ISDS Performance Management

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Making it a Happier New Year & 2009 ...............

A New Year normally brings its challenges, most often relating to ‘what does the future hold for us during this new year’, etc.

This year it is much more challenging as we face real uncertainty due to economic pressures and recession, both made worse by media speculation and gloom and doom economists; most of whom are irresponsibly justifying their own existence and worth but spin people into panic in the process.

The bottom line is that it is just another day at the office, or wherever we find ourselves, albeit with real change being imposed on us. However, with these recessionary pressures and uncertainties we can easily find ourselves in a really difficult position where change becomes increasingly more difficult to embrace and/or manage.

If we listen too much to the negatives of the situation we can become so stressed that in extreme cases we can despair at the situation and struggle to see any light at the end of the tunnel. This can lead to stasis, procrastination or even worse……..

Our task as business leaders therefore is to rise to the challenges by embracing change, standing tall and taking positive action to influence the domain over which can make an impact. Remembering who we are and re-invigorating our sense of purpose will help provide the direction for our actions.

We may not be able to put the world to rights, set government or fiscal policy, make banks more user friendly or restore consumer confidence on our own. BUT, we can do our bit to make the changes necessary for our own enterprises to improve its competitiveness and performance thereby providing more security for our staff and dependents as well as sustainability for our enterprise.

After all, as business leaders our people will look to us for direction and confidence. We may have tough decisions to make but if they are made within the right context and communicated properly we can get others to follow and support our direction.

Working directly within the context of the business environment and specifically on the issues the enterprise faces also assists with getting the focus for change in perspective for sound implementation and risk management.

To help us achieve this more positive mind-set we must often get out of our personalised mind-set to appreciate the bigger picture dynamics of our environment and then break the issues down into proper context and bite-sized chunks for action.

However, whilst such major forces are in place with the associated change being imposed, we might as well grasp the opportunity to embrace change that puts the foundations in place for personal and business growth over a sustainable period. This new Vision of self-awareness and fulfilment can be the catalyst for creative and innovative development not only for yourself but also your enterprise and its stakeholders.

Such a journey of discovery of course has its risks; but then without risk there is little reward. Stepping out on this journey within a proven change process with known goals and an associated Vision can mitigate this risk when managed properly and certainly eliminates the fear and therefore stress often associated with the unknown.

Also, I’ve always found that having made such a decision has a significant impact on reducing stress levels and concentrating the mind and energy on more positive and proactive missions.

So, I suggest that we ignore spin and speculation and lets just get on with our own pro-active contribution to a more positive future! There certainly is a light at the end of the tunnel; particularly for those bold enough to embrace change pro-actively.

God Speed.