A Right Sized Attitude in a Downsized Market
Part 3
By Valarie D. Willis

There are five key attitudes that leaders should possess to survive this downturn and downsized market. Today's down economy gives every leader the opportunity to display a new sense of courage, a new sense of innovation, and a new sense of creativity within their work environment.

The Right Sized Attitude - Part 1

The Right Sized Attitude - Part 2

The best leaders during a time of crisis will find stories to share with their organization that helps remind them of where they are going , where they have been and of how they can get through the tough times.

In every leader's toolkit, they should have an arsenal of stories that they can bring out during the time of need.

If your organization is going through some tough changes right now, look back into your life and share a story with your team about a time when you had a tough change to go through and how you managed to get through that change. People need to hear the stories about how others have survived the change process.

If your company has experienced a downsizing and you are trying to get the team back on its feet, share how you have personally survived a downsizing. If you do not have that experience, then you should speak to your employees individually and see if any of them have experienced downsizing before and how did they survive and how did they come through it.

What were those attributes that kept them afloat during these difficult times? Leaders have to remind their team of better times ahead, just as we remind ourselves of a better economy ahead.

The more personal you can make the stories the better. The stories you share have to be authentic and meaningful. When they are, these stories will touch the heart and souls of individuals.

Great leaders are also great storytellers. Leaders find the stories within them, which engage and inspire their teams to want to go take the next step.

Telling Great Stories

Telling good stories takes practice. The first step is to find the right story to tell that illustrates the point you need to make.

A good way to create a treasure chest of stories is start thinking about the categories. Here are a few to consider, courage, changes, downsizing, success, meeting a tight deadline, hope, and there are others. Once you have your categories, start writing down the story you could tell.

For each story that you have listed, write the objectives, key points and takeaway for each story. Write the story out, they do not have to be long. Be sure to include enough detail to keep it interesting, but not so much that it rambles.