Let Go of the GFC

Last month I attended a leadership conference and the man doing the opening address made reference to the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) four times within five minutes.

Each time he did, I rolled my eyes and wanted to get up and scream, "Let go of the GFC. The longer you focus on it, the longer you're going to stay stuck in an unpalatable situation."

Five speakers into the day and a HR Director said something that was music to my ears, "I think we need to put the GFC in its place. The media has a lot to do with its impact." Hip, hip hooray!!!

One speaker asked us to do an exercise to share what strategies we put in place to "fight" the GFC. The others on my team turned to me first and asked, "Well, what have you done?" To which I replied, "Nothing, I don't believe in the GFC, and as result it doesn't affect me."

I had four pairs of perplexed eyes staring at me. I could tell they were trying to process what I was saying. If I could read minds I was sure the woman was thinking, "This woman is delusional, arrogant, living in another world or all of the above."

Their discomfort with my response was obvious, so I added, "Whenever my clients blame the GFC for their financial challenges, I always ask them, 'Did you have the same issues before?' 100% of them admitted they had. So I told them to stop using a very well publicized excuse for their problems and get on with the task or running their business with the aim of creating high performance and not excuses."

Then I asked the others, and the woman who was the Corporate HR Manager at a major airline said, "I was going to respond in a certain way, but what you've said has made me think, and you're right, it's just an excuse, we had the same problems before the GFC."

The men also admitted to changing their answers based on what I said.

Ahhh, I love validation.

But here's the point, if you want to become a good manager, don't follow the pack. After all the crowd has got the business world where it is today. Be a fresh thinker, have a point of view, see things for what they really are and encourage others to do the same.

What a different work world it would be.

New managers can make a real difference, check out 7 Super Success Strategies to Become a Manager for more ideas of how you can get your first executive promotion.