Archive for Current Affairs
Five Essential Leadership Traits You Need When Times Are Tough
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I don’t have to tell you how turbulent the last couple of years have been. We’ve seen the impact of the economic environment on entrepreneurism in a big way over the last 18 months. On the bright side, I am seeing that businesses startups today – and those existing businesses that are surviving and flourishing in the current economic conditions – are much better companies than they were before the economic meltdown occurred.
We are learning. It’s an essential part of the entrepreneurial process.
So, I thought I would share the six characteristics and traits that organizations need today in order to be positioned to make solid decisions and be positioned to make the best out of challenging times:
- Credibility. This is harder than it sounds. How can you be credible – or even feel credible – when there is so much uncertainty all around you? There really isn’t any way to fake it or force it, is there? There may be many people who are looking to you right now to measure how credible you are right now – from your spouse, your business partners, your vendors, your customers, and your banker. Credibility in the storm around you comes from your ability to level with others with complete honesty and humility.
- Inspiration. People around you are probably fearful. Many have lost their savings, jobs, investments, and businesses. But never forget: Hope overcomes Fear! You can give hope to your team by giving them a realistic, but optimistic vision of exactly how you are going to succeed from here. No matter how dark, difficult and dreary things can appear to those who are in fear, you can open them up to a whole new world of possibilities that they are not thinking of, yet. Remember The Shawshank Redemption? That was the message of the entire movie: Hope overcomes Fear. Be realistic – but optimistic!
- Be Connected to Real-Time Realities. You simply can’t keep working with outdated assumptions that are based on what your model/market looked like a couple of years ago. Things have changed. Unless you continuously monitor those changes and stay on the pulse of the reality of your changing circumstances, you can find yourself quickly in the buggy-whip making business.
- Be Personally Involved. There has perhaps never been a time when it has been more important to have an accurate, ground-level assessment of your situation than right now. It can be easy for a business owner to become distant – and disconnected – from your team, your operations, and your customers. Now is the time they those around you need to see your intense, hands-on participation in working through challenges and finding solutions. You might be surprised at how much comfort that gives those around you.
- Be Bold. The economy runs in cycles. Your responsibility to your business is not only just to survive the current cycle, but also to build for what is to come. By creatively planning and executing right now, you can take advantage of the weaknesses, fears, and disconnection that your competitors are feeling right now. After all, entrepreneurs are – first and foremost – problem solvers! Find the problem your customers have, and solve it for them. That has always been the key to entrepreneurial success.
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Recommended Reading on the Health Care Crisis
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The current health care debate that is being engaged in across the country is so important because it impacts every person and every business in important ways. While I am generally conservative in my political leanings (with libertarian smatterings – and even an occasional liberal thought), I won’t be using this blog to further any political purposes, other than to support free enterprise.
Nevertheless, I thought I would share one of the most intelligently written and carefully thought-out pieces that I have read on the state of health care in the United States. Everybody seems to agree that the system is broken, but there are disagreements about “what” is actually broken, and how to fix it. The article, How American Health Care Killed My Father, written by David Goldhill and published in the September issue of The Atlantic, makes a powerful statement about the real problems in our nations health care system, and proposes a unique solution that nobody in Washington D.C. is discussing.
No matter what position you find yourself taking in the current political debate, Goldhill will assuredly challenge your assumptions and make you re-think your position. I know it had that impact on me.
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Closing the Money Hole
Posted by: | CommentsThis is a brilliant parody newscast by The Onion that really nails the current debate about the rising national debt, out-of-control government spending and fiscal responsibility – not to mention the cable news networks wonky talking heads. Enjoy!
In The Know: Should The Government Stop Dumping Money Into A Giant Hole?
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When “You’ve got it all wrong” is the best advice
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12 year old Shaheen JaFargholi
Much has been written in business about the value of playing to your strengths. On my bookshelf alone, I’ve got a half dozen business titles that preach the concept. As an entrepreneur, there is much to be learned from this video from the BBC show “Britain’s Got Talent”, where 12-year old Shaheen Jafargholi performed before the notorious Simon Cowell and company for the first time.
Shaheen stepped bravely on stage to perform a number that “his grand-dad really loves” – “Valerie,” a number originally recorded by Amy Winehouse, who is a poster child for a strung-out, self-absorbed culture. Not exactly the type of song that would be in the “wheelhouse” of a boy from Wales who just turned 12. Just a few lines into the song, Simon stops everything and tells the young man, “You’ve got this really wrong”. Simon saw with his experienced eye that, whatever Shaheen’s strengths as a performer, his choice of song wasn’t going to show it. Read More→
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Psychology of Recession
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That’s a bit of a pretentious heading – as if I’m qualified to comment on either psychology or economics…
However, as an amateur observer of the human condition, it does strike me that a significant component to our current economic quagmire is largely in our head. It seems that while we have transitioned over the years from an agricultural economy to a manufacturing economy to a service economy to an information economy – what we really are is an economy of confidence. When we lose that intangible, psychological element of our collective selves, we perceive ourselves to be in huge economic trouble. And, because we are an information-based economy, we have an amazing ability to measure, calculate, survey, report, broadcast and share our lack of confidence with the world. Read More→
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