Smart Leaders
Surviving the cycle
Smart Business Broward/Palm Beach | January 2009
Page 2 of 2
Ted Bernstein
president, Life Insurance Concepts
Set hurdles. The most important thing you can do in an
uncontrollable situation, like
the credit crisis, is you recognize that they are uncontrollable changes. This is not a
time to make drastic changes
because you’re overreacting.
Don’t second-guess yourself
and start thinking all of the
things that you’ve been doing
that may not be working [are]
not working because of anything that you may have done.
Your plan may be solid, and you
need to just wait out the storm.
Set hurdles that must be
cleared by certain time frames.
Adjust those time frames
depending on the severity of
the situation. You can’t be lax
if it’s a very critical thing or if
you put a lot at stake on the
decision.
You [say], ‘By 30 days from
now, if we haven’t seen X, Y
and Z at least start to develop in that direction, then we’re
going to change course.’ When
that time approaches, you
have to have the discipline to
not say, ‘Let’s give it more
time.’ Establish hurdles and
live by them. Otherwise, you
have all these plans in place
and nobody’s monitoring
them.
Stay calm. Your tendency is to
emotionally get invested. You
have to talk yourself through
making sure you do not get
emotionally invested.
I find myself saying out loud,
‘We are not going to allow ourselves to get emotionally
dragged into this.’ I’m as much
saying it to the group as I am
reminding myself.
Keep everybody from panicking. It’s incredibly important during this crisis to
remain optimistic and give
your people the hope that
you’re going to manage
through this.
You do that by keeping your
door open to them. Don’t
seclude; do not shy away from
the important, tough questions
and decisions that have to get
made. You stay on the front
line, and you’re there taking
bullets when (employees)
have to take bullets.
Whatever tough decisions
they’ve got to make, you’re
helping them. In every single
decision that you make, you
let it be known that you’re
making that from that place
of optimism and because you
have faith in the future of the
organization.
HOW TO REACH: Life Insurance Concepts, (561) 988-8984 or www.lifeinsuranceconcepts.com
