In these days of overseas outsourcing and large layoffs, I start to wonder whether there’s any meaning in the old adage “Your People are Your Greatest Assets.”  Perhaps we are replaceable by technology and people willing to work harder for less money.

Here’s a motivating thought from one of my favorite thought-leaders Seth Godin, who is reflecting upon the inspiring and proven principles of another great thought-leaders, Andrew Carnegie (born November 25, 1835 – August 11, 1919,  Scottish-American industrialist, businessman, entrepreneur and a major philanthropist.)

Losing Andrew Carnegie

by Seth Godin, March 7, 2010

“Carnegie apparently said, “Take away my people, but leave my factories and soon grass will grow on the factory floors……Take away my factories, but leave my people and soon we will have a new and better factory.”

Is there a typical large corporation working today that still believes this?

Most organizations now have it backwards. The factory, the infrastructure, the systems, the patents, the process, the manual… that’s king. In fact, shareholders demand it.

It turns out that success is coming from the atypical organizations, the ones that can get back to embracing irreplaceable people, the linchpins, the ones that make a difference. Anything else can be replicated cheaper by someone else.”

Toyota Motor Corp President Akio Toyoda Photo: REUTERS

A lesson in crisis management

We can all learn from Toyota’s current public relations disaster. It could happen to any one of our organizations. No one is immune from mistakes on a grand scale.

Successfully managing through costly and publicly-visible problems requires leaders to have a particular skill set and mind set. It’s called crisis management: the art of anticipating big problems before they happen so that you can handle them more effectively if and when they happen.

A willingness to address unpleasant truths. Sharpening your “crisis management” leadership skill set and organizational capability must be developed BEFORE the the proverbial poop hits the fan. Yet few companies “invest” in developing this organizational competency or training with their executive teams.

I found the following passage enlightening from a UK on-line magazine.

“The most effective crisis management takes place before the problem escalates out of control during the “incubation” phase. Some of the biggest potential crises have been identified and addressed before they ever escalated out of control: this is crisis management at its best. This requires an organisational culture that is vigilant for potential crises, has open lines of communication from staff to management, and a willingness to address unpleasant truths”. – Jonathan Hemus, guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 9 February 2010. Read the full article

An unforgettable experience. You only ever have to experience a crisis once to understand the importance of crisis management. It changes you in profound ways. It shows your character and your values, not to mention how well you can maintain your cool under extreme pressure. It can bring a team together in ways that no other business challenge can. It can also reveal other true leaders within the organization, those who perhaps fly under the radar screen and don’t have the fancy titles or authority, but have a natural proclivity to manage through crisis well. Yes, there is a gift in the crisis, if we choose to embrace it that way. It can make us personally and organizationally stronger. Our vulnerability, humility and willingness to learn makes us stronger.

Practice makes ready. They say that if it doesn’t kill us, it makes us stronger. Why not use the learning from our own business crises (and personal crises, for that matter) and the crisis experience of others, like Toyota, to shore up our weaknesses and round out our leadership skills and organizational capability. Perhaps as business leaders we should practice our crisis management skills regularly, like elementary school kids do with their fire drill rehearsals? We just need to think of all the potential “fires” our businesses may be susceptible to. Combustible problems comes in many different sizes and shapes.

U.S. Army Lt. Col. Christine Harvey is on a mission: Transition into the civilian working world.

I first met Chris Harvey at the 2009 Business Women’s Forum in Hartford, CT. It was hard not to notice her commanding presence and radiant energy. She is what I call a “motivated leader.” We have since networked together quite a bit and I am motivated to help her accomplish her “mission” in whatever way that I can. In my opinion, she is the kind of principled leader that “civilian” businesses need.

New York Daily News columnist, Carolyn Kepcher, highlighted Christine Harvey in her on-line column on February 8, 2010.

“Harvey is set to retire from the Army in nine months, and she realizes she’s entering a phase of life that will differ dramatically from the past 25 years. She joined the Army when she was 18 and moved up the ranks, enormously satisfied with the life of a career soldier.

Now a professor of military science at the University of Connecticut, Harvey is approaching her mission with the skill, dedication and positive attitude instilled in her by her military service. As a job candidate, Harvey brings quite a bit to the table.” reports Kepcher.

The action steps laid out by Christine Harvey serve as an excellent field manual for anyone contemplating a big career change. Included are major strategies including:

1. Educating yourself on the ways of the new world you plan to enter;
2. Preparing yourself including finding people that would be willing to let you observe them at work and answer your questions about their responsibility;
3. Collaborating with others. Remember that you  can accomplish far more as the member of a team than on your own.  This is where networking comes into play;
4. Executing the plan by setting a specific target date to make the big leap.

I just love Seth Godin and his irreverent way of telling us what we really need to hear at the very moment we need to hear it.

Here’s something from a recent Seth blog that I think might be worth sharing with your team (not to mention reflecting upon ourselves as motivated leaders). It is about employee engagement…starting, as always, with self.

Perhaps it is time to raise our hands and step up to the plate of true leadership.

- Kathy McAfee, America’s Marketing Motivator (and Seth Godin fan)

Different kinds of work by Seth Godin

If your boss asks you to move a box from point a to point b, it’s probably not okay to say, “I don’t feel like it right now.”

If you work on the chain gang and it’s time to dig a ditch, you don’t get a reprieve if you roll your eyes and say, “that’s not what they pay me for.”

And if you’re a dishwasher, you don’t get a chance to say, “I guess I’m just not the kind of person who’s good at putting his hands into really hot soapy water all day.”

And yet.

And yet when we ask you to look people in the eye, be creative, brainstorm, be generous, find a way to satisfy an angry customer, work with a bully, learn a new skill or bring joy to work, suddenly the excuses pile up. Is this a different sort of work? Is raising your hand in class too much to ask of you?

The jobs most of us would like to have are jobs like this. And yet we put up a fight when given the chance to do them well.

• To read more musings from Seth Godin, visit his blog site or better yet, sign up for Seth’s blog. He is prolific and wickedly sensible!

You Can Always Go Flip Hamburgers…but should you?

Here’s some sound advice for highly experienced, out of work professionals from Nancy Anton, Voice on Recruiting. Download her full article Taking an entry level job just to get back to work

“I often hear people in transition say, ‘I guess I could always go back to where I started and get an entry level position.’ From watching many people through transition make decisions like this I have viewed some successes and some disasters.

Hiring managers usually aren’t attracted to those who would like to be considered for an entry level position after having years of experience.

Here’s why… Read the rest of this entry »