What's in Your Back Pocket?

An economic downturn such as many people and industries are now facing in my province of Alberta or have faced in every other part of the world brings to the fore some very challenging questions.  As individuals we start to feel our shirt collars tighten a notch or two as we contemplate how we will weather the downturn, how long the downturn will last or indeed whether it will result in loss of job or our business.  Unfortunately, for too many of us, there can be a lot of whistling in the dark that manifests as wishful thinking or simple denial.  We hope that somehow the "grim reaper" will pass us by (again) this time.  We haven't established a contingency plan or a safety net that will confidently carry us through a downturn or possibly even a complete change in our career path. But, as I have often been told, hope is not a strategy.

I speak from personal experience in this regard.  I've been through many a restructuring and belt-tightening in my previous profession and quite frankly would have to admit that other than being flexible in terms of where challenge and opportunity took me I can't say that I had anything remotely that looked like a contingency plan.  Three years ago, when I completely changed careers, I didn't have a Plan B anything close to mapped out.  The fact that I am succeeding in making the switch is truly a combination of factors that probably have less to do with planning than with good networks and personal determination. I don't believe I'm unique in this regard.

If you will, consider the parallels to having your own emergency preparedness or disaster recovery kit for your household.  How many of us have alternate sources of power and water supply, adequate stocks of food and medicine to get us through several days of recovery from a natural or mad-made disaster, or a plan to ensure communication is sustained with family members in the event something causes you to be separated?  I hazard a guess based on what we have seen in our own backyards or not too distant communities that most of us are entirely unprepared for any significant disaster that could cut us off from a range of modern conveniences that we have come to rely on for our survival.  In like fashion, I suggest that most of us are entirely unprepared to suffer a modest or complete loss of our income overnight.

At this point, if you haven't established your leadership or career emergency preparedness kit, you might need to white knuckle it through the next change coming your way.  Perhaps if you are fortunate enough you already have sufficient funds in your savings account to get you through the next number of months or even a year until you secure the next job or can see your business venture recover.  Maybe all this time will be is another scare and you'll manage to get by with only suffering a few sleepless nights of worry.

All that being said, I believe there are a number of "tools" or "supplies that we should all have in our personal leadership emergency preparedness kit to allow us to navigate unplanned change as effectively as possible.  First, I believe we each should have our own strategic plan in place.  As leaders we often expend enormous time and effort leading strategic planning efforts for our own organizations or businesses, yet we spend relatively little time if any considering our own long-term plan.  Much like an organization's strategic plan, our personal plan should benefit from a regular period of objective and intensive self-reflection - what's important to us, what are our key goals, what are our forecasts, what are our strengths, what are our areas for investment or even divestment.  Most importantly, how will we equip ourselves to make the right change for the right reasons or how will we make the best of a bad situation thrown our way that still allows us to live according to our personal values and in pursuit of our life goals?  In short, are there multiple ways to obtain the same goal or set of goals.  Lacking any personal strategic coherence we will be as a ship tossed about on a storm-swept sea without a rudder.

Second, we should prepare for the inevitably of stormy seas with constant investment in ourselves as leaders.  Ongoing (and relevant) professional development and training has never been more crucial than in today's constantly evolving and dynamic business environment.  Knowledge, techniques, and technologies that were cutting edge yesterday are just as rapidly replaced or made irrelevant tomorrow.  Just as important, is understanding and appreciating the changing expectations and requirements of an ever more diverse workforce.  Long story short - as a leader you will have to continuously reinvest in your leadership and technical skills if you hope to be relevant, valuable and salable to your followers or customers.  Standing pat is falling backwards.  Leadership agility is today's guidepost.

Third, networks are a critical currency in today's ever-changing world.  Take advantage of opportunities to network and more importantly to build and maintain relationships with others within and outside of your current business environment.  As challenging and as time-consuming as it can sometimes be, it's important to appreciate that well-established and well-maintained relationships should be viewed as an investment in future opportunities.  Even though society has advanced there is still no doubt in my mind that "who you know" is just as important, if not more important, than "what you know".  In a time like this when leadership and technical roles now have hundreds of candidates applying for an opportunity - with many of them equally qualified - it won't simply be experience or knowledge that carry the day for you.  Rather, it may just come down to the strength and quality of relationships you have built with others over a period of years.

In like fashion, I also believe there is a tremendous benefit in "paying it forward", in the form of mentoring, connecting, and supporting others in your sphere of influence.  And in many of these circumstances, this means there could be no immediate - or any - form of payback to you.  Rather, I believe there is a service above self mentality that should come into play here that can amount to a form of planting seeds for a harvest to come later.  Just as with networking, however, for investments in others to truly pay off it really does have to be delivered as a genuine and authentic interest in others.  Nobody is going to give you much credit or future support if you take a very mercenary tone with them or explicitly set out the assistance as a "loan" to be recalled with interest at a later date.  It would be much like me telling my kids that while I will support them financially for the first couple decades of their life I expect at least that much support at the end of my life.  I doubt that this type of "support" would work and more likely would drive a wedge between us.

Those are what I consider to be some of the basics of your leadership emergency preparedness toolkit - a well-articulated personal strategic plan, constant honing and expansion of your skill sets, effective networking and relationship building, and an investment in the success of others.  Together - along with some sound financial planning - I believe not only can a leader weather the inevitable storms and tempests, they can come out stronger as it relates to their highest goals and aspirations. 

Management of unplanned change doesn't just have to be about survival.  It can be about softening the blows and being ready to come out the other side quicker and stronger than if you had just whistled a better tune in the darkness.
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Greg Hadubiak, MHSA, FACHE, CEC, PCC
TEC Canada Chair/Executive Coach/Senior Consultant
hadubiak@wmc.ca

Helping leaders realize their strengths and enabling organizations to achieve their potential through the application of my leadership experience and coaching skills. I act as a point of leverage for my clients. I AM their Force Multiplier.