Last week?s newspaper headlines were unequivocal : ?Crise de confiance chez les chefs d?entreprise?, ?Le pessimisme grandit sur la situation économique du pays?. They reflected the results of a recent Emtel-Ipsos survey carried out between 16 and 22 July of this year that presented a decidedly gloomy situation with regards to our economic prospects. After a slight improvement in our CEOs?mood in May, it appears that June and July saw a renewed feeling of pessimism. We know the causes. Only recently, I was writing about problems such a textile industry under siege, rising unemployment, a hesitant tourism industry, the slowing down of direct foreign investment, and so on.

So what do we do? Sit under the nearest coconut tree, lower our head in despair and muse about the good old days ? I don?t know about you, but I can?t ? we have to do something. We need to inspire ourselves and others around us. Where there is a will, goes the saying, there is a way. But how ? How do you inspire ordinary people like you and me to do extraordinary things ? How do we motivate ourselves and others ? How can we transform ourselves into enthusiastic and committed individuals despite these difficult times ? I thought I?d share with you today some tips gathered from the experiences of people I?ve had the privilege to be associated with or studied assiduously.

• Keep talking vision. In 1982, I reported to a General Manager we used to call. ?The Obsessed One?. He was indeed obsessed ? about vision ! All he would talk about day in and day out was vision, vision and more vision ! He would spend hours and hours outlining where the company was going, what it would look like one day and how we would all get there. He used every means possible ? staff meetings, management meetings, performance appraisal times, memos, the company?s newsletter, farewell parties, Christmas lunches. He kept you energized, motivated, transfixed on the vision and its strategies. The day he retired, we all chipped in and bought him a plaque with the words ?To Mr Vision ? Thank you?, inscribed on the metal plate. He knew how to make us move mountains.

• Give praise. As Senior Lecturer at the University of Natal many years ago, I had a student that we shall call Meshack. As a Black man from a so-called disadvantaged background, Meshack was struggling in adjusting to this predominantly white and sophisticated milieu that the university was at the time. He had difficulty in expressing himself orally and in writing. Other students would squirm whenever he spoke or roll their eyes mockingly. One day I asked Meshack to prepare a five-minute overview on the difference between Operant and Classical conditioning. Much to my surprise (and that of other students) he delivered a good performance ? not outstanding, but significantly better than what we had been used to. I expressed my surprise and admiration ? and praised him publicly. He beamed from head to toe ? and from that day onward, he kept improving. Just before graduating he gave me his secret : ?I practice and practice?, he said. The praise had worked.

• Throw a challenge. Many of us are motivated by what Edgar Schein of MIT calls the ?pure challenge career anchor?. We like challenges, stretching goals, difficult tasks. I once had as colleague, a Sales Manager who believed strongly in this principle. He would set sales goals that, for his team and outsiders like me, were mind-gobbling. ?But you?re going to scare your staff away !? I once complained. ?Watch me?, he replied. I was wrong ? his staff stayed on and performed outstandingly. He knew how to surround himself like-minded ?Pure Challenge? people.

• Act decisively. Some time ago, I spent much time counselling a senior executive who was feeling despondent, run down and completely lacking in motivation. ?My biggest problem is the Board?, he explained. ?They cannot take a decision. It is a classical case of analysis-paralysis. The moment they smell a risky decision, alarm bells ring and all action dies. Very frustrating !? To have a vision is something ? but if no action emanates from this vision, particularly when risks are involved, motivation looses steam and you end up with a bunch of frustrated and paralyzed individuals on your team.

• Focus on strengths rather than weaknesses. We are conditioned to believe that we should always focus on our subordinates? weaknesses and help them perform to the best of our ability. Right ? Wrong. Modern thinking states that outstanding managers are those who focus on strengths and manage around weaknesses. We should not be trying to fix weaknesses or make each person perfect. Instead, we should do everything we can to help each person cultivate his or her talents and become more of who he or she already is.

• Empower. Many of our executives on this island still cling tenaciously to the old command-and-control paradigm, one where the CEO takes all the decisions and informs others accordingly. And yet even Jack Welch, the epitome of the most successful command-and-control leader the corporate world has known, admits it : ?Leadership of companies is going to have to become much less CEO-driven,? he emphasized in a recent interview. ?Employees have so much data in their hands that they are able to challenge the CEO?s decision all the time. There?s going to have to be far more delegation and participation. As a leader, you?re going to have to create an environment where excitement reigns, where the challenges are everywhere, and where the rewards are both in the wallet, yes, but also in the soul?. Joseph Sugarman once wrote it : ?Each problem has hidden in it an opportunity so powerful that it literally dwarfs the problem. The greatest success stories were created by people who recognized a problem and turned it into an opportunity?. Our current economic difficulties must become our opportunities.

Prof E. CHAROUX [email protected]