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This past week I had the pleasure of speaking with Jack Hayhow, Founder and Chief Operating Servant of Opus Training. Since 1990, Jack has developed training systems that have been used by close to 5,000 companies, training in the neighborhood of a half a million people in a wide variety of industries.

Though he has dozens of training programs to his credit, Jack’s new eBook recently caught my eye, entitled “Kicking the Recessions Butt: Tenacious Tactics for Tough Times.” Having read the book, I found Jack’s insight to be invaluable with respect to leading amidst this challenging environment. In our discussion, Jack shared some excellent advice for new leaders looking to succeed and he has been kind enough to offer a free copy of his eBook for those looking to looking to learn more on the subject. I highly recommend it.

What advice would you give to “new leaders” during these recessionary times?

A excellent question that I can speak to in 3 areas:

1. Be absolutely candid with the people you are leading.

Being honest and helping people understand the current environment is key. Clearly state to your people that we are in a recession, a fundamental restructuring of the business environment. Very little of what we’ve assumed to be true in the past will be true in the future. You must understand that this is no longer business as usual, and it probably never will be again.

Let them know that you can’t guarantee their job this year, and in actuality, you couldn’t do that last year or the year before. Give them the harsh reality, yet give them guidance. My suggestion would be, “Quit worrying about the things you can’t control and focus on what you can. Find ways to contribute everyday to our company and make it really hard for the company to let go of you. Make yourself indispensable to the organization.” If you have people who argue or debate, show them the door. There will be no room for the clueless and the non-believers.

2. When things are as bad as they are, motivation is critical.

Many leaders as themselves the question, “How do I motivate my people in these tough Ttmes?”  While it’s a valid question, it’s actually the wrong question. A better question is, “How do I create the conditions conducive to my people motivating themselves?”

It’s a question of extrinsic versus intrinsic motivation. Are people doing the work to get the reward, or is the work so satisfying that doing the work itself is their reward? If you create an environment conducive to people motivating themselves, you will be able to motivate in these challenging times. To do this, start by matching talent with the task. Play to your employees strengths. Figure out who does what and make sure they are spending their time where they can best utilize there talents.

Peter Drucker had said, “Most of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to get their work done.” By putting your people in the positions to best use their talents, you can focus all your efforts on getting any barriers out of the way so people can do the work they’ve been hired to do.

3. Give people some choice.

Choice inspires people. When people have even a little control over what they do or how they do it, they are more committed to and enthusiastic about the task. Give them the option on” how” to do something, the order that its completed, or maybe even who they work with to get the job done.

In your eBook, you speak to this being a time for “extreme leadership”. What do you see as the top priorities leaders must keep in mind during times such as this?

1. Turn up the dial. Set the pace and tone for the business.
You must establish a sense of urgency and reinforce it everyday, if not every hour. Communicate that if something used to take a week, it needs to be done in a day. One reason that I wrote this eBook was to demonstrate to our folks this sense of urgency. Publishing this eBook would have normally taken 60-90 days, yet with this sense of urgency we had it completed in one week.

2. Mandate what gets done.
This is not a time to be focused on non-essential tasks. Each person needs to constantly be asking themselves, “What’s the best use of my time right now?” It is imperative that every single person in your company, including you, has to focus on the highest impact activities.

3. Raise expectations and hold people accountable.
Everyone must understand that increased productivity is a requirement. Get commitment to achieve this and create mechanisms to evaluate performance in a shorter time frame. If you used to measure performance each month, now is the time to change it to every week, or maybe even every day.

Jack, I know that both training and development are true passions of yours. What developmental suggestions do you have for aspiring managers / leaders who may not have available advancement opportunities due to the current economic situation?

Theodore Roosevelt once said, “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” The best advice I can give is to read an hour each day in your field. If you’re not doing this, then you’re not serious about success. It’s a crime if you’re not talking to people and looking for advice. Consider getting involved in mentoring situations. Have someone mentor you or reach out to mentor someone else. Utilize every possible opportunity to make yourself better – study hard, read, and talk to everyone you possibly can.

Follow Jack’s Blog at http://blog.opustraining.com/

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