The Time for Leadership

I don’t know what the past month has brought you but for many it has been a shocking time of disruption.

For those in banking, property, construction, food and distribution the effects have been felt as direct hits – body blows and some fatal. Many sectors are now feeling the impact of the inevitable slow up due to the banking crisis impacting what we know as the real economy.

We privately owned companies ( chiefly small and medium sized) will find our selves on the receiving end of of tightening up on lending and a very real pressure on cash flow – unless there is structural and policy change in banking supported by government. We wait but continue to breathe………

Products and services continue to be bought, markets haven’t collapsed altogether and remarkably there are still companies growing!

I have survived and prospered in and through two previous recessions offering my services to ambitious, positive and progressive privately owned companies who grew in these times and grew well. 

The changes we are facing in these times will make the differences between companies more marked and customers will be on the hunt for real value. So the old shibboleths will surface and be more appreciated:

Value for money

Customer serving

Trust

Track record

Time for leadership in your marketplace? Certainly time to double your efforts in sales. Shrink back from this and you are doing yourself no favours and possibly be missing out on some of the best opportunities.

Meanwhile the people of your company may well be hyper vigilant for signs of difficulty in your business. The gloom and doom merchants may well be parading with placards in the corridors or stirring up depression over the coffee mugs.  Others may be going into passive mode – the human equivalent of stand by.

A time for leadership……….purposeful leadership about what you stand for in the marketplace and as a company……….strong leadership that creates confidence in the effort………..come with me leadership that says we are in this together and the stronger for that.

Cometh the hour cometh the man (or woman). 8 weeks ago “basket case”  Brown was being counted out. Now he is being counted as a world leader. “The Audacity of Hope” by Barack Obama is now made flesh.

Difficult times for sure. Bunker mentality has no place and fortune will favour the brave and the strong. Keep the faith.