Their Finest Hour! Leadership Through Tough Times

When the Nazis seemed invincible, Winston Churchill spoke these inspiring words: “What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. 

“Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. 

“Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour!’”

The world as we know it today exists only because in 1940 the people of the Commonwealth stood tall and gave their best. Defeat might have appeared inevitable, but if leadership had chosen to believe it, the world would be vastly different today.

In tough times, we must fight our natural desire to retreat and protect what we have. We must not lose the initiative by following purely defensive strategies. The greater the focus on preservation rather than growth, the more your team’s confidence and performance will decline. While there is a time for a ‘strategic retreat,’ long-term survival requires an offensive at the right time. All too often a ‘strategic retreat’ is merely someone’s explanation of a loss.

Sales reps may be reluctant to sell since “nobody’s buying.” This attitude is a treacherous trap: whatever your employees are thinking will become self-fulfilling prophecies! Now is not the time for insecurity. It is a time to press forward.

Now is the time, in the midst of uncertainty, to call your team to perform, as they never have before. Now is the time for them to outdo their career best. Now is the time to excel and set the standard against which the rest of their careers will be measured. 

Your competition may be retrenching, they may cancel projects, they may be settling for what they can get. Be different. If demand is down, go after increased market share. While it may not be realistic to increase sales, at the very least focus on profitable growth in your share of the market. 

If you are not getting the desired business results, shift the focus from results to activity. Measurements will show where the problems are. Identify the key activities that must be done to get results and coach people based on activity level.

Call on more prospects than ever before. In tough times, loyalty declines. Service your customers better than ever-in ways that provide high value for them.

Now is the time to examine every area of your business for maximum competitiveness – question everything. Every business has learned to put up with inefficiencies. You cannot afford them any longer. Identify them, fix them and use the freed up resources or time for high impact projects and activities.

Performance standards must rise to offset the inevitable pricing pressure. You must be more efficient now than ever. 

In good times, people can enjoy success in spite of themselves and few will critically evaluate the reasons for their success. If they did, they may find success is due more to external circumstances than to their own effort. They were in the right place at the right time. Good for them. However, in tough times, people will only enjoy success through their own effort.

Leaders must deal with reality and the team must know the stakes, but they must never see leadership doubting their ability to weather the tough times. Keep your doubts to yourself. Be the solid rock that inspires high confidence in others  – not just to survive tough times, but also to position the company for the better times that will inevitably follow. When the dust settles, your goal must be to be in first place ready to capitalize on the new opportunities.

Now is the time to review your strategic plan. Did you have any contingency plans you should now put into effect? Should you be revising any strategies? Have the risks changed? Do the goals need to be revised? Make sure the plan is still valid for the current situation and then recommit to a goals program. 

The message to proclaim is, “There is a challenge is before us, but we’re going ahead with the capability of defeating it.” 

Visit www.canlead.com/vimy for a dynamic presentation that will energize your team.

Read Only Copyright 2001 John Pellowe

Author, speaker and facilitator, Waterloo-based John Pellowe helps organizations achieve their goals through organizational and people development. For a free catalogue, to book John to speak or get help implementing these ideas, contact: nfo@canlead.com or www.canlead.com. Used by permission of the author.

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