In addition to being cheerful and accessible, be caring and considerate. These are stressful times and you must identify the signs of stress and encourage employees to take the time to manage stress effectively. Simple solutions during the day:
1. Focus on your goals
2. Take three breaks that include a brisk walk
3. Don't forget to breathe (relaxation exercises)

Darin Phillips

A think a better approach that simply trying to boost morale would be to turn the focus in the organzation completely on the customer.

A customer focus 'revolution' will likely ensure that the firm does survice at the expense of competitors. An 'internal' focus, in my opinion, can lead to disaster in a recession.

Pizza can be brought it to the launch the 'revolution'.

I am from the IT industry, If we go back to 2001-2003 , It was the most horrendous time. No jobs, no work , no respect and no demand.
In the hindsight I remember , that time was best used to learn new skills, add knowledge , read books. If there is no work , there is not much you can do about it, use the survival instincts to live on and use the slowdown to get more knowledge in whatever you do .
Since 2004 till now , things have been extremely goood , but at the same time there was no opportunity to focus on learning as it was time to reap benefits.
So look at the slowdown as an opportunity to spend more time with your own self.

When tough times result in the need to reduce staff, Leaders need to recognize and use the opportunity. Be ready to justify selection of the individuals that you will miss the least. A layoff can be used to distill or concentrate the talent in an organazation or team. Look to the future need and carefully weigh factors like tenure and sunk training costs against performance and breadth of capability. Fact-based selection criteria can minimize termination risk and improve the overall team picture as you look to better times. Its easy to identify the dead wood. In a down turn, you have an opportunity and a responsibility to identify and deal with the driftwood.

How am I leading through this downturn. That's a great! question. Long ago I repositioned Pampers Diapers for Procter & Gamble as Pampers Phases Developmental Diapers. By convincing moms that being a toddler was just another phase in the development of an infant or newborn I was able to arrest about $1 billion a year in toddler migration to arch rival Kimberly-Clark. What was the most common signal to moms that their infant or newborn was becoming a toddler? They no longer fit Pampers sizes 1-4. So Phases introduced size 5 as well.

So what's the most common guage today that consumers and employees view daily to tell them that things are not going well? Their gas guage. They look at it all the way to work and all the way home again. So I buy their gas for them. Everyone comes to work and goes home every evening happy as a lark. My out of pocket? Not all that much for a 100 person organization in the grander scheme of things.

Does George Bush want to invigorate the economy. Forget the Fed cutting the prime lending rate. Just cut the price of gas in half and we'll all be happy. Or does the Prince of Dubai still need American consumer's paying $4 a gallon to subsidize building that island in the gulf? Do you think the Prince is driving a Prius? Let's stop subsidizing Middle East construction projects! No one asked me if I wanted to lend the Prince money.

How people perform in tough times is a measure of how well they can perform any time.

When the going becomes tough, the tough gets going.

The real time, to test the core-competency of an organisation or an individul is when it faces difficult times.

Recession has become a reality and it is the time to test the real mettle of any organisation.

When every parameter is positive, not much capability is required for anyone to perform. Your capability as an individual or as an organisation is being put to acid test in hard times, and as you have rightly put in " How people perform in tough times is a measure of how well they can perform any time."

In addition to all the well stated points, its always important to show the moral support and make the employees who are terminated believe that they are pushed out not because of their inabilities instead its the requirement of the company for its survival. An effective value mentoring could help the employees overcome the depressions.

we in South Africa are also experiencing a downturn. Higher fuel prices, pushing up food prices, high interest rates, political and crime pressures are causing a severe national worry!

In the team I manage, I do see this 'worry' manifest in their personal lives as a lack of confidence...(layoff threats etc). As Qui-Gon Gin in Star Wars said: "Your Focus Determines Your Reality", so we have focused on both internal and external customer satisfaction by focusing on, to the exclusion of other issues, inreasing the quality of our output.

The higher the quality, the higher customer satisfaction, the more security and happiness and sense of achievement for the team. And the threat of layoff's in our area has become very distant.

Tough time is the time to test true leadership. It's time to build trust among the team and develope the team spirit to fight back the challenge in the form of recession. When people come out of the tough phase with fighting spirit, they actually become strong and gain confidence to face and win such situations in future.

Depression can kill the organization whereas retaining people in tough times can kill the recession.

My Hyderabad branch performance in Jan and Feb was not upto the mark, but by showing faith in the team and developing the fight back attitude, they have bounced back in March as the top performing team in the region. On the basis of Jan and Feb the team was rated very poor but in March they have shown the unity and gained new team spirit altogether.

Tough time is grooming time for the team.

I know that we are facing ever changing times , but however if we continue to be very opened-mined to the economy because it will not change anytime soon. Be prepared for that lay-off or that pay with-out a raise at review sessions.

There will be a self-realisation about ability / inability of individual to handle the crisis situation, both in terms of technics and emotions. Also team formation takes place in a natural way during crisis time. Also crisis leaders to be spotted / identified during normal course, so that they can be put on the frontline to handle the situation.

An organization can be on a downpath be it recession or booming time for the industry. If others are prospering and you are sliding, matters are worse, there is no consolation. If there is a general recession and your organization is included in the downturn, two fold approach by the leader is needed.

a) Keep the best glued to the company, be they customers, employees, suppliers or investors.

b) Energize self and others to put in extra, through alternate humane and taskmaster touch to get the organization on the ascending path.

There are few forbiddens in such a situation.

1) Do not crib about your losses
2) Do not curse your employees
3) Do not spend time on sliding figures in meetings

Alas, it is easier said than practiced. Hence only a few organizations resurrect with a bang from such phases. True test of leadership lies in times when things go wrong. Tougher the times, tougher last.

Honour reality, do not fake up celeberations in such times, cause all would see that as a waste and mockery. At one end keep peace for people to innovate and at the other keep it hot for them to perspire. Get the team together to meet the challenge stating that while no one is responsible for the current state yet all should be responsible for turnaround. Exhibit resilience, others would follow.

President
Centaur Pharmaceuticals

Yes, we have been in period the terrible and fascinating But also there are opportunities. And there are unlimited skills, IT, agile organizations. Yet, this very excitement is a situated. New always is interesting.

A quick correction for Martin Calle's comments re Prince's projects. First of all its not prince, its Emir (ie, Ruler) of Dubai and secondly, they are offering subsidy from their own funds not any western funds.
Source of their funds is gas/oil money of course, that's true not only for Dubai but most of ME countries, but it is their right to price the way they want. As long as there is a buyer, there will be price. I dont think you are stupid enough to not understand Demand and Supply, they control supply you control demand. Where there is no balance, they benefit.

Gas/oil is their natural resource and they have the right to price it the way they want. The whole world is not America.

We use a build-break-build process to instill confidence. Everytime someone does something new for the very first time we tell them 'that' was the greatest thing since sliced bread - an accolade they were probably not expecting to hear. We then apply the 'break' encouraging the person to try things 'this way' next time, then finish with a 'build' and pat on the back saying they are so much better than I was when I tried that the first time. It even makes corporate CEOs blush with pride when they ask to try to do what we do when generating creative stimulus packages for our new product work.

We don't downsize. If I, as owner, did not salt away cash for a rainy day, that's my fault. So why should I make an employee and their family suffer because of my poor fiscal discipline and planning. I've invested a lot of time training people in proprietary thought leadership practices. Why would I want to let that experience go to a competitor?

When Tom Watson started IBM he thought the world market for computers was '5'. One day a man in the company made a mistake that cost Tom Watson $600,000 - which was a lot of money back then. Everyone mentoring and advising Tom Watson suggested that the man should go. But Tom Watson said, "Why would I want to fire this man and let all that experience go to a competitor? I just spent $600,000 to train him."

It is only the linear thinking and straight forward problem solvers lacking the personal and business discipline to live below their means that gets them into positions where they must lay off employees in downturn times. Is that the price employees should pay so the 'leader' can continue to drive top of the line BMWs? No, I'm not a Communist or Socialist. I just read The Millionaire Next Door and I took a page from a fine leadership example, Parker Gilbert Chairman of Morgan Stanley's Advisory Committee. He drives an old Chevy as his personal car. Or my neighbor, Oliver Grace, brother of J. Peter Grace and onetime owner of Marine Midland Bank and Grace Chemical. He bought a used NYC Checker Cab - the old fashioned kind - and hand painted it UPS brown himself with his own paintbrush saying, "Marty, Marty, Marty...I do this because the people with the most money just never need to show it." Great stuff.

Thank you to everyone who contributed.
What started a simple thought starter about the importance of and need for confidence in the workplace has mushroomed into multiple discussions about preferred ways to manage.
This is very encouraging to your correspondent who never knows till posting exactly what people will think. I appreciate your careful thinking and your willingness to express yourself. You have demonstrated in a myriad of ways that however you lead you must put people first.

More often than not, whenever the slightest wind blows about a 'tough time',' recession','downturns' ;about to happen, the quickest reaction is to start cutting cost, and where is the 'cost' so apparent, but the employees who work for the organisation.It takes a lot more effort to confront the cost buildup elsewhere .This leads to a loss of morale,something we cannot afford to lose during the 'tough time'. Attitudes and emotions are highly infectious and once the wildfire catches the organisation,they are difficult to manage !

Though one can never deny that some cleanaup can help, sometimes lean goes with the fat.In real life it is the 80-20 principle.

Reducing the non contributors has to be a regular effort, a good habit to sustain competetiveness, but a slowdown is the worst time perhaps to do it.

It probably is a good idea to clean up every nook and cranny before we touch the people.And if we must, do it with utmost sensitivity and empathy.

Poonam

The management should form groups to discuss how the organisation can take cost saving measures to prevent retrenchment.
One would be surprised at the suggestions that would come up to save on expenses

From past observations of 2000-01,during recession its not only employees but even managers face extintion,since there are less management jobs and more worker jobs.Many managers ended up in gas stations virtually.Only those could survive who have their and their team focus completely on customers.If you can somehow get money out of customers you will survive recession if not, you are casualty.The only way you can get money out of customers is by retaining workers who can produce result, does not matter if they are consultants or employees.Cisco retained consultants while also laid off many employees,So did Amazon and EBAY.New products and innovations made them come out of recession relatively easy than other dot coms.In fact many investors took money out of other companies and put in these companies.Recession or not Customer is only saviour of company or a team.

The downturn in economy add stress to the already hectic work schedule. Most of us are keeping fingers crossed hopeful that the sub-prime effect will be over soon even it has rolled over to the rest of the world.

Mentally prepared and alertness to market situations can help but over cautous many slow down the demand and supply. Currently the good news come so slowly that one bad news will crashed the market. Will management/ decision makers hold and promote activities while waiting for good time to come, all employees/ employers would like to cultivate this culture...

From past experiences very unlikely.

Economic down turns were witnessed before also and poor helpless employees paid the price for it,by facing miserable daily life.
I wish Prof Baldoni and his colleagues find a model by which
Corporates can foresee such unfortunate recessions ,sot that preventive actions can be taken to escape the inevitable tidal waves. Proactvie actions better than post actions to reduce illeffects of such events.After all recessions are not Tsunamis coming suddenly.
I feel Globalization of economies needs such an early warning systems to take care of businesses and stake holders involved.

venugopal
India

The semiconductor industry that I work in has weathered several downturns previously. I view each downturn as an opportunity to further differentiate our products/services by helping our customers drive down their costs and improve their productivity. It is often through these tough times that we innovate new and disruptive products.

At the same time, encourage our employees to perennially upgrade and learn new skills, i.e. be adaptable.