Now, it may seem premature to be looking ahead to life after the recession.  After all, Greece is still teetering on the edge, the IMF have only just reported that the Spanish banks need 40 billion Euros in aid, the world economic outlook is bleak.  So I was intrigued last week to hear John Rosling of Shirlaws Coaching, addressing a group of CEOs, boldly predict the beginnings of a turnaround in the next six months – you can look at his slides via the event page at OneFish TwoFish.  Just scroll down to the bottom of the page to download the slides.

I wonder, where is your focus right now?  Hopefully you responded in a timely and decisive way to the economic downturn.  You’ve looked at your costs and reduced them significantly, cutting out costs in line with a downturn in business and some – it was time to address the profligate over-spending of the boom years.  Perhaps you’ve addressed the way your business is organised and hopefully for the best of reasons – there’s a difference between rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic and understanding the need to do business in a new way to meet today’s – and tomorrow’s – demands.  Perhaps you’ve looked hard at your business strategy, recognising that you are starting from a quite different place than you were just a few short years ago.  But tell me, are you ready for the upturn?

Now, if this question has had you laugh out loud or experience a jolt of shock or simply realise that an upturn is the last thing on your mind, you’re precisely the person for whom I’m writing today.  There will be an upturn – and the sooner you prepare for it, the more likely you are to successfully seize the opportunities it presents.  Here are just a few agenda items to which you need to give your attention:

• Do you have a vision for the future which engages and inspires?  Are you sharing it with your staff?  If you want to keep good staff after the upturn begins (and lose those for whom your vision is not a good fit) you need to engage them already with a clear and compelling vision for the future – and tell them how they can contribute to making it happen.  If you haven’t already started to create your future, it’s time to begin;
• Have you cleared out the debris from life before the downturn?  In case you haven’t, it’s time to take a critical look at your organisation in the light of your aspirations for the future.  Are you in good shape for life after the recession?  This is about the structure of your organisation, the clear allocation of roles and accountabilities, the way your top team is functioning, key values and behaviours…  everything should be under the microscope if it hasn’t been already;
• Are you investing in the skills of key leaders in your organisation – including sharpening your own saw?  I wish I could track down a piece of research from some years ago (I can’t) which showed how organisations investing in coaching during a downturn were the first to grow following a recession.  You get the point – if you’re not investing now in life after the recession you may miss opportunities that others are ready to seize;
• What’s the quality of dialogue and learning in your organisation?  Have you and your top team responded to the recession by looking hard and deep at your organisation in order to learn the lessons it brought with it?  Or are you still posturing and saving face?  If you’re not coming out of the recession with an enhanced ability to dialogue with your peers (from looking at the hard facts to sharing your feelings and responses) you may well lose out to organisations which are peopled with leaders with greater self awareness and the courage to share fully and – yes – vulnerably.

So tell me, what are you doing to get ready for life after the recession?