Pursue Your Hopes in Even the Darkest Moments

Hopes aren't luxuries that are restricted to the good times. They are bright beacons that can guide you through the darkest nights you face.

The situation confronting Bob, chief financial officer for a California-based organization, is a case in point. Hammered by California's worst recession in decades, Bob's firm faced huge budget cutbacks. Bob needed to eliminate $5 million to $7 million from an already lean $50 million budget. With increases in critical fixed costs, the real gap was even larger. Trimming fat alone wouldn't fix it. The organization needed to cut into muscle to do the job, and it would hurt.

Fears among employees and board members ran high as they wondered what projects would get cut and which people would lose their jobs. Why couldn't someone solve the problem? Without positive leadership, people in the organization might have taken out their frustrations on one another. Working within the fear-filled dynamics of divisive debate, they would have exacerbated the very scarcity they feared.

Other financial managers might have dodged the real issues by making proposals for across-the-board cuts and the like, but Bob remained hopeful. Even in this atmosphere of the gloom and with intense pressure on him to balance the budget, Bob encouraged others in the organization to be their better selves and pursue their shared hopes. "Especially in this time of crisis," he told the board and management team, "we need to focus on what we hope to accomplish, on what's most important. With more than $40 million remaining in the budget, we can even pursue new initiatives. We have choices, and we can get through this together." Bob wasn't being a Pollyanna. He was being keenly practical. In the face of mounting fears, he opted for hopes and invited everyone to work together.

Bob's choice in the way he responded and led others made a difference. The board followed the principles and practices of the ten-step process and established clear priorities. Instead of focusing on what would have to be cut, they targeted what they wanted to happen. The cuts in other areas tore into some of the muscle in the organization; nevertheless, the team managed to preserve the heart of its business—what was really most important to accomplish. Although making budget cuts is never easy, this approach brought people together to make them, with a larger sense of purpose to guide them.