It will call for a new skill set for senior decision-makers.
1. The ability to say "no". We'll be called upon to say it in many ways. The challenge will be in getting people to feel good about hearing it. It will require tact and diplomacy, no doubt. But it will need to be laced with that sense of regret and sorrow that enables those we deal with to feel that there was literally nothing we could do to hep them.
2. The ability to get others to say "yes". We will have to get fewer people to do less. The fewer people is an almost inevitable consequence of dealing with the squeeze (sounds so much better than "crunch" doesn't it). We'll need to ramp up discretionary effort. It will require emotional leadership. If you hear yourself saying, "just do it" you may well be looking for a change of career.
3. The ability to give nothing away. It's not always easy to hide emotions. Most of us manage it under tricky circumstances. I think we may well benefit from conveying emotionlessness all of the time. It will be one way of creating private space in which we may live as the madness ensues.
4. The need to be clear about why we're here. We may well have come into this business to "make a difference" but the nature of that difference may well be, well, quite different. Learning to downsize will probably be more important than building. Still, it's a living.
5. The ability to paint big pictures. Change causes people to focus on their bit of the picture - or even their pigment in the picture. Holding minds on that which is greater will matter. It will provide certainty in uncertain times. Now, at last, visions will not be there to fill a space in the strategic document. They'll need to mean something.
And, oh yes, money. Well, there's never ever enough of that. So some things don't change.
