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Managing Through the Power of Paradox

Written by: James R. Lucas

Article Overview: We thought things were better than they were. We were sure things would be better than they are. But here we are—in meltdown. We need to use the leadership paradoxes to win.

Managing Through the Power of Paradox

Meltdowns come in a variety of nasty ways. Your organization - from a department or division to a business unit or entire organization - can be turning sour before your eyes. And the whole economy can implode, collapsing in a discouraging mess. Success in one or two areas can be impacted by meltdown in a third. A beautiful business strategy in a reviving or booming economy can be wiped out by inhabiting a fading industry. An industry can be sent into disarray by market leaders with bad bets on the wrong horses.

A strong economy can be brought to its knees by businesses that forget the value of cost control in good times - and earnings at all times. Sometimes meltdown, like bad news, comes in threes - you look around and see that your organization, industry and economy are all wilting away.

In response, you need to change. You need to create. You need to build. You need to do the things discussed here. You need to exploit those dangerous meltdowns, however they're packaged.

We can take you into the heart of meltdown management. This is a no-baloney, hands-on, crucial mission. Being tough is part of the equation, but you have to know howto be tough.With the right tools-and toughness-you can turn potential disaster into real wealth.

10 KEY ACTIONS

There's no magic to managing meltdown. It always requires hard thinking and hard work. To exploit tough times, you must lead with apparent contradictions. Take these 10 key actions, and go from victim to victor:

Spread optimism and spread the ugly truth. Be a pragmatic idealist. Mix optimism and ugly truth in equal amounts.

Broaden the vision and narrow the focus. What else are we passionate about? Which are the best shots for scarce resources?

Nurture customers and fire customers.It is always the time to love your customers, but now's the time to really love the ones with cash and orders-and to clean the marginal ones out of the Rolodex.

Invite people in and send people home. Present meltdown as a challenge to be great. Sort by how they respond.

Increase freedom and clarify. Give more freedom to do what no one else is doing-unless someone else can do it much better.

Expand creativity and eliminate ideas. Create forums for ideas and liberty to implement them fast. And create incubator teams that can kill thoughts-without killing thinking.

Execute better and make more mistakes. Weed out all waste, no matter how small. Do it to free up resources to make more mistakes trying new things.

Move faster and take more time. Meltdown requires both feet-one on the gas, the other on the brakes.

Increase spending and reduce costs. Meltdown managers reduce costs a lot in some areas so they can increase spending a lot in others.

Increase pressure and reduce stress. Meltdown's a time for war rooms and party rooms.

MELTDOWN MASTERY

What do great leaders do when there's a meltdown? They focus on how to exploit those tough times. And they build tough-time thinking into the organization for the non-meltdown times. In the end, they know that meltdown is awful, frightening, traumatic, soul-shaking. And if they handle it right, it's the opportunity of a lifetime.

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Article Tags: apparent contradictions, bad news, baloney, bets, business strategy, business unit, disarray, entire organization, hard thinking, idealist, market leaders, meltdown, nasty ways, optimism, right tools, threes, tough times, toughness, two areas, ugly truth



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