Employees people or objects

One of the most over used lines in business is, "our people are our best assets." It is catchy and it embrases a point of view. People are as important, no make that more important, than other less touchy feely assets unless you're in the plush toy business. It also slides you mentally into a single catagory. This slide may not work out as well as the writer of this quote intended. Seperating people and assets might help you in begining to think of people as sentient beings and not as objects to accomplish tasks.

Be the Hero, Not a Victim - Interview of Author Noah Blumenthal Part III

(Click for Part II) This is Part II of a three part blog interview with Noah Blumenthal author of Be the Hero: Three Powerful Ways to Overcome Challenges in Work and Life.

Gary B. Cohen: Mary Oliver wrote the poem, "Wild Geese," which starts:

You do not have to be good. 


You do not have to walk on your knees 


for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. 


You only have to let the soft animal of your body 


love what it loves.

How do you prevent yourself from the trap of…having to be good…and not accepting yourself?

Noah Blumenthal: First of all, I love the sentiment in this poem. The thing about being a hero is that it is a pragmatic tool for moving forward, not for being perfect. In this moment, right now, what would the hero do? This question isn’t an evaluation of what you’ve done before. It’s a tool to guide you toward a better next step. Who would beat themselves up over their past? The hero or the victim? Obviously the victim. What would the hero do instead? Forgive himself and others if he can. Either way, look forward at what positive action he can take next.

Gary B. Cohen: Some say that a "victim" mentality is instilled early in life (you are a product of your environment) and tough to change. What is your response to that?

Noah Blumenthal: We are certainly influenced early in life, but the mentality of hero or victim comes down to behaviors that you can train yourself in or out of. It’s like muscle memory. If you grew up driving on the right side of the road and then move to a country where they drive on the left side, you will find yourself constantly looking the wrong way when you make turns. But over time this will lessen, and eventually the new driving patterns are second nature. You may have a momentary lapse back to your old ways every once in a while, but your fundamental behavior pattern will have shifted.

The victim and hero mentality is no different. Immerse yourself in heroic thinking for a time. Surround yourself with people who embody heroism. Practice the new behaviors. Before long it will be second nature.

Gary B. Cohen: Noah, after reading many questions that your tribe wrote (in response to our request), it appears that they have an image of you that may be inflated as it relates to your own shortcomings. This is certainly natural given the transference that happens between a writer and speaker to their tribe. Can you help your readers by sharing a bit of your own struggles as another person facing the difficulties of living on earth?

I’m a parent. Need I say more?

Noah Blumenthal: Seriously, I struggle with patience with my kids, understanding with my wife, acceptance with career situations that don’t go as I’d like. I’m human, and human emotions of anger, frustration, and anxiety are all normal and valuable. They tell us what is happening around us. If there is anything that makes me different, it isn’t that I have a perfect family and career and life. It’s that when things aren’t perfect and I feel these negative emotions I understand them and reverse them quickly, turning them into positive action. And that’s a skill anyone can learn.

Gary B. Cohen: Noah, as a writer this is frequently asked so I have to ask it: Is there anything you would have written differently or would have added to the book?

Noah Blumenthal: I am extremely proud of the parable and so grateful to my editor, friends, and family for all of their comments on all of the drafts – helping me make it what it is. The thing I would change is the resource section. I don’t think we learn very well from books. They are a starting point, but too often they are viewed as the entire journey. So I would have added more to the resource section for people to refer back to. Fortunately, the book’s website (www.be-the-hero.com) has a resource section where I am able to put all of the new ways I can think of to support people in their efforts.

Gary B. Cohen: What disciplines/theories/philosophies/religions have you studied/embraced that have provided insight into your book?

Noah Blumenthal: The concepts of Be the Hero come from several places. Buddhism tells us that our lives are the creation of our minds. Positive psychology shows how empathy, gratitude, and hope are extremely powerful forces in building resilience and experiencing greater happiness. Cognitive psychology shows us how mental routines can lead to more effective emotional and behavioral responses. Emotional Intelligence tells us that self-awareness of our and others’ emotions helps us react effectively to various challenges. And neuroscience, specifically the field of neuroplasticity, tells us that consistent behaviors and routines can actually reprogram our brains for long lasting effects.

Given the times we live in, what do you say to the millions of Americans who studied hard, worked hard, saved hard and did everything right and yet are now finding themselves in a serious lurch because of the economic downturn?
Define lurch. Most Americans are still living in heated homes and eating well. If we all have to spend a few years (or even many years) living a less luxurious life, that isn’t the worst thing in the world. This will pass. Most of the jobless will eventually return to work. Those living with friends or relatives will eventually be able to afford their own place to stay.

If you worked hard, saved hard, and did everything right, go back to doing those things. Reset your expectations and focus on doing what you can today. Even in this economy there will be those who respond well and find success. In fact, this could very well be your greatest opportunity to be the hero.


Related Blog Posts:

5 Steps to Be The Hero - Interview with Author Noah Blumenthal

(Click for Part I) This is Part II of a three-part blog interview with Noah Blumenthal, author of Be the Hero: Three Powerful Ways To Overcome Challenges In Work And Life.

Gary B. Cohen: What steps would you take to build the hero's mindset in an organization or larger community?

Noah Blumenthal: This is a question of culture change. You could read 100 books on this topic and still have more to learn. But if I were going to distill this down to steps anyone can begin today that can pay some immediate dividends it would be these.
1. Examine your own behavior and be more of a hero yourself. If you don’t lead by example then all of your efforts will be for naught.
2. Recognize and praise heroic attitudes and behaviors. People need clear indications of what is valued.
3. Invite people to join you in your own efforts to be more heroic. As opposed to telling them that they should change explain that this is an area you are working on and would like them to try it with you.
4. Search for alternatives to the victim stories. Instead of criticizing people when they fall into victim mode help them to explore other points of view.
5. Share Be the Hero with your team. Having a collective knowledge base can help you and your team hold one another accountable and increase your learning.

Gary B. Cohen: As a leader, how do you handle those co-workers whose stories may never change?

Noah Blumenthal: I don’t believe such a person exists. People generally want to improve but don’t understand how to do so. My first book, You’re Addicted to You, is about how to make and maintain changes to unwanted ingrained behaviors.

Specific to this issue of heroism I suggest you follow the steps I described above relative to creating a heroic culture. If after that you are really convinced that someone will never change, then get away from him/her. If it’s your boss, look for a new job. If it’s a colleague, angle for projects that don’t involve him/her. If it’s an employee, coach them out of the role or let them go. That may sound harsh, but in my experience most people who are let go from jobs in which they are miserable find a better alternative. It might hurt short-term, but the end result is positive. And the fewer victims you have in your life, the easier it is for you to think and act like a hero.

Gary B. Cohen: What advice do you have for those having a difficult time "being the hero?"

Noah Blumenthal: There are two things to consider. First, “a difficult time” is relative. I’ve seen a single mother who was laid off with little savings and two small kids talk about how she has the strength to overcome her challenges. I watched a man whose son needed brain surgery and wife was diagnosed with breast cancer say he was filled with hope. The people we see really do make a difference. If your situation seems difficult look around at the people facing much tougher challenges and draw inspiration from them.

Second, understand that “being a hero” is a skill. The more you practice the better you’ll be. It drives me absolutely crazy, but I wrote the book for crying out loud. And I still catch myself going into victim mode at times. That said I don’t go into victim mode as often as I used to and I get out of that mode much faster today than I ever did in the past. Keep practicing and you’ll get better every day.

Gary B. Cohen: Mary Oliver wrote the poem Wild Geese that starts:
You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees 


for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. 


You only have to let the soft animal of your body 


love what it loves."

How do you prevent yourself from the trap of…having to be good…and not accepting yourself?

Additional Blog Posts on this topic:

1. Noah Blumenthal Be the Hero - Interview Part I
2. 5 Steps to Be The Hero - Interview with Author Noah Blumenthal Part II
3. Be the Hero, Not a Victim - Interview of Author Noah Blumenthal Part III

Noah Blumenthal Be the Hero - Interview

Noah Blumenthal is an international bestselling author, as well as an accomplished coach and speaker. His message, "Be the Hero" Three Powerful Ways to Overcome Challenges in Work and Life, could not have been more perfectly timed for what many of us have gone through in the past several years (or, for some, even longer).

Noah is the Founder and President of Leading Principles, Inc., an executive coaching and consulting company that helps people see the best in themselves and become more confident, energized, and effective in their work. Noah started his coaching career as a founding member of UBS Financial Services’ internal consulting group for team development and leadership coaching. He consulted with over one thousand line, management, and executive teams and coached hundreds of team leaders on how to change their behaviors. In 2003, he followed his dream of building exceptional leadership skills with an even broader audience and left UBS to start Leading Principles.

Noah is a seasoned speaker and trainer, delivering keynotes and workshops on executive coaching, individual development, and team building. He has been a guest lecturer at Columbia University, The New School, Baruch College, Fordham University, the American Society of Training and Development, and the International Coaching Federation.

Gary B. Cohen: What was the question you were trying to answer with this book?

Noah Blumenthal: I was trying to answer the question, “How?” We spend most of our time on, “What?” What does great performance look like? Great leadership or sales? Great parenting? But none of this knowledge matters if we don’t know how to master ourselves – how to bring out our own best thinking, decision-making, energy, emotions, and performance.

Gary B. Cohen: What is your one wish for readers to gain from "Be the Hero"?

Noah Blumenthal: I hope they learn to feel, think and act their best – what I call the attributes of the hero – no matter what challenge they are facing.

Gary B. Cohen: 'Hero' one can imagine being someone who sweeps in and rescues people, often with a touch of arrogance about it. How is your definition of hero different?

Noah Blumenthal: I’m not trying to evoke the superhero. Rather, my definition of hero is the person who stands opposite the victim. Instead of letting people and circumstance bring him or her down, the hero is someone who knows how to stand up and be at their best even when others may be struggling around them.

Gary B. Cohen: Where does courage and truth telling intersect with heroic action?

Noah Blumenthal: This is really about believing in options. Too often we fall into victim mode and tell ourselves that there is nothing we can do. This happens frequently when we are afraid to speak truth to power. Speaking up isn’t always the best course of action, but too often we mistakenly place it into the “Can’t” bucket, when in reality we are really saying that we won’t. Won’t and Can’t are very different. Just by recognizing that you can tell someone that you disagree or call them on a behavior or say no, you have moved out of hopelessness. Instead of telling yourself there is nothing you can do you are now faced with a decision – will I? won’t I? Either way you have chosen a path instead of feeling helplessly forced into it. That is a great first step. If you continue to make this a choice then over time you will find more and more courage to tell the truth.

Gary B. Cohen: What type of lasting impact on your readers and the participants in your workshops do you believe you have had?

Noah Blumenthal: I think I’m one of the luckiest people alive to do what I do, in large part because of the inspiring stories I hear in thank you letters from my readers and participants. I’ve heard from people in organizations who have told me the hero mindset has helped them deal with budget cuts and layoffs and turn around entrenched conflicts in their organizations. School teachers and principals have told me how this is changing the way they work and teach. Then there are the incredible life stories of people who have used the hero concept in battles with cancer and even to overcome the fear of flying.

Gary B. Cohen: What steps would you take to build the hero's mindset in an organization or larger community? (Click to Continue 3/14/10)

IPhone App Hits Top Ranking - Just Ask Leadership

Under the Category of Business Just Ask Leadership IPhone App ranks in the top 300 Apps in the USA among other countries. The position for each country is the one last registered by PositionApp™. This is based on monthly averages.

Country Position Movement
Philippines 134
Qatar 139 new
UK 159
Indonesia 160
Malaysia 21
India 23
Norway 239
Singapore 242
USA 255
Saudi Arabia 261
Denmark 269

Check out the App at the App Store!

Leadership is engaging people to - Jump in Head First!

To Be of Use
The people I love the best
jump into work head first
without dallying in the shallows
and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.
They seem to become natives of that element,
the black sleek heads of seals
bouncing like half-submerged balls.

I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,
who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,
who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,
who do what has to be done, again and again.

I want to be with people who submerge
in the task, who go into the fields to harvest
and work in a row and pass the bags along,
who are not parlor generals and field deserters,
but move in a common rhythm
when the food must come in or the fire be put out.

The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil,
Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums,
but you know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real.
 

by Marge Piercy

Prepared for Randomness

You work hard to become knowledgeable yet, admittedly, it is easier for some than for others. Even before you learn to speak a journey has begun. As a youth perhaps you begin to emulate some of your parent's beliefs regarding religion, politics, and culture. As time advances you move on to more complex ideas such as advanced equations, the teachings of early philosophers, and even how your system of government was designed to work. Later you come believe you are clearer about how it really functions. You work harder and harder. Eventually you become successful and seem fairly confident that your success formula can be repeated for, after all, it was well deserved.

If any doubt remained, so you are not fully convinced of your success, you will become so when the university asks you to speak to a new batch of students or when the industry publication chooses your picture for it's cover. Your clinging attachment to the principles of order and predictability overrun the tug in your heart that knows much of your success can actually be attributed to sheer randomness. It is not that you're not smart or that you didn't work hard to be successful, it's that something is pulling on you deep down that knows had you not sat next to that certain person on the first day of class you would likely never have become business partners. Same for being chosen Chief of Staff at the White House or being hired as the CEO of a multi national company ......... you get my point. How often is it said that those you meet the first day of school become your closest friends? Random luck, fate as some call it..........

If success only came from being smarter, the more knowledge you accumulate the more successful you ought to be. My guess, however, is that you'd be more successful if you create more favorable coincidences. In other words, place yourself in situations where you're bound to make important connections. People who go to Harvard are undoubtedly smart, but their success is often due to the connections they make at such a high-powered school.

It's important to create favorable coincidences for your business. If your business has a single page for google to find with no updates, your chances of attracting web business is akin to winning the lottery. If you blog frequently, promote your business on other sites, fill the net with 1,000 of pages of content, your prospects go way up.

In our former business, we went to 16 trade shows per year: a great deal more than any competitor of our size (we were small). We wound up landing our largest client that made us a run-away success. The reason we won the contract over 50 competitors was that we were based in Minnesota and our client was from Minnesota and he wanted to visit family. Coincidence? Partly. We increased the chance of randomness/coincidence favoring us by being at so many trade shows. If we had not landed that client, the $150,000 bet would have been a bust.

The factors that will help you find favorable coincidences:

1. Ability to outlast the long tail to hit the favorable random event - if you can keep at it long enough, you're bound to hit a break.
2. Be prepared enough so that if fortune happens you can harvest that opportunity.
3. Expose yourself to as many opportunities as you can so your chances of positive outcomes increases. Tenacity really helps.

Let the Crazy Out a Little at a Time!

All leaders bring unique characteristics and histories with them on the rise to the top. Like you and me, they're human. Sometimes, though they want to forget or hide parts of their past, of themselves--the parts they find embarrassing or unbefitting their current position. The more they try to hide or forget, the more potential there is for damage--to themselves and, perhaps, others. The more they bottle up, the farther the cork flies and liquid spills.

Rather than having an "I am who I am, and I'm never going to change!" explosion, I let the crazy out just a little bit at a time. It honors the shadow side of myself, yet prevents my aberrant behaviors from showing up at the wrong times.

We're all capable of change and growth. Still, by keeping some of that craziness with you throughout the change, the beautifully unique you will remain.

Is Your Leadership Encouraging Screen or Face Time?

Is your obsession with order driving your company to input more data and generate more reports? Is it distracting your employees from delighting your customer?

Yesterday, a hundred megabyte drive was sufficient storage; today it's in the terabytes. The drastic reduction of costs associated with data storage is allowing companies to save, compile, and sort to discover incremental performance of their people. This incessant need to measure, control, and create predictability within the business may be having a counter-intuitive effect on the company and its staff's abilities to serve the customer, however.

In order to successfully use all this data, it needs to be converted into actionable information. Which means someone is entering the data, another is determining the relevancy, and your managers are reading it to take actions. What used to be a single document is now a dashboard full of meters, indicators, and controls. And it's eating up lots of your organization's energy and time. While you're all assessing the data piles, who is serving the customer?

It might be helpful to think of this as Screen Time (data collection, information assessment, and dash board controls) verses Face Time (human-to-human interactions). What is your Screen Time to Face Time ratio? What is it for your front-line employees and their managers? If you're like many companies, your supervisors are becoming less capable of managing people (Face Time) and more capable of managing information (Screen Time). Here's the problem: As you try to move all this information to action, your people can no longer effectively engage customers. They have stopped building their people strengths by spending too much time on Screen Time.

Dan Pink - Interview on Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

Gary B. Cohen: Dan, thank you for your willingness to share your thoughts with the readers of the Just Ask Leadership Blog. Your new book, Drive: The Surpising Truth About What Motivates Us, is a terrific read. I will be doing a full review of the book later this month for our next CO2 Leadership Newsletter. In your book, you introduce the concepts of Motivation 2.0 and Motivation 3.0. How would you describe the difference between them?

Dan Pink: Motivation 2.0 is built around our reward-and-punishment drive. It presumes the way that people perform at the highest level is by offering them carrots for the behavior you seek and sticks for the behavior you want to deter. That approach -- that motivational operating system, if you will -- can be effective for certain kinds of tasks. But for complex, creative, and conceptual tasks, it's usually a bad idea. The better approach there is Motivation 3.0, which is built around another of our drives -- our innate need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world.

Gary B. Cohen: What do autonomy, mastery, and purpose have to do with motivation?

Dan Pink: These three elements are at the heart of this newer, more effective approach to motivation. If we really want high performance -- especially on complex, creative, and conceptual work -- people have to have freedom to do work their own way. They must be able to make progress, to get better at something that matters. And they're more likely to really excel if what they do is in the service of something larger than themselves.

Gary B. Cohen: My book, Just Ask Leadership, examines how leaders can increase alignment, engagement, and accountability by asking more and better questions. How might this approach align with Motivation 3.0?

Dan Pink: It aligns extremely well. One of the simplest pieces of leadership and management advice I give is this: "Listen more, talk less." Asking questions is a way to hone your listening and hear other voices rather than just your own.

Gary B. Cohen: It is not unusual for the science of a subject, in this case motivation, to appear far in advance of implementation. Is there anything particular to our culture that will affect this lag time, specifically as it relates to how we practice motivating others?

Dan Pink: Interesting question. I'm not sure, actually. But cycle times for everything are accelerating. So there's a chance, I guess, that once the science is exposed and revealed a little more clearly, organizations may move somewhat more quickly than in the past.

Gary B. Cohen: What is the danger for those of us who continue to only use the carrot-and-stick approach or move to only intrinsic motivation?

Dan Pink: The danger of using only carrots and sticks is that they're ineffective for many types of work. What's more, they can bring a cascade of other negative consequences -- locking people in to short-term thinking, tamping down creativity, and even enticing some people to cheat. The danger of using only intrinsic motivators is overlooking that money is a motivator. If you don't pay people enough -- if they're not being compensated adequately or if they can't support their family -- you're not going to get any motivation at all. The idea that intrinsic motivators can somehow substitute for fair pay is a colossal mistake.



Gary B. Cohen: What five tips do you have for organizations wanting to switch to Motivation 3.0?

Dan Pink:

1. Understand the limits of carrots and sticks -- and use them only where they're effective.
2. Do whatever you can to provide employees with more autonomy over their time, their team, their task and their technique.
3. Encourage people to supplement traditional performance reviews by doing their own performance reviews -- setting out their monthly goals, for instance, and self-evaluating at the end.
4. Take a day when people can work on any idea they want -- then show the results to the rest of the company the following day. These one-day sessions of intense autonomy -- known as FedEx Days, because people have to deliver something overnight -- have proven incredibly productive.
5. Infuse the workplace with a purpose larger than simply making the numbers or increasing earnings per share by two cents this quarter. Supplement the profit motive with the purpose motive.

If you want a well writen book that brings a fresh perspective on what drives you and your teams based on our current understanding of motivation, pick up Dan Pink's Book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.

Related Blog Post: Motivation Video by Dan Pink

Great Leader vs. Great Manager Is There A Difference?

When you are confident that you are a good Manager, does that mean that you are automatically a good Leader? Leadership should not be considered to be the same as management. They are different, yet not in the way most people presuppose. Leadership is not something that requires a specific personality profile, such as one requiring charm or a sense of inquisitiveness. Leadership is not a replacement for management nor is it to be thought of as being even better than management. Leadership and management are two distinctly different systems that must both be alive and complimentary in every successful organization. Management is more about system interactions, processes and accountability that keep the organization running. Leadership is directly responding to change and the use of it applied to improving or supporting others.

The challenge is to combine great leadership with great management, skillfully balancing the two. Do you see your company as being over managed and under led? Are you developing your leadership capacity? Additionally, have you identified someone within your organization as the next leader?

Questioning Tips: Let Go of Your Answer

If you are a teacher before you show up for class you will have prepared yourself to insure you know the material. As a leader of an organization, department,or group you likely are thinking about the subject deeply before beginning to ask about it. You may have even rushed to a solution or conclusion before a question leaves your mouth. If you start down this path you will spoil an opportunity for others to engage and find their own vision of possibilities or conclusions. Your voice will detour their journey.

Let go of your answer when asking!

Questioning Tip: killing questions

You ask the question: "What has brought you to your knees?" A pause fills the room like when you're giving a speech and you have a momentary lapse. That lapse may last only 5 seconds, but it seems like 5 minutes, so you say, "Ahhhhh." You feel compelled to break the silence so you begin to speak and it takes away the possibility, the opportunity for discovery.

Try not to rush yourself and others. After you ask a question, pause. As you look at the other person, reveal with your eyes that you're not impatient for an answer. Share the silence until they are ready to share their story. They will appreciate the time to collect their thoughts, and you will appreciate more thoughtful and better-formed answers.

After you ask a question, give pause and listen deeply to the other.

Minneapolis Job Market Flat

LinkUp’s February Jobs Report Shows Modest Gains in Job Listings on Corporate Websites.

Minneapolis, MN – February’s jobs report from the Department of Labor is scheduled to be released later this week and based on data released this morning by LinkUp, Friday’s report will show that the job market was essentially flat in February, making only modest gains in job growth.

LinkUp, a job search engine that indexes jobs from over 20,000 company websites throughout the U.S., reported that new job listings on company websites rose by 10,201 (2%) from January. Total job listings on company websites in LinkUp’s job search engine increased by 7,740 (1%). While the slight increase is certainly welcome news in an otherwise painfully slow and rocky recovery, February’s job gains pale in comparison to January’s blistering gains in new and total job listings of 69,082 (18%) and 34,525 (4%) respectively. January’s strong LinkUp numbers may have been strong enough to indicate solid job gains across the nation last month.

Find complete press release attached or on JobDig

Can't Hurt To Ask - CFO Magazine

Recent feature in CFO Magazine (Jan/Feb 2010 issue, page 30). Read Full Article

More Economical to Manufacture in US over China

Dean Bachelor, founder and CEO of the Platinum Group in Minneapolis, says the reasons for the U.S. manufacturing advantage is because of the exchange rate of the dollar and the productivity of our workforce. Jean Taylor, CEO and President of Taylor Corporation, says he's finding fewer quality issues in US manufacturing.

Log Jam in Congress on Tax Laws

Beth Kieffer Leonard, Managing Partner at LBLCo, says, "tax laws are all about incenting behaviors." The fact that congress has log-jammed our country means that we're not being incented to behave in the way we need to be.

This country has a great and energetic workforce; we just need to move them in a productive way.

The panel at Allied Executive Symposium urged business leaders to reach out to congress!

Panel Discussion on Economic Outlook for 2010

http://www.alliedexecutives.com/
GeoTagged, [N44.97292, E93.27363]

Keynote Speaker: Narayana Kocherlakota, President of The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.

Panel included:

Dean Bachelor - CEO Platinum Group
Scott J. Dongoske - President Winthrop & Weinstine
Al Gerhardt - COO Kraus-Anderson
Elliot Jaffee - TC President US Bank
Michael Lacey - CEO Digineer
Beth Kieffer Leonard - Managing Partner LBLCo
Cary Musech - managing Principles Tonka Bay Equity Partners
Jean Taylor - CEO Taylor Corp.
Scott W. Wine - CEO Polaris

John P. Palen - CEO Allied Executives

Most of the panelists predict that revenues will hold steady this year or experience some growth. The construction industry, which has 25 percent unemployment, is an exception. That industry doesn't expect improvement until mid-2011. The technology companies see greater growth than others based on 4qtr of 2009 and 2010. Law firms believe the bottom has hit. Taylor Corp sees change as moving into more technology, as well as a move to an operational excellence model. Taupe says this is the year of revenue growth. Polaris echoes that sentiment. Polaris is focusing on sales. For Platinum group, being in a turnaround business, the phone has not stopped ringing.

How are these companies changing?

Polaris does not see cutting costs as a strategy; it is about reengineering products to offer more for less. Taylor is focusing on return on investment. Tonka Bay talked a lot about its strategic competitive advantage. Oftentimes business leaders talk about what we have rather than thinking more strategically. Tonka Bay is out looking for talent and deals. First Bank started annual business reviews with customers. Krause-Anderson believes we should never waste a good crisis.

A tactical solution is moving to teleconferencing. Winthrop is closing deals in the middle of a blizzard becase of its use of technology in video web conferencing.

Taylor is looking at partnerships with what would have been competitors in the past. They are deciding to focus on what each does well and how each side can have greater leverage.

The panel's take on banking issues: Banks have not taken time to understand the customer. Because of this, we are all learning what we have to do to support customers. Credit is available to those that have credit-worthy ventures for those banks that have the liquidity. If you are feeling like you're experiencing unfair treatment, it may have nothing to do with your business but it might be the bank. Talk to your bank often and early. Start planning you loan agreements 6 months ahead.

One panelist described a business that was doing a telemarketing campaign and, due to a technological glitch, called and hung up five times on a customer. The customer tried to call back, but was not able to get to through. The company was able to connect with this customer through Twitter, though. The executive who relayed this story was proud of the multiplatform coverage. He should be, but not if some of the older platforms are prone to such glitches. Not many customers would be able to look past the five hang-ups.

President of the Federal Reserve Bank speaks about the Fed's Authority

Narayana Kocherlakota is President of The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. He was the keynote speaker today at the Allied Executives Symposium & Business Expo for CEOs &  Business Owners.

"No matter how bad things are, it could have been much much worse," Kocherlakota said about the banking and mortgage crisis.

For the Fed, it may get worse. Congress is currently considering retracting some of the authority of the Federal Reserve. One of the greatest powers of the Fed is its ability to regulate risk with its own supervisory authority. This authority helps control quantity and allocation of liquidity. It was the use of these mechanisims that led to a 200,000% increase in loans to banks in 2008.

The purpose of these loans is to ensure insolvent firms fail and solvent firms survive. Today the fed can turn to its supervisory authority to make or withdraw such allocations. If that was taken away from the Fed, would the Fed be able to act in time to avert risks? The bigger problem is that today if the Fed gives a bad loan, it shows up on the Fed balance sheet. Under other terms, it would not have the same accountability, nor would a secondary regulatory authority.

It took the Fed two months to conduct the financial stress test. With less authority, how much longer would that test have taken?

Congress is thinking of keeping the authority over large banks, but not small banks. What's to prevent small banks, collectively, being a disruptive force in the future?

An audience member asked, "Why should we trust the Fed after the events of the past two years?"

Kockerlakota said that the economy is on the mend--not as quickly as we'd all like, but inflation is under control and there are other hopeful signs. He noted that we need to be more concerned in the future with the gravity of incentives, which have a big impact on the effectiveness of regulations.