My 12-year-old is facing a challenging situation for one of the first times in his young life. And as any parent can tell you, it’s tough to watch your child suffer. Now I don’t want to blow things out of proportion, I’m not talking life or death here, but he’s facing adversity and struggling with it.
I can’t help but to believe this will prove to be an important life lesson for both of us. How he responds to the adversity could make a difference in the person he becomes. And how I help guide him through this situation will make a lasting impression on him. The natural instinct of a person is to protect the child and shelter them from the hurt that is likely to occur. But another side of me believes what Disraeli said, “There is no education like adversity.”
So how do I make sure he learns the lesson without losing his confidence? How do I let him experience life while providing the right amount of support so that he will emerge a stronger person for the experience? That’s my dilemma.
All of this got me thinking about the workplace. How do we, as managers, help our people through what is one of the worst recessions of our lifetimes? Our employees are watching as countless colleagues, friends, and even relatives are losing their jobs. Many of them are doing the same things they’ve done for years that have resulted in great success, only to find the results vastly different today. It’s like they’ve forgotten everything they knew about doing their jobs.
This has to be frustrating. The salesman who once made 20 sales per month, now can close only five. And his livelihood depends on making deals! The consultant who once had 100 clients now counts only 80 in the fold as a number of them have gone out of business. The human resources person who once was charged with finding great new talent is spending all of her time dealing with reductions in force.
I was on the phone with a colleague today. We were talking about the affect the current economy was having on our respective businesses and what we were doing to respond. And as he rattled off a list of things he has done recently, he ended by saying, “It’s just not very fun.” He, like most of us, is facing adversity at a level we have never previously experienced in our professional lives. And if you and he and I are facing it, a lot of others are as well, including those whom you manage.
In the book Good to Great, Jim Collins relates the story of Admiral James Stockdale. Admiral Stockdale was the highest-ranking U.S. military officer in the “Hanoi Hilton” prisoner-of-war camp during the Vietnam War. During his eight years of imprisonment, he went to great lengths to help his fellow prisoners survive the camp unbroken. When asked who didn’t make it out of the camp, Stockdale told Collins, “The optimists.” Now this may sound counter-intuitive to you. It did to me. But here’s how Stockdale explained that statement: “You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end — which you can never afford to lose — with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”
As a manager, you must help your people confront the brutal facts of their current reality (lower sales, less-than-stellar results, frustrating tasks) without allowing them to lose the faith that they will prevail in the end. That’s a big job and an important one, but one you must undertake. In times of adversity, people look for leadership, and you need to be there to provide it. You might be dealing with your own set of problems that the economy has dropped at your doorstep, but you must still be up to the task of helping others. It’s your job.
My 12-year-old will survive his current adversity and be stronger because of it. I’ll be here to provide direction, give him support, and help him recognize the strength he has gained through the process. It’s the same thing we should all be doing for those we lead. In talking about adversity, look at obstacles as opportunities and help those around you do the same. I’ll leave you with this quote:
If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere. ~Frank A. Clark