Leadership: Change your strategy not your principles

Article contributed by Jasbindar Singh.

Regardless of whether you are a manager or leader in a large corporate, owner of a SME, self-employed or an employee it is impossible to escape the current global recessionary climate.

Business is feeling the heat and  “things are tough but we are doing what we can to keep pushing ahead” is a common experience. The range of adjustments and changes range from cutting costs to restructuring and redundancies to managing stakeholder expectations.  At an individual level, feelings of anxiety and panic, fear of the future, job insecurity also prevail.

While in the grip of such an economic crisis and downturn, the reactive approach might be to make sudden changes in one’s vision and strategy as for some the survival instinct kicks in.

However, the SQ invitation in is for you to do something else first.  This is to re-visit your guiding principles and values that you have built your business, team and life on and which has served you well to date.  For example, if one of your guiding principles has been “customer first” “to do no harm” or “one team” than be really, really mindful that any strategic change does not cut across the very fundamentals which have grown and distinguished you from any other business. This is your uniqueness.

The reputation and name you, your company or your product has built up in the market place over should not be compromised in any way.  Your brand built on specific features and values, that your customers buy, should not be tinkered with.

Some other things you can do: focus on what you can control and give this some consideration, focus on the positive and what is still working and delivering for you, catch and reward people for what they are doing well, watch the airwaves and notice what you are putting out in the company ether – stories of doom and gloom or inspiration and acknowledgement.  Recovery maybe sometime yet but lets make the journey a telling one.

Jasbindar Singh is a business psychologist, leadership coach, author and speaker.  www.sqleadership.com