Filed under: Human Resources, Landrum Lagniappe, Notes from Jim | Tags: employees, Human Resources
The Great Recession – Where is Your Opportunity?
By Jim Guttmann, SPHR
When I was around 11 years old my uncle said to me, “Don’t be so eager to tell someone about something bad that happened to you, because someone stands to gain from it.” Believing in the good in people at a very young age, it was hard to come to terms with the truth in that statement. Indeed, there is opportunity in the misfortune of others.
As an adult, however, I came to realize a far more important truth: Don’t be so stuck in the doom and gloom when something bad happens, because YOU may be missing out on an opportunity right in front of you. Now, there may be skeptics out there that believe that’s just another “feel good” statement. We’ve all heard it, “When life gives you lemons, just make lemonade!”
However, it isn’t that difficult to find instances where others had huge success after some failure or misfortune. In 1980, Jennifer Arnold was 16 years old when she woke up one morning unable to walk. Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and confined to a wheelchair for two years, she shut down. Then, her application for a service dog was denied by an organization. In response, Jennifer and her father dreamed of starting a company that would help other people like herself. Tragically, her father was unexpectedly killed by a drunk driver, postponing those plans. In the face of these catastrophes, Jennifer saw an opportunity to honor the memory of her father. She founded Canine Assistants in 1991 that breeds, trains, and places service dogs with people who have physical disabilities, seizure disorders and other needs. The organization
Jennifer Arnold, CanineAssistants.org
Like Jennifer, many people have found more significance and purpose in life after a major catastrophe. Sometimes failure and/or misfortune changes your circumstances and environment just enough to cause you to step back and reassess priorities that can then lead to success beyond what was initially seen. With a little creativity and imagination, you can find that rainbow even under the toughest of circumstances.
In a public address on April 12, 1959, John F. Kennedy said that, when written in Chinese, the word “crisis” is composed of two characters – one represents danger and the other represents opportunity. According to Hugh Miller in Snow on the Wind, problems are only opportunities with thorns on them.
In an article found in the February, 2010 issue of HR Magazine, it is reported that The Great Recession will result in employees being less loyal, more skeptical of what they hear from managers, less likely to take risks and more likely to seek secure employment. Additionally, “older workers” may stay longer than they originally planned and “younger workers” may find that their promotional opportunities are inhibited. Those circumstances may certainly represent a potential setback for your business from what you have experienced in the past.
It may serve us all well to remember a quote from Albert Einstein, “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them”. In light of what appears to be a set back, where do your opportunities lie?
Jim Guttmann, SPHR
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