These days it seems the message being sent to everyone is how to survive in this turbulent economy.

However, if you are following best practice you should be looking for ways to thrive instead. Media sensationalism tries to kindnap your intellect through continuous coverage about the economic downturns; lay offs, and stock market fluctuations.

How you react to this attempt to smother you with negative information is what will determine your success or failure. If you're a person that allows this kind of information to affect your daily thinking and decision making, it's time for you to turn off the TV and turn on your creative mindset. Listen to inspirational people, people that won't fill you with pessimistic emotions. Start focusing on solutions and stop focusing on the problems.

It's not the end of the world, in fact the challenges you face are the same challenges faced by your competition. Solution based thinkers will find ways to create market share growth in any economy. It's about playing to win instead of playing not to lose.

If you are emersed in a survival mentality and hoping you can outlast the storm, you're planning for failure. You want to thrive not just survive. Focus on how you can turn this economic turbulence into an advantage and gain market share from the competition. It is also a great opportunity to erase past mistakes and upgrade your workforce.
Inspire Creative Thinking

An effective leader will get his team together to inspire creative thinking in a brain storming session. Use the ("What can we do differently?") question as an opening platform. Get in touch with new ideas and concepts. Be alert to the chatter but don't let it affect your drive to succeed.

I know it's easy to get caught up in the hype. You've got to be aware of your limits when it comes to dealing with the media frenzy. Let's face it, you probably started out as a leader doing all of these things but became a little complacent when the fish were jumping into the boat and sales growth was easy.  It's time to go back to the basics.

Create a Sense of Urgency

Successful leadership in turbulent times means creating a sense of urgency, getting mutual commitment to action. Action steps are always clearly defined and precise. Often, due to the personification of the leader's own personality and charisma, employees are eager to leap into action – without forethought. Leadership success goes beyond the power principle of title. This is especially true when economic challenges test the effectiveness of your organization.

A mistake many leaders make during turbulent times is the self imposed responsibility to have all the answers. This is just not true. It is okay to admit to not having all the answers. Good leaders are willing to show their imperfections.

Communication is the breath of life, the first spark in leadership. Communication will hold the company together. Nothing else is so crucial to survival, solidarity and the ability to grow market share in spite of a downturn in the economy.

Turbulent Times can be traumatic because people's lively hoods are at stake.  This requires a specific type of leadership that has a compassion for the whole of the organization as opposed to individualistic compassion.

Rick Johnson, expert speaker, wholesale distribution's "Leadership Strategist", founder of CEO Strategist, LLC a firm that helps clients create and maintain competitive advantage. Need a speaker for your next event, E-mail rick@ceostrategist.com.  Don't forget to check out the Lead Wolf Series that can help you put more profit into your business.

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