Manager's Corner - Doing More of the Same

I was standing in the check-out line at the grocery store the other day when I overheard two women behind me reconnect. They had worked together years ago but had gone different ways when they were both laid off by their former employer. After the lay-off, "Sue," had apparently taken classes and  searched for new opportunities to put her old and new skills to use. She's apparently working and seemed fairly upbeat. "Karen" on the other hand, found work in the same industry only to be laid off again. She said at least three times, "Now it's just a matter of sitting and waiting until things turn around."  

Karen's employing Albert Einstein's definition of insanity: "Doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results."  Now I'm not suggesting that losing one's job is something to just get over or that you're insane if you're upset because you lose your job. Being laid off is difficult. It's life changing. It impacts entire families and if wide-spread, entire communities. However, it does happen. What I'm suggesting is how you respond to losing your job - or losing business during tough times - determines how it impacts you. Will you be a "Sue" or a "Karen"?

Refocusing and starting over is hard. It takes a lot of soul-searching
and - if done honestly - it forces us look at ourselves, our skills, our attitudes, and our behaviors objectively. When done honestly, we often find we're not as skilled, focused, determined, or action-oriented as we claim. Talking about looking for a job isn't looking for a job. Talking about changing business strategy isn't the same as actually changing our 
business' strategy. Change actually requires doing something. Goodness knows "Change" is hard for most people. That's why there are so many training programs provided that deal with nothing but minimizing resistance to change.  But for those who do truly want to be different, better, and more productive going forward, we need to do something different.

Given that, with the changes in the economy, your industry, your customers' industries, technology, and the workforce, what are you doing to change and be better going forward? As David Weinbaum says," A window of opportunity won't open itself." So what are you doing to open a few windows for yourself and for your organization?


Copyright 2009 - Liz Weber, CMC - Weber Business Services, LLC. WBS is a team of Strategic Planning and Leadership Development Consultants, Trainers, and Speakers.  Liz can be reached at liz@wbsllc.com or (717)597-8890. Additional articles on strategic & succession planning and leadership can be found at http://www.wbsllc.com/articles.shtml or http://www.liz-weber.com/articles.php