Strategy for early 09 – Set bold short term goals

Some day, the graph at the right wont’ seem like something weird.

Maybe today it does seem out of place.

Yet I continue to notice that there are a significant number of executives out there who are “moving beyond the meltdown” stage and are pursuing active strategies to keep their team or group focused on innovating and opportunity. They keep phoning me, and bookings continue to be very strong well into 2009.

My role in many of these events: get people beyond the “anger and denial stage”; see opportunities from a longer term perspective; and start thinking about actions that we can begin now to transition out of the mindset which has settled in.

I just concluded a keynote in Washington, DC, and spoke to this trend and the need for action. My advice to this particular crowd included a slide:

SET BOLD SHORT TERM GOALS

Think about that. The economic news can literally smother the drive and enthusiasm of a team. Every day, folks are being beaten down by a surreal swarm of negative headlines. There’s a smothering cloud of economic doom out there. People are dispirited, demoralized, and frankly, are coming in to work every day without any drive, initiative, and inclination to change.

Yet, we will one day be returning to a period of economic growth, and the graph seen here will make sense once again. Maybe it is already beginning to happen in some sectors. Maybe it might take some time yet.

Yet you can’t let this attitude of pervasive negativity begin to clog up the arteries of your team. That’s why you get out in front of this thing and SET BOLD SHORT TERM GOALS, That gives your team concise actions that can be pursued, and goals to achieve.

And it will leave your team well positioned for the economy as it does, inevitably, emerge from this current period of contraction.