How to be a good boss in a bad economy is the main theme in a series of articles I have read recently. They could just as well have been titled: How to be a good person in a bad economy. The point is pretty much the same:
As the economy gets tougher so the potential for unethical business practice grows.
Salaries don’t go as far as they did—white collar crime goes up. Customers demand more for less— service levels go down.
The budget becomes unattainable—manipulation of the numbers by the executive becomes a hobby.
Margins are placed under pressure—the marketing team goes into overdrive to explain how you only think you are getting less for more. You know differently.
Consumers start looking for someone to blame—the Competition Commission becomes more aggressive.
People become more insecure—they head off to business school.
And so the storyline develops but the principle of cause and effect becomes ever clearer as the economy tightens.
Research shows that people in leadership positions become less mindful of others’ feelings and needs. I wonder why that is?
It could be the politicization of a conversation as you develop greater influence (here influence is the ability to make a difference). This process of politicization makes you cynical to the point you don’t listen to people because they only want something from you.
Maybe it is because you stop allowing yourself to be distracted by the day to day issues of the ‘little person’ because if you do you would never get anything done. Or perhaps it is just a matter that you have learned that you are the sort of person who interrupts others who say something can’t be done by doing it yourself anyway. Whatever it is this much I do know:
People want to know you care.
They want to know that they will be treated fairly, with compassion, with respect. They want to know you trust them and want to know they can trust you. Their fortunes are tied in with yours—if you fail as a leader they fail as a follower. They are not always certain the reverse is true.
They want to know you are control even when you don’t feel you are.
They want reassurance that things will get better. Sometime.
They want predictability and they want honesty. Me or you. It doesn’t matter. We both have people who depend on us—our families, our friends, our customers. Maybe even that stranger whose life was made a little easier because of something you did. The economy is tough—we know what people are looking for.
We know what they want us to do.
