By Dan B. 

This past weekend, a colleague and I were talking about the upcoming changes at the national and global level. We talked about how major media conglomerates affected our recent election by burying some stories and misleading people on others [see examples about the BBC, US Media]. And with that, we acknowledged that traditional news sources may no longer be trustworthy to provide the straight skinny on news people use to make business decisions!

We walked away from our conversation several thoughts: 

1. Businesses –especially small businesses– may lose hope by succumbing to the ‘woe’ bombarding us over the airwaves.  And losing hope is akin to losing focus.     

2. Rather than being brought down by the drama of impending doom, business leaders must sharpen their focus and pinpoint the specific actions needed to improve their company’s success.

3. Business owners and other organizational leaders must regularly engage their teams about their sharpened focus, and include in these conversations a welcome expectation of new thoughts or ideas from everyone on the team for how to help make it work.

The key to all this is not get panicky or demanding, but hold steady with a confident sense of this is do-able.  After all, managers and leaders “create the weather” under which their teams work. 
  - If managers project the attitude that everything is a dark cloud, and people will run for cover.
  - If managers project the attitude that a renewed focus on achievable actions will help you stay the course, and people will gain confidence.

So — despite the headlines, what kind of weather are YOU creating?

- Dan

Share This

Filed in Business, Motivation, Management, Leadership, Teambuilding, Workplace, Corporate Culture