The "Turtle" or the Hare

In hockey there is an interesting expression called "turtling". It generally means that a player curls up rather than fight when confronted by a member of the opposing team. It struck me that businesses are going to have to make some of those same decisions as we continue in this economy for what looks to be the foreseeable future.
There are some strategies that are available to businesses right now to "survive" this economy and in fact even position yourself.
I was reading an article about President Obama and it was commenting on leadership and strategy during "turn around" times that have some interesting implications for these times as well.

One of the first "weapons" you want to have in your arsenal in times like these is great leadership. I want to be clear about what represents great leadership in my mind and to me it comes down to a couple of key factors- the first being what Marcus Buckingham describes as clarity. Clarity is ensuring that everyone in the organization understands the mission and where they fit in. If you are the CEO or another C level person that is absolutely critical right now.
I believe this is also a time for executive courage that is demonstrated by being visible, available, and personally accountable. This is not a time to hunker down in your office or in a conference room with your executive team. That's turtling.

If you are a middle manager your role is to minimize ambiguity. As managers our primary role is to remove the complexity from situations and make it very clear what each employee's role is and how it contributes to the bigger picture. In times of stress that becomes even more important.

I believe this is an excellent opportunity for transparency. By transparency I don't mean an "open" book policy. especially if you haven't previously had one. What I do mean is showing people the respect they deserve by being honest with them about the situation and potential outcomes and actions. They are adults. They need to be led not parented.

I think this is a great opportunity for collaboration. Most of us like to believe that we hire and retain competent management staffs. If that is the case why do we exclude them from the decision making process? I can't tell you how many times I have been in situations where the executive team dictated the "solution" to an issue, without engaging the participation and input of the people managing the actual work processes.. I am not necessarily arguing for negotiation about targets, but I am proposing that you may dictate the "what", but give them an opportunity to participate in the how.

I am a great believer in cautious optimism. They need to believe that you believe that you will come though this a stronger organization. If you don't and you feel that the "end is near" then do the right thing and resign and leave the leadership to someone who is still committed!

I am also a believer in making the tough decisions. Many people don't like Jack Welch's tough performance matrixing model, but the reality is that everyone doesn't perform at the same level. High performing organizations know this and they evaluate their talent pool constantly. People who can't or won't perform at the expectations set by the organization are given an opportunity to find a better fit at another organization. Consistency is highly overrated in the absence of good performance management. Consistency means we treat everyone exactly the same, the problem with that is everyone doesn't perform the same way. Your processes should be consistent, the application should not be. There is nothing illegal about treating your best performers and your non-performers differently, or treating your best performers differently than your "average " performers. Before you do an "across the board pay cut" ask yourself if you have the right people in the life raft.

As you all know from my previous blogs, writings and rantings I am a big believer in engagement. I am going to go on record here and tell you that engaged organizations will not only weather the impact of this recession, they will emerge stronger!. You see they have their foundation of clarity, transparency, trust, and commitment already in place.

So in this case the hare is better. One of my favorite expressions is "when you are being run out of town get out front and make it look like a parade". Curling up and "turtling" is not going to get us through this recession, but the recession could cause us to take actions we have neglected and build a new foundation.