"Hope": Photo Credit: Richard Chicoine iCopyright 2009Word on the Street: Listen Up Leaders!
At the Top:
A CEO makes media headlines while negotiating and dealing with financial crises. Cut here, change there, check the bottom line and cancel the free coffee pot. Leaders busy working 24/7 to salvage the plan could easily ignore the day to day slide into poverty and homelessness that is inching into ordinary working families.
At the Top:
A CEO makes media headlines while negotiating and dealing with financial crises. Cut here, change there, check the bottom line and cancel the free coffee pot. Leaders busy working 24/7 to salvage the plan could easily ignore the day to day slide into poverty and homelessness that is inching into ordinary working families.
At the Bottom:
So what’s the word on the street? Front line folks are doing their best to hide their personal circumstances from their co-workers and clients. The folks who used to bring bags of groceries to foodbanks are now standing in line at the soup kitchen.
So what’s the word on the street? Front line folks are doing their best to hide their personal circumstances from their co-workers and clients. The folks who used to bring bags of groceries to foodbanks are now standing in line at the soup kitchen.
Life as usual, is now life as unusual.
“These dramatic changes have come unexpectedly and rapidly. Anecdotal information from food bank operators reflects more working poor are seeking assistance and many of the people coming to food banks are there for the first time. The very people who used to donate to food banks are now coming for assistance.” So says the Executive Director of a northern food bank organization.
When Mary tells her story, she asks for anonymity. Mary is a single professional photographer, whose work has been highlighted in magazines, with rave reviews positioning her as one of the up and coming artists to watch. She was once a manager in a forest products company, and fortunately was able to fall back on her part time entrepreneurial venture when she was laid off indefinitely. The layoff was permanent.
Mary moved into an unheated shack at the edge of a northern Ontario community. The pipes froze in December, so she hauls water for bathing and cooking. She slips into the truck stop to take a shower before an important photo shoot. No-one knows her circumstance, but it’s becoming increasingly difficult to not crack under the pressure.
Hazel and Jim, on the other hand, have never been rich. Hazel arrived home on the bus last week, and told her husband that her supervisor had reprimanded her for coming in late so often. Hazel could not admit that they had sold the car, and now she was relying on public transportation to get to work. The schedule just does not jive with her work hours. Her supervisor had made it clear, that he would not accept any excuses. She feels trapped by circumstances out of her control. Jim’s temper flares at the injustice. Their arguments are heating up.
The bottom line is that all organizations need to reorganize more than their financial systems. This recession is about more than money. Its about people. About Community. About reworking the plan.
“These dramatic changes have come unexpectedly and rapidly. Anecdotal information from food bank operators reflects more working poor are seeking assistance and many of the people coming to food banks are there for the first time. The very people who used to donate to food banks are now coming for assistance.” So says the Executive Director of a northern food bank organization.
When Mary tells her story, she asks for anonymity. Mary is a single professional photographer, whose work has been highlighted in magazines, with rave reviews positioning her as one of the up and coming artists to watch. She was once a manager in a forest products company, and fortunately was able to fall back on her part time entrepreneurial venture when she was laid off indefinitely. The layoff was permanent.
Mary moved into an unheated shack at the edge of a northern Ontario community. The pipes froze in December, so she hauls water for bathing and cooking. She slips into the truck stop to take a shower before an important photo shoot. No-one knows her circumstance, but it’s becoming increasingly difficult to not crack under the pressure.
Hazel and Jim, on the other hand, have never been rich. Hazel arrived home on the bus last week, and told her husband that her supervisor had reprimanded her for coming in late so often. Hazel could not admit that they had sold the car, and now she was relying on public transportation to get to work. The schedule just does not jive with her work hours. Her supervisor had made it clear, that he would not accept any excuses. She feels trapped by circumstances out of her control. Jim’s temper flares at the injustice. Their arguments are heating up.
The bottom line is that all organizations need to reorganize more than their financial systems. This recession is about more than money. Its about people. About Community. About reworking the plan.
Strategic planning is a braid of three base elements: Product + Process + People. People are at the core: without them, nothing happens. There are no transactions, no transformation.
Some companies “get this” more than others. Take the Salvation Army as an example.
Did you know that from the beginning, the Salvation Army was willing to run counter to the conventional wisdom of most organizations, including other religious organizations?
Some companies “get this” more than others. Take the Salvation Army as an example.
Did you know that from the beginning, the Salvation Army was willing to run counter to the conventional wisdom of most organizations, including other religious organizations?
From the book, “Leadership Secrets of the Salvation Army” (Robert A. Watson & Ben Brown with special thanks to Peter Legge):
“We have always brought a message of inclusion and compassion to people used to being excluded and judged.”
Excluded and judged. What can leaders do, to make sure that people are not excluded and judged? How can they support and help employees save face under dire circumstances?
The obvious answer might be an Employee Assistance Program, with anonymous access to services that bridge the gap or help move people forward. For companies and entrepreneurs without EAP, the solution is to prepare a plan with their employee’s input and feedback. Honesty, respect and trust go a long way.
Leaders can watch for changes in patterns and behaviors on the job. Insurmountable barriers bring invitations to fail at each step.
Questions, questions and more questions
How is the economy affecting the people who work for us? What is festering in the ranks?
Who seems to be absent more often? More stressed? More intolerant? What are we assuming and what don’t we know that we need to know?
As a consultant, I’m recommending that leaders start by asking really good questions; that they take the time to walk around and listen to hear the word on the street; that they bring compassion into their vocabulary. It’s time for extraordinary measures, and perhaps ordinary people need to be at the top of the list.
The Salvation Army believes that there is an antidote to poverty, homelessness, drug dependency, cynicism and despair.
Excluded and judged. What can leaders do, to make sure that people are not excluded and judged? How can they support and help employees save face under dire circumstances?
The obvious answer might be an Employee Assistance Program, with anonymous access to services that bridge the gap or help move people forward. For companies and entrepreneurs without EAP, the solution is to prepare a plan with their employee’s input and feedback. Honesty, respect and trust go a long way.
Leaders can watch for changes in patterns and behaviors on the job. Insurmountable barriers bring invitations to fail at each step.
Questions, questions and more questions
How is the economy affecting the people who work for us? What is festering in the ranks?
Who seems to be absent more often? More stressed? More intolerant? What are we assuming and what don’t we know that we need to know?
As a consultant, I’m recommending that leaders start by asking really good questions; that they take the time to walk around and listen to hear the word on the street; that they bring compassion into their vocabulary. It’s time for extraordinary measures, and perhaps ordinary people need to be at the top of the list.
The Salvation Army believes that there is an antidote to poverty, homelessness, drug dependency, cynicism and despair.
“It’s about salvaging and nourishing hope. Hope is the antidote. And you don’t have to be homeless or addicted to drugs to know you need something to combat that poison.”
Yours in hope, until next Tuesday...when we check out the groceries and soup kitchens...
Yours in hope, until next Tuesday...when we check out the groceries and soup kitchens...
Maggie
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Maggie Chicoine is a professional writer, keynote speaker and master coach as well as the Lead Facilitator for Leadership Thunder Bay. Follow Maggie on Twitter: “ideasculptor”. Reach her for “strategies to think ahead” at 1 800 587 1767 or maggiechicoine@gmail.com.
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