Just like Obama stood up for the American people, inspired them with simple words and a feeling of true understanding, willingness to communicate, to respect, to trust each other, no matter which social level one belongs to, we believe that we can and will change the leadership culture in the upcoming months and years. We will have just as powerful partners next to us, with the same goal and the same drive and enthusiasm to create a better, more sustainable corporate world, we will have the media look upon us worldwide, taking our thoughts and concepts - the very basics of great leadership - far beyond of what we personally could ever reach.

Especially in times of crisis, highly unstable markets, unsecured social and financial support, people need more than just a lumpsum of money to survive the upcoming months. They need to become self-confident again, believe in themselves, in partnerships, in teamwork, they need to go back to the roots, identify and appreciate basic values again, and build their life - professional and private - on those. That’s when they will have found solid grounds of sustainability, security and power.

A recent article on BBC caught my attention as it underlines, once again - that authentic leadership skills are the basis to any successful organization, even in times of worst crisis.

Even “simple” skills like listening and open communication are rarely found in board rooms. As described by Mr. Baker in his article, most Wall Street bosses didn’t know that trouble was brewing, confirmed by the fact that 58% of workers with “bully” bosses  don’t speak openly with their bosses and also claim that their bosses wouldn’t listen anyway, even if they did speak up.

While European tradition too often calls for those “tough, bully” managers because they seem to push things ahead, research and examples of leading highly profitable organizations show, that the “kind” type of manager with a social attitude and great leadership skills are much more successful and achieve superior results.

Baker outlines, that companies with the “new generation of “kind bosses” reflect high productivity, happy employees, more creative problem solving and better bottom lines. Witness companies like Google, Eileen Fisher, Pitney Bowes, Smuckers, Rodale and hundreds of others.

“Kind” bosses are not doormats - nice guys/women who are walked over by their employees. Rather, they conduct themselves like respectful, knowledgeable “parents” having qualities like compassion, integrity and clear boundaries.

In the current financial meltdown, although many of these “kind” bosses will be stressed to the maximum, their style will allow them to institute layoffs in a respectful and compassionate manner and rally those people around and underneath him to initiate and lead corporate change without compromise.

Under correct leadership whole workforces can be made to feel like a family and willingly tighten their personal belts if top management does the same. And I believe that managers who want to successfully lead through turmoil, need more “soft” than “hard” skills to be able to stay on board and deal with the worst.

“Many leaders think that only 10% of their employee population can contribute at a high level. That kind of thinking creates a culture of mediocrity and marginal achievement. It’s my viewpoint that beliefs impact behavior. What you achieve is a direct result of what you believe. If every leader and manager could embrace the fact that every employee, regardless of their ethnicity, gender, or educational background, is capable of greatness and possesses personal genius, can you imagine how that might change employee attitudes and actions on the job?”  - BusinessWeek.com in interview with Stephanie Chick

This is an interesting comment that should cause many to pause and consider. In times of decreasing revenues and increasing uncertainty, wouldn’t it be great to be able to change the mindset of your employees and allow each to unleash his/her potential?

The best part - you can!

A positive, inspiring and motivating mindset will bring increased productivity, commitment, growth and - very obviously missing in many comanies - sustainability.

Aren’t those exactly the ingredients we’re looking for to increase resilience and go beyond surviving the global crisis, to thriving in it and emerging a market leader.

Think of the potential you have on your pay roll.

In my role as turnaround and M&A consultant, daily confrontation with critical situations is a constant factor: financial disasters, and companies going down the drain for quite some time, dealing with problems due to consolidation or spin-off. There isn’t really anything that would get one of us interim managers out of focus or off track – we are used to dealing with difficult times, used to managing a (large) group of people with different objectives in life, with people who are full of fear (about what’s coming up next), people who simply can’t handle change very well.
Now – do we define difficult times as a “crisis” or is it rather a matter of managers’ state of mind, lack of required leadership skills and a mix of poor market research and related corporate strategy?
I’d like to briefly refer to the description of crisis by the Institute of Crisis Management (http://www.crisisexperts.com/) in the US, which I think very accurately reflects my thoughts: 

“A significant business disruption that stimulates extensive news media coverage. The resulting public scrutiny will affect the organization’s normal operations and also could have a political, legal, financial and governmental impact on its business.”

The basic causes of a business crisis are four in number:

1. Acts of God (storms, earthquakes, volcanic action, etc)
2. Mechanical problems (ruptured pipes, metal fatigue, etc.)
3. Human errors (the wrong valve was opened, miscommunication about what to do, etc.)
4. Management decisions/indecision (the problem is not serious, nobody will find out)

Most of the crises ICM has studied fall in the last category and are the result of management not taking action when they were informed about a problem that eventually would grow into a crisis.

As far as I have noticed during many of my assignments, most of the critical situations are NOT caused by market-related issues, but much more driven by internal problems – the character and management style of the leading team, the lack of internal communication power, the way a vision is lived and moved forward in daily business.

At our open house on November 7, participants had the opportunity to feel what it’s like to communicate and be successful.

As conscious beings, horses have a great capacity for independent thinking; social relationships; individual personalities; physical, intellectual and emotional abilities and, of course, limitations (just like humans!). Because of these similarities to humans (and the profound differences) horses make wonderful partners for initiating powerful change. Horses have no investment in the outcome of an interaction; they always tell the truth, they have no egos and no agendas. They are simply who and what they are, without any need for right and wrong.

This makes the information we get from them very powerful.

Participants at our open house had the opportunity to feel for themselves the power of functioning communication and learn what it takes to make communication work. Intention, focus, energy, relationship, trust and respect were some of the issues we discussed and tried out first hand with the horses.

Working with horses simulates situations we face in our everyday professional and private lives.

We all have a continual string of tasks and desires we wish to complete and various persons we wish to do this with. Each person is different and each task requires a new approach.

Our success in any endeavor is largely dependent on our ability to interact successfully with others. If we are able to create positive, motivating and clear interactions then we are much more likely to reach our goals.

Many participants were surprised how the horses responded to them and how quickly they reacted to changes and adjustments. It really is fascinating how accurately horses respond to us. It gives us the chance to examine our own professional and personal interactions and gives us the key for future success.