People are getting fired. Profits will never be the same. It's 1929 all over again. The guy on the corner tells you, "It's a recession. Times are tough."
So why is Stephen Covey , the best-selling author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, feeling all upbeat? Because he believes that a positive cultural shift is occurring as we speak, and that firms that empower their employees are about to blossom (see my previous post dated 7/1/08, 5/28/08, and 5/23/08).
"We've never had such opportunity as we do today," he says. "People can create. They can adapt. They can make sacrifices. This is a really an opportunity for creative businesses to gain competitive advantage."
Covey has built a publishing and consulting empire teaching people how to be the masters of their own destinies. While the emphasis these days tends to be on all the pain the financial crisis is causing, he's much more interested in the change it is permitting. Agonizing about having to lay off workers or worrying that your own job may be on the block doesn't fly with him. "People are too much a product of their conditions, and not of their decisions," he says.
When profits dwindle, many organizations make the mistake of letting people know as little as possible, he says. "I find that people are very capable and resourceful when they're not in the dark. Open the books, show them what's happening. If you get them involved with the problem, they'll be a part of the solution. They may come up with ways to cut costs other than cutting people."
To get employees to trust management when mass firings are more common than rainstorms, leaders need to be open, authentic and real, Covey says. "If there is no real trust and genuine integrity, then it just becomes a kind of fake program of fake democracy, which will worsen it. People will say, 'We were manipulated again.' "
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