mind your business: Under Pressure

Everyone most clearly sees authentic leadership during the toughest times. This is when much-repeated claims like "our people are our most important assets" are proven true.

How managers handle economic downturns and sudden cost-reduction pressures, for example, speaks volumes about their leadership—or lack thereof. If an organization has strong leaders who truly care about people and want to build long-term trust, layoffs are always the last resort. Such leaders operate from core values of partnership and participation. They don't look at people within the organization as "heads," "FTEs (Full Time Equivalents)," "warm bodies" or faceless "human resources" to be acquired and disposed of like assets on a balance sheet.