Thank You, Recession

Last week I discussed how the economy in Italy and the U.S. has been shaping the negative mindset health club owners have. This week I want to share two examples of how to completely shift your paradigm on the world’s economy and “recession.”

Example 1 — John Spence, author of “Awesomely Simple,” posted this thank you letter to the recession on his blog in August 2010. The letter was written by Jay Forte, a former financial executive and corporate educator, who is now a business consultant, speaker, life coach, author and a nationally ranked thought leader and president of humanetrics.

Dear Recession,

I know many people are upset with you. I am not surprised. You have made things tough for many organizations. But at the same time you have made us better. So here are ten things I wanted to thank you for:

1. For forcing us to get rid of the deadwood and the non-performing employees who felt all that was required of them was to simply show up to work. I now expect more from my employees and hire better because I have to get more done with less.

2. For the reminder that we are stronger and more profitable in some areas of our business than others, and that we should always focus on our strengths because they provide the greatest value to our customers. We are smarter now about listening to and valuing our customers and their assessment of our products and services.

3. For helping us to relearn the value of customers and the need to focus on customer loyalty, not merely satisfaction, and to never miss an opportunity to do the extraordinary. Satisfied customers don’t necessarily come back, loyal customers do. As author and service guru Jeff Gitomer says, “Customer satisfaction is worthless, customer loyalty is priceless.”

4. For reminding us that our people are our profits and that fewer of the “right” employees can consistently outperform more of the “wrong” employees. Fit matters and a greater effort to hire and retain the right employees drives greater results. We now focus on talents, passions and strengths as the key to successful hiring.

5. For a reminder that we must support an employee-focused workplace to be capable of creating a customer-focused workplace. We now are better connected to our employees’ talents, values and interests; we know them better and can better match them to their best performance areas. When employees feel supported and valued — they work in an employee-focused culture — they perform.

6. For the reminder that every employee must add value or they are not needed on the team; all employees are now held accountable for results, ideas and solutions. Employees earn their role on the team each day by the value they create and the difference they make. Period.

7. For forcing us to eliminate the barriers to communication, so that information can move more freely around the organization to accelerate action and responsiveness. Without clear, up to date information, our decisions are not the best they can be for our business, our employees and our customers.

8. For reminding us that we (management) must be more visible, more human, more approachable and more integrated in the performance of the employees; constant contact is critical to building strong relationships with employees to earn their loyalty and to know how to activate their performance. When we don’t know our employees, we don’t know how to engage and inspire their best performance — this negatively affects our bottom line.

9. For reminding us to use our employees to stay connected to our world through their worlds (social networks) as a means to grow and develop the business in a meaningful way. We need our employees to be our eyes and ears to the world and to share what they learn (which is why #7 above is so important).

10. For the lesson that even when things are tough, employees who are valued, respected and believe in what we stand for, have the reserves needed to pull through and do the extraordinary. Because we have built the very best team, a recession is nothing more than another of the daily challenges a great business faces. Tough times show us what we are capable of. Tough times are opportunities.

I have learned many valuable lessons that somehow got forgotten in better times. You have reminded me to watch the details, own the results and inspire my people. Though I don’t need this lesson often, I am pleased to have learned it today.

Example 2 — www.thankyourecession.com. “Welcome to Thank You Recession! On this website you can read thoughts from around the world about the recession. Not everyone will have thanks, but this site strives to be a place where citizens of the world can come together to discuss the recession and how to get past it.”

I came across this website recently and read some very interesting stories of how people not only survived, but thrived during this recession, all due to their attitude. These are two great example of how you can choose to either participate in the recession or do the things necessary to succeed.