Don't Dwell on the Doom

Good article from Florida Trends magazine about the Recession. It coincides with what I wrote on TMC's On RAD's Radar this morning.

In combination with the housing bubble, we are experiencing an economic slow down. Our economy and capitalism is predicated on business cycles. Cycles have their ups and their downs. From 1937 to the present, we have had 13 recessions that varied in length from 6 months to 16 months. The important thing to remember here is that with each of these recessions, we emerged into a dynamic, growing economy. I promise you that we will come out of this recession probably in late 2009 or early 2010.

While the news is not good now, concentrating on the negatives that are bombarding us daily is not good for you or for your employees. All of this negative news is causing uncertainty and fear in your staff. They are fearful for their jobs, their families and so much more. If there is ever a time to be especially kind and compassionate with your staff, this is it. They need to see you upbeat showing them that we will get through this and be even more prosperous.

One thing that you can do is try not to watch excessive amounts of TV. There is so much gloom out there that it is contagious. You just cannot afford to catch this, “gloom flu.” More than ever, your staff needs you to be an upbeat leader who focuses on the positive and demonstrates the certainty that we will come out of this economic morass. Watching negative news stories will not help this at all.