Persistence – the act of enduring despite… regardless of… in the face of… even with… even though… A leader is persistent. If there are setbacks, if there are obstacles, if the going gets tough, a leader is persistent. It’s the act of determination that stems from the depths of confidence and the strength that is derived form experience.

Leadership quote from Peter Drucker:
“It is easy to look good in a boom.”

Right now, in the US, we are faced with the prospect of a recession – technically defined as two or more consecutive quarters of negative growth. So, right now, we need a greater emphasis on leadership in organizations. We need those business man and women, who through experience and knowledge, are able to drive our businesses through this economic period where only select businesses will “look good” while others are merely positioned to endure through this an economic downturn and still others will crumble under the weight of tough times.

It takes leadership to look good in a decline.

Creativity and Innovation

When economic times get tough, then it is time for leaders to rise to the challenge and find creative solutions to the problem. This is not as straight forward as cutting costs or cutting jobs. These, short-term solutions may cause more long-term problems. Sometimes the solution is a realignment, restructuring, or, some other, repositioning of the business.

No “One” solution

There is never a one-size-fits-all solution. Some corporations have a problem of too much money on hand, like Berkshire Hatheway, while others may have cut costs a bit too far and are now losing value, the Dell and Wal-Mart problems.

Leadership

It’s the job of leadership to determine the best path. It’s not as black-and-white as to say the correct path, for there may be more than one correct way to go. Rather, it’s an indeterminate measurement of “best.” It’s a matter of core competence in conjunction with the market’s evolution and countering competition. Sometimes the best answer is to R & D an entirely new product, modify the existing product, or add a service to complement the buyer’s experience. Whatever the “best” answer, the job is leadership.

Rise to the challenge and persist.

Leadership quote from Thomas Edison:
“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”

The leader does not give up.

For assistance, see Creative Problem Solving for Leadership.

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Every leader has dreams.  Most of us have had dreams since we were children.  We had dreams of who we wanted to be – a fireman, a policeman, a soldier, the President of United States, a CIA spy, or, maybe, rich.  Whatever it was and whatever it still may be, dreams can come true.  In order to make them a reality, you have to think of them as something different than dreams – goals, or, specifically, long-term goals.

Goals

I once told a friend, “All your dreams can be realized with the mere implementation of incremental goals.”  In college, most of us learned about creating long-term and short-term goals.  You can have short-term goals without long-term goals, but, generally, you cannot have long-term goals without short-term goals.  Short-term goals are the steps on the path to long-term goals and planning is the key to the gateway to that path.

Leadership quote from Lester R. Bittel:
“Good plans shape good decisions. That’s why good planning helps to make elusive dreams come true.”

Plans

Creating a plan lets you know what to do and when to do it.  Planning creates tasks for every day and detailed plans even create tasks for every minute and every hour.  Planning and tasks keep you focused and direct your effort to accomplish the short-term goals.  Once you have reached the short-term goal, your planning drives you past it to the next short-term goal.  If you have created a good plan that accounts for problems, stumbling blocks, then you can work your way around those obstacles on the path toward your long-term goals.

Decisions

The better your plan is, the better your decisions will be.  Planning requires you to think about the many facets of a task and objectives (short-term goals).  When you plan, you should thoroughly consider the points of who, what, when, where, why, and how, and, also, realize that each may have multiple sub-points.  When you plan, then when you encounter a decision point, you have the knowledge and the considerations to guide your decisions.

Remember: “All your dreams can be realized with the mere implementation of incremental goals.” ~Jonathan Frye

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