As we still experience the GFC lag – with corporate collapses rising, redundancies prevalent and increasing pressure on cost cutting – I thought it important to remind people of the power of the upward spiral of courage. When people operate on this upward spiral of courage they come to situations with curiosity, interest, intrigue, energy, enthusiasm, collaborative thinking and a desire to find a creative solution not discovered before. While we still experience the lag of the GFC it is easier for people to come from the downward spiral of fear – with an overwhelming desire to protect, control, comply, regulate, shrink and order. Such an approach does not inspire people to bring their best to what they do and so we limit our ability to think outside the box and find different solutions to our dilemmas.
I recall when I was working in South Africa and experienced such liberating and inspiring passion when we came from Upward Spiral of Courage. We were experiencing tough economic times much like the current GFC lag and the Managing Partner of our firm felt his only option was to make people redundant in order to bring costs under control to ensure the bottom line was protected. I challenged him to come from the Upward Spiral of Courage by inviting everyone in the firm to collaboratively come with passion, integrity, curiosity and creativity to find an alternative solution. I am thrilled to say that each employee chose to work together and we created a bigger impact on the bottom line than the planned redundancies – by cutting costs not thought about by the Managing Partner and creating energy around finding more revenue!
So I invite each of you to come from the Upward Spiral of Courage and find better ways to create sustainability – not just financial…also people, brand and environmental. We CAN do it. Please share your stories and experiences and support each of us to grow and develop on this Upward Spiral of Courage.
