Is Scarcity Your New Strategy?
“Tighten control! Stop all unnecessary spending! Cut out all leadership and personal development expenses immediately!”
The finance departments sirens are going off.
“It’s a pandemic!”
“It’s a recession!”
“We’re losing money!”
Suddenly there’s a negative spotlight shining on any expense that isn’t absolutely foundational to operations.
It doesn’t just happen in organizations. We, too, can plunge into a financial panic perspective when faced with our current negative realities. Suddenly we are experiencing anxiety about the uncertainty of our long term financial stability. And it doesn’t matter how the bank account or the bottom line looks. Whether we’re in a strong position or not, these negative emotions are loud and move us toward a reflexive scarcity mentality. I get it. I’ve been here before.
It wasn’t a global crisis but my own personal crisis that sent the sirens blaring across my mind every time I lay down to go to sleep and first thing when I woke up in the morning. Thoughts like “what will I do if I get sick and can’t work?” or “what will happen if blank doesn’t get better?” These were thoughts about the future that I had little control over. Which is part of what drives the fear, right? We aren’t in control, and we like control. We like to be in, and have, control.
One response I’m watching happen, both with clients and friends, is this quick, fear-based reflex to stop investing in growth. I’m told this kind of investment isn’t fundamental to operations right now. That they’ll look at resuming in 6 or 12 months from now. It seems logical, but is it really?
One thing we know for certain is that change, particularly global change like we’re experiencing today, is going to present challenges and obstacles we’ve never experienced before. We’re going to be faced with new levels of anxiety both because of what is happening and because of what we fear may happen. Those we are leading will too. Isn’t ensuring our own growth continues and deepens exactly what we need to navigate these new peaks and valleys successfully?
What we know through research is that support - emotionally, relationally, and strategically - keep us in a place of strength and peace. These are precisely the components needed to make wise decisions and maximize the resources we steward. Abandoning yourself or your leaders during a challenging season because it’s not frugal to allocate resources for external coaching and training, while tempting, is a poor strategy for gaining momentum toward the abundance reality you’re seeking.
Organizationally, I know the argument will be, and has always been, that you can support and train your leaders internally without ‘spending’ the money for contract work and it’ll be just as good. The argument will be that you can read books online or take free workshops and get the same results. Yet, this isn’t supported by research nor what my 20 years of personal and professional experience has shown me time and time again. In fact, at some of my darkest financial moments, counter-intuitively choosing to heighten external growth investment opportunities, like coaching and training, has produced astounding ROI. And it’s not just my experience. There are thousands of cases and a plethora of research to support this reality.
Investing now, when it’s hard, and yes, a little scary is the counter-intuitive solution which will ultimately save money and make money. Because that’s the bottom line for stopping the work in the first place right? It’s about money. So if you knew the investment would bring a net gain why would you choose anything else?