Re-Charge Your Recession Weary Leaders

2009 is over and not a minute too soon. Many have referred to the last 18 months as the "Great Recession." For many leaders within their companies it felt more like the Great Depression. Leaders in all realms of business have felt the impact. The constant pressure of downsizing, missed financial targets, elevated responsibilities and an overall mood of anxiety has left many leaders wondering when will the "next shoe drop."

Over the last nine months, our senior consultants have been analyzing a cross section of leaders from both our public and private clients. Needless to say, there are some alarming trends evolving. Over 78% of leaders report feelings of being overwhelmed and anxious. These leaders went on to say that the corporate mood has been so focused on "survival" and cost containment that any focus on personal well- being, development, or inspiration is non-existent. Operating in this type of business climate for extended periods of time has long term negative repercussions for the organization. The continued mantra of "more with less" has worn our leaders down and created a culture of "today" based thinking and "organization first and individual last."

2010 must be different. Despite the challenges of 2009, organizations must make leadership investment and development in 2010 a corporate priority. Regardless of organizational constraints, leaders must be made to feel vital, important, necessary, and inspired. Organizations must move from the "survival is good" and "let's hunker down" mode into the "hey, we made it and together we can make it better" mode. We at CSI recognize for some organizations, this can be a daunting task. We are still in a fragile economic recovery in many business sectors. While we are not suggesting it is time to celebrate, we are suggesting that executives must place the same rigorous focus on its leaders as it has on its financials. At CSI, we have seen time and time again the power of a motivated and inspired leadership organization. Conversely, we have also seen the destructive nature that overwhelmed and uninspired leaders can have on organizational dynamics and effectiveness.

So our question to you is simple…What are you going to do in 2010 to re-motivate, re-inspire, and re-charge your recession weary leaders?

We at CSI are excited to announce what will surely become a pertinent and dynamic way to answer the question above:

LEADERSHIP GPS – Growth, Performance, Sustainment

Building off our respected Process Based Leadership methodology, CSI is excited to introduce the launch of our next great system. LEADERSHIP GPS – Growth, Performance, Sustainment is a scalable leadership development system to re-engage, re-energize, and re-focus your organizational leaders.

There are three core stages in our system:
1. Evaluate
2. Educate
3. Execute

Evaluate: No two organizations are identical and neither are their leaders. Working with the organizational sponsors, CSI will evaluate the current organization’s climate. We will conduct a Needs Assessment among the leaders, execute tools such as 360 degree evaluations, and make scalable recommendations to the organization regarding the most critical attributes necessary for the leadership re-charge.

Educate: Utilizing the needs assessment data, CSI will build a customized education plan that will include cutting edge modules, relevant books and research, and an exciting component called "Leaders Teaching Leaders" which will allow organizational leaders the ability to learn from one another.

Execute: Following the education stage, CSI will partner with the participants to provide them with real-time leadership development feedback through shadowing, coaching, and mentoring. We have already seen the incredible buy-in with this system when people see that the organization is committed to them and see them as a vital part to future development.

2010 is here. What is your organizational direction? Are you ready to emphasize growth over survival? Are you ready to demonstrate to your organizational leaders that they are vital and valuable? Are you ready to re-calibrate your organizational GPS?