Barri's blog

A couple of weeks ago I was settling into my Sunday morning routine – coffee, the L.A. Times crossword puzzle and the Sunday morning news shows. Chris Wallace was interviewing three CEOs on their views of the economy and I thought, “Good! Now I’ll get to hear from people in the real world, not just the economists and government pundits.” Here are excerpts from these interviews.

Have you heard this phrase recently? Seems to be all the rage and it has caused me to ponder, which current realities will be short lived and which ones will cause fundamental and permanent changes in society, business, government, and thus, our lives? In other words, what is the new normal?

Apparently, the answer depends on whom you ask.

In my previous blog, I talked about the spirit of the entrepreneur and my fervent belief that these unspoken heroes are going to lead us out of the recession. Last week, I attended the Ernst &Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards dinner, and I'm even more convinced that this will be the case.

There's been plenty written about the entrepreneurial spirit. It is said that the entrepreneur has an abundance of passion and ambition, that she is not afraid to fail and will not take no for an answer. She has a sense of urgency, the ability to tune out the negative and see opportunities everywhere. When you ask an entrepreneur why she started her business, she immediately jumps into her story, eyes lit up as if she were reliving that exciting time in her life. 

Do you know this person? I do.

I have spent quite a bit of time car shopping recently. What surprised me was that in this day and age, and particularly in this economy, not much had changed in the basic business model.

Good economic times cover up a myriad of sins: sloppy business practices, antiquated business models and loss of customer centricity, to name a few. So even though it's good business to always look for ways to be efficient, stay relevant and attuned to market trends, it's essential in an economic downturn. It's a question of who will survive and thrive, and who will not.

A friend of mine, Larry Cassidy, recently wrote: "... as a brand new Marine Corps infantry officer in 1959, one of the first things I was taught was to never, ever (EVER!) hit the deck and hunker down in an ambush. Those who obey that first instinct die! Period. We were taught to fight our core instincts, and fight our way out, from the very first shot. We would lose a few by launching an immediate counter-attack, but we would all die if we simply went to ground.

The weekend before Thanksgiving, I participated in the Susan Komen three-day, 60-mile walk in San Diego. A few days before the event, I was questioning why in the world I had agreed to it. I wasn't sure I could go the distance, I didn't know what to expect of the event or my body, and I hadn't trained - yikes! 

Then I arrived and … wow!

As I'm listening to our leaders debate solutions to our financial crisis, I must admit that I don't have a strong sense of assurance that many of them really know what to do. It was clear during the congressional hearings when, as the cameras panned the room, they periodically landed on leaders who looked like deer in headlights.

As I usually do, I turned my observations to the business environment and started asking, what makes a good leader during times of crisis? Here are just a few of my thoughts.

If you followed the Olympics (Didn't everyone?), then perhaps like mine, your heart sank when you watched both the women's and men's 4X100 relay teams drop the baton.  Heart sinking was my first reaction, quickly followed by empathy for the athletes who had worked so hard to be there. Finally, I found myself asking in wonder, tinged with anger, "How could that have happened? Didn't they practice enough?"  I felt let down and disappointed.

Earlier this month we had the privilege of hearing the Senior Vice President and General Counsel for UPS speak to our NAWBO membership about ethics in business.  Two days later I had a speaker in my Vistage group conduct a workshop on values-based leadership.  Not exactly the same topics, but close enough that they really got me to thinking. 

I picked up two common threads between the two talks. First, values and ethics must be defined, then taught.  Second, it's all about behaviors, not words.  So what does that mean to the typical small business?