss strategy. Strategy is a topic that can no longer be discussed just once a year. Plans need to be revisited, tested and discussed against current realities.
3. Be Transparent with employees and investors. Communicate, Communicate, Communicate the challenges as well as the successes. Be transparent and open with employees and investors, don't wait until the end to communicate what happened, talk to them at every step and ask for input. Openness breeds commitment and commitment breeds character.
4. Build and Protect the Culture. Companies cultures, values and beliefs are the first to get compromised in challenging economic times. Yet, A healthy company is the result of a healthy culture and culture is built by the beliefs, values and shared meanings of the people in the organization. When an organization is out of alignment with their values and beliefs - performance will suffer.
5. Keep Faith with the Future. It's important to keep your eyes focused on the future, for potential growth opportunities. It can be easy to just hunker down and cut cost with no real looking at current talent and performance and what needs to happen to assure that you are ready for the future that will emerge.
When I look at these principles, I'm struck by how they all relate to what's necessary for resilience. Check out this article on Resilience: http://www.performanceleadershiptools.com/Performance%20matters.%20Resilience.pdf
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