Smoke, Spark or Fire

What is it that distinguishes a great leader from an ordinary one or a visionary leader from one that struggles to gain followship? While sound business skills, proper planning and execution will take a leader far, it is the level of passion a leader possesses that is the ultimate identifier.

One of my earliest professional mentors liked to talk about "the fire in the belly." How would you define your level of passion? Is there smoke, a spark or fire in your "belly?" If your answer is "smoke" or "a spark," it might be time to stoke the embers by placing additional focus on your strengths as to add a higher level of satisfaction to what it is you are doing professionally. Where can you contribute the most to add value to your organization? Find it, embrace it and invite others to contribute to it while allowing these same individuals to add value to the cause based on their strengths. This will ensure that your key folks do not lose their passion. People feel productive and part of a greater cause by being able to see the vision of a leader they will follow. What is a leader without followers? Ironically, followship can feed a leader's passion, but it is a leader's passion that will allow for followship.

In his book The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader, John C. Maxwell identifies passion as a leaders first step to achievement, a way to increase willpower and ultimately a way to make the impossible possible.

Understand and follow your passion. Use your "fire quest" as a way to guide your vision and construct your strategy. This will allow for the smoke to spark into a fire of passion that will create energy to lead your organization to new, higher levels of success.

Time for a gut check: Smoke, Spark or Fire? Go ahead, make the "impossible possible!"

How Can Companies take Advantage of an Economic Downturn

Could there possibly be any bright spots to the current economic downturn? In my opinion companies that have been fiscally responsible and have positioned their businesses to be in a solid cash position and to continue to post good results will emerge as next generation power houses within their industry. Of course, this will greatly depend on their ability to successfully navigate the the remainder of the recession while providing excellent customer service to their customers. Industries that have had multiple competitors prior to the "great" recession could eventually have just a handful or in some cases be the lone survivor and be well positioned to become an industry leader. Much will depend on businesses having a clear understanding of how their industries are changing specifically to accommodate the ever rapidly changing needs of their customers.

Companies define their industries very differently. While our business operates within the employment sector of the economy, we do not see all employment-related businesses as competitors. Even with our job board businesses, we do not view all job boards as our direct competition. In many cases job boards work collaboratively and can help each other by working together to provide a better experience for the end user. I am of the opinion that the more niche a business becomes the better positioned that business will be to enjoy long-term success. This is especially true due to the fact that the more targeted the business, the closer the business will be to their customer. We have learned this lesson well with the expansion of our business into both the healthcare and trucking industries with our portals HealthCareerWeb.com and CareersinGear.com.

Many facets of our business have changed over the last twelve months. One such change has been the fast-growing number of online users that are building a large audience when combined with our national print recruitment magazines. Not all job seekers are online. Many job seekers, especially in the hourly sector, still rely on print products to find their next job. While there is no doubting that the online audience is growing quickly, the same could be said of print. Just as online audiences are growing, so are pick-up rates. If employers want to reach the entire job seeker market, they still need to use the total recruitment solution of print and online.

Post-recession recruitment is going to look much different than it does today. Smart businesses will take advantage of the surplus talent on the market today to position their business well for continued innovation and growth in the future. If you could replace the 25% poorest performing employees on your staff with employees that possess the same skill set as your top performing 25%, would you do it? Of course you would. In the past could you do it? Highly unlikely. This is not necessarily true today. There are very talented individuals in the market for a new opportunity today. Businesses/employers would be wise to take advantage of the opportunity to make this a reality. My advice is to not simply go into an across-the-board cost-cutting mode. My advice is to cut the excess where possible, add increased talent, position your best people against your biggest opportunities, and invest in growing your market share and number of customers as your competition is either hanging on for their life or is only focused on self-preservation.

What kind of moves are you making to position your business or yourself to emerge from the recession in a more successful market position or capacity?

Time to Work on Plan B

Weekly initial jobless claims continue their rise, overall unemployment stays flat to last month, Congress just passed the "bailout" which the President has signed, so now what?

I have heard the statement "From Wall Street to Main Street" many times recently on the local and national news when reporters or "experts" are referring to the current economic crises. Just because we have an economic rescue package does not mean that the economy is going to quickly turn around. It is going to take a while for the impact of this economic "bailout" to help aid the economy. The main purpose is that it will remove the "toxic" assets from banks' balance sheets so they can start to lend money to other banks (at lower rates than the recent record high rates), small businesses (many that use short-term loans to make payroll) and ultimately to consumers. These economic crises took a while to develop. I was emailed an article this week by a senior manager in our organization that was from the New York Times in September of 1999 that reads as though the author of the article has channeled Nostradamus' predictive powers. In the article reporter Steven A. Holmes wrote, "Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits." Later in the article he declares, "In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980's." Maybe I could call Mr. Holmes to find out when my beloved St. Louis Rams will win their first game!

Congress has taken a positive step in aiding the prospect of financial recovery, although it will be a while before we start to see the effects of the bailout make its way down to "Main Street." Congress should continue to work to find additional ways to help those on "Main Street." I read an advertisement in the Wall Street Journal today that was a letter from the CEO of Interactive Brokers Group, Thomas Peterffy, in which Mr. Peterffy recommended that the "bailout" be "fixed" so it would simply pay the first $250 of every home owner's mortgage in the US for the next five years (at a cost of about $10 billion monthly). I find this idea very intriguing. You would think that it should have at least hit the radar screen of CNN or Fox News? In the advertisement Mr. Peterffy points out that his idea is "progressive" and would cover a larger portion of the mortgages for those with "modest homes" verses high-dollar estates. Maybe Congress will be wise enough to continue to work on this issue and develop contingency plans in case our economy continues to slip, even in the face of passage of the "bailout." Let's hope we do not have to go there, but it would be refreshing, reassuring, if we knew that Congress was hoping for the best but planning for the worst. Plans such as that put forward by Mr. Peterffy need to be examined and considered when it comes to putting together the proverbial Plan B.

How do you feel about the "bailout" package, and do you see it as a positive or negative move by our leaders in Washington?