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I recently read on the Business Strategies etc. website that a “Recession is a Terrible Thing to Waste!” (www.business-strategies-etc.com/2009/a-recession-is-a-terrible-thing-to-waste/). It seems they read an email bulletin from the NAPL (National Association of Printing Leadership) where this was described. They liked the phrase and decided to re-use it, well so did I.

When I read this, I thought that they had captured the essence of what every good company should do in difficult times. However, my belief is that if you want to develop a truly great company you should view that a recessionary trend is a natural way of correcting markets that have become unstable or artificially overextended. The one underlying message to this is that “This Too Shall Pass” and we better prepare ourselves so that we come out the other side as a stronger organization. There is the ability to do a quantum leap, gain market share or tackle new markets once the economy returns to normal (if there really is a normal). The proper preparation falls to our leaders, but how do we accomplish this when we are fighting the day-to-day battles?

Well I read the newspaper today) and there it was, another indicator on how our economy is in a tailspin and our unemployment rate is nationally 8.4%, and even greater in some areas across the country: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/unemployment-by-cities-provinces/article1170164/ Over the past months the headlines seem to claim that we haven’t seen anything like this since the Great Depression. On occasion, someone will mention that we in fact have suffered through a couple of more recent recessions and come out stronger when it has passed.

I think one of the reasons that this seems harsher today is that we hadn’t really recovered from the last series of issues and they do seem to be coming faster. Hard to believe it was 10 years ago when we were all preparing for the Year 2000 disaster that failed to materialize. Perhaps that is why we didn’t see the DOT com bust or Telecom downturn approaching. Then, when we add the fiscal mismanagement of some very significant corporations throughout North America, currency fluctuations and the global impact of the sub prime mortgage industry…well it seems like we have been battling for the past decade.

Typical Management Behaviour

As leaders, we tend to follow some very traditional patterns in surviving difficult times. We have learned these patterns over the years and we seldom challenge the track record of their success rate. Here are a few of the most common things that I have seen:

• Bring all of the big brains together and lock yourself in a room for a couple of days
• Recognize that sales are slipping which means that cost cutting is your only salvation. This means wage freezes, no promotions, travel freezes and of course “layoffs.”
• Management becomes invisible and always seem to be in closed door sessions.

For the sake of brevity I am going to stop at these three because these three points start to define a manager’s behaviour. What do you think these three points signify to the average employee? After all, your role as a leader is to lead isn’t it?

Tips to Improve Your Management Style

Now I am not suggesting that the preceding points aren’t necessary for corporations to survive difficult times, but there is a reason that during war times, generals try to make themselves visible to their troops. When you are asking someone to help fight a war for you, and make no mistake the similarities are strong, they need to know that they are not in this alone. Here are a few simple things to do that will make you stand out as a leader during tough times:

• Be visible – walk the halls, engage in conversation
• Provide clear leadership intent – this means that you tell them the objective but give them some leeway in determining how they get there
• Recognize individuals but praise the team
• Make decisions quickly and fairly – procrastination is a business and morale killer
• Connect with your customers – they are probably suffering just like you and probably would appreciate that you understand their position not to mention that your employees will like the fact that you are engaged

In my past life, I was the CEO of a mid-size software company that was named one of Canada’s 50 Best Managed Companies during our last economic challenge. It was during that time that I learned to be out among the staff. They needed to know that they weren’t alone and I was constantly amazed at the great ideas that people were willing to share. I guess it is true that necessity is the motherhood of invention, because we created three new products that were introduced just as the economy was recovering.

Make Your Communications Meaningful

This is the ideal time to improve your personal and corporate communications. Your messages need to clear and memorable for them to have the right impact. If you don’t know how to make a message memorable, you might find some helpful tips in a book called “Made to Stick” by Chip & Dan Heath: http://www.madetostick.com/. I found their book to be helpful in understanding why some messages stick with people and why most just bounce off of us.

Tough times really aren’t new, but we sure treat them like it is something we have never seen…every time it happens.

Just recently, I had the extreme pleasure of working with a leading edge financial services company.

Is their market tough? YES!

Has it pushed them into a corner? NO!

First, let’s see what they’ve got going for them:

• Young, creative, aggressive leadership
• A clear and compelling vision for the future
• A powerful business model
• Edgy products pushing the market boundary
• A commitment to deliver “value-added” knowledge and consultation AND positive, measurable financial impact
• A solid energetic team of field professionals who care about the business and its success
• Those professionals are totally committed to the value of consistent processes across their company and with clients across the nation

In the months since the CEO launched our project, we have been coaching selected of their producing leaders and sales professionals. We have also been adapting our tools to their marketplace and co-developing approaches to leverage the value of the company, the people and the products.

A few of the key things we have focused on:

1. Professionals who are hungry to perform well and achieve lots are an essential part of the recipe for success that:

• Builds on their strengths and individuality
• Builds on the identity and potential of the business
• Promotes them to “be your best”
• Helps them make “value-added” concrete and practical

2. To succeed, you need to give ambitious and motivated professionals a framework. These guys and gals want a consistent process because they know that puts the company tone and identity front and center.

3. It’s not either~or: being “strategic” and “value-added” is not enough - they also need to be “transactional” and “gets deals done”.

4. Confirming and demonstrating that tools and processes do not have to be “ceilings for compliance” - that they should be firm to act as foundations for innovation and for enhancing the clients’ appreciation of individual and company strengths and style.

5. The power of repeatable patterns of dialogue and coverage will drive more meaningful conversations about client business priorities, heighten client expectations of us and create unassailable defenses against more transactional competitors.

It was one of the most gratifying and exciting workshops I have facilitated in years. I’m excited to observe how they make it their own and drive new results through the next few phases of coaching and integrating.

Now watch ‘em go!

Just for fun, I tried the phrase “sales process” in Wikipedia. I’m a big fan of Wikipedia (as you may have noticed) but while this entry was tightly and distinctly written, it felt so constricting. It’s no wonder that sales professionals and producing leaders have a love/hate relationship with the words - and implementation of - “sales process”.

If I’ve learned anything about professionals, it’s that people don’t like to feel constricted, trapped or mapped. They don’t like to feel that they must trod the exact steps of the guy or gal beside them to do the same numbers and to create the same relationships. In all of the “process” there has to be room for the “real” person to emerge or else that “real” person will eventually either come to deeply resent the process and leave sales, or clients won’t buy in because it doesn’t feel “real”.

Process isn’t the enemy. Only bad process.

Tiger is a great example of unique top performers with consistent process (see my previous posts).  All great athletes respect process- it’s their playbook!   Without it they would not have a baseline on which to innovate or a shared platform of words and behaviors with their team mates.

Have you ever watched the show “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” (http://www2.warnerbros.com/web/whoseline/index.jsp). Those guys are brilliant. The audience experiences their work as spontaneous, unique-to-the-moment and full of personality engaging with the audience. Which it is.  Looks like there is no structure.

But don’t be fooled.

Great improvising also has a process, a set of rules that doesn’t restrict but allows players to roll action forward in fluid, split second reaction and timing. In his book Blink, author Malcolm Gladwell studies some of the process, discipline and practice of great improve troops and reveals that consistently great improvisational comedy stands on a firm foundation. There are rules that great improv artists practice interactively. Playing by these rules is what makes them great over and above pure talent.

Process is how to power yourself from good to great, from medium performer to top performer. Top performers have a process. But just like improv comics or Tiger Woods, you just don’t get that sense when you observe them or interact with them, because the process melds seamlessly with their “real” self.

Evaluate your process. Does it let you breath? Does it allow for your unique personality style? Does it enhance and support your strengths? Does it let you be more confident and certain in your strides without forcing you to take the already-trodden path?

Make it real. Make it yours. That’s one of the secrets to making it work.

Next post…the clients’ POV. How they experience process from their providers.

I recently wrote a post on Always Be Opening, one of the core principles of “Stop Selling and Do Something Valuable”. Now more than ever is the time to be opening possibilities with clients, potential clients and your network. Here are some other ways to find and keep an ABO mindset:

1.       Engage clients and future clients with possibilities - that’s what gets people motivated.  Help them believe.  Help them execute on them.

2.       Focus on positive news and results to keep your own energy high and motivated. Even with the “crash” and the willingness for everyone else to jump on the “poor us” bandwagon, are you noticing the positive news and economic stories around you?  They’re there. Polish your lenses.

3.       Push your energy ahead of you … be positive and progressive … it’s infectious.

4.       Appreciate and honor your clients’ strengths.  Build on them.

5.       Be grateful and keep it building the virtuous cycle.

Worried about all the folks with fear running their lives right now.  Saw this little article on Wikihow.com and liked it as a simple way to re-frame fear and scarcity and head for abundance.  Our mindset is the most powerful thing we have in business, and happily, unlike the Dow Index, it’s in our control.

Always Be Opening

Our clients have challenges right now.  Many of them are in shock or have been hit directly.

Many of our clients are tightening down.  Many also know they need to look forward and be poised for positive possibilities.

What are you letting dominate your dialogue with your key clients and prospects?  Fear or openings?

Opening to create new business

The Stop Selling and Do Something Valuableprinciple “Always Be Opening” is a principle that keeps business in flow even when scarcity seems to be shutting tight the doors. While pop culture versions of sales professionals often have them snarling “Always be closing” at each other, I have found time and time again the inverse to be vastly more effective. When you are focusing on continuous opening, rather than closing, no one has to protect themselves around you. Instead they are invited to play in the realm of possibility and exploration which doesn’t push for the final and sometimes “too early” commitment to buy in the conventional sales approach.

But isn’t commitment the point of doing business?

Well, yes and no.

Of course we ultimately want to do business with someone, but not at the expense of ramming the door down and forcing them to take us on.

We’re really talking about a MUCH higher order of commitment.

Seek commitment to positive business possibilities for your client.

In the safety of possibility, the potential client can relax with us, discuss their dreams, their fears, their needs and their desired directions. In the safety of possibility we can be a positive conduit in our speciality, helping potential clients dream, design and choose directions.

And the result? We are often either a) chosen right away to make that outcome happen or b) remembered as being particularly helpful and knowledgeable without being pushy and inappropriately aggressive and are called upon when the time is right to go forward (or at the very least we are the favourites of the bidding process).

Don’t forget - less on price!

I’m hearing stories about how on-the-ground folks are using Always Be Opening in these current tough times.

There’s a female professional services manager who uses the “Always Be Opening” mantra to present to new clients. She finds it keeps the door open - especially in her own mind - to remember that it’s about sharing needs and ideas rather than forcing an outcome.

There’s a search professional who talks knowledgeably about how 2009 is one to stay close to major clients, take them out to lunch every 3 months and listen to their woes and needs, staying close and ready for the burst of re-hiring in 2010.

Pair it up with Selfless Listening

Selfless listening is about listening without a secret agenda. It’s relaxing away from your immediate business needs and shifting all your attention on theirs. Selfless listening means being present to your client/potential client and letting the conversation truly be about THEM for that period of time. Selfless listening pairs well with the principle of “Always be opening”, because good listening is the heart of how to behave in an ABO manner. Good listeners - authentic listeners - will create openings all the time and will hear those small shifts in tone or details of insight that those rushing into the gap to sell something often miss.

Don’t lose sight of your own agenda.  Just relax it for a bit.  Your client will actually help you bring it back to yours because they value your selfless listening to theirs.

Clients don’t miss closers.

Who they love to meet with are openers, particularly ones who are in a realistic but positive frame of mind, who can support them in navigating these troubled waters and who can come up with multiple ways for them to succeed.