Source: CPA Trendlines

Following are excerpts from a May 22, 2009, blog post by Rick Telberg.

If this recession has been about anything, it's been about failed institutions and failed systems. But most of all — according to Rex Gatto, Ph.D., a workplace psychologist with a specialty in accounting firms — it has been about failed leadership.

In the coming months, Gatto says, effective leaders will need to:

1. Be leaders of hope. They must be visible, and must explain to people how to get through this crisis. They will have to be frank, transparent in their dealings and creative. It is essential to help people understand that, while this is devastating, there is still a direction and a strategy of hope to survive.
2. Be communicators. They must be able to over-share information, to go up and down through various levels within their organizations and communicate a message of direction, economic success and business success.
3. Build an organizational strategy. Focus on a six-month period of time, indicating that these are the kinds of things that have to be done today and for the next six months. Repeat the cycle every week.
4. Help people to know how they will be evaluated and how success is measured. People should put SMART (Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, Time-bound) goals in place, making very specific, measureable actions so that it will be evident whether they are on the track to success or not. Leaders must have the leeway to go back and rethink in a very practical perspective what must be done now and how it must be accomplished.

“Leaders have a great opportunity,” Gatto says, “to go back and find out what their greatest strengths are, communicate them daily, instill the confidence of strength in people and lead people to utilize those organizational strengths to success.”

To read the entire blog, click here.

From CPA Trendlines, http://cpatrendlines.com, May 22, 2009.