How my fear saved my recruitment company in a recession

I had a significant experience during the massive downturn of the ‘90s.

It taught me a crucial lesson about leadership in tough times.

It was something I did. And I did not even know I was doing it!

I was running Recruitment Solutions, a company I had founded with two others. We had a golden first three years. Revenues were up to $13 million. Staff at 75

The recession hit, and revenues dropped 40%, and staff numbers halved.

I operated out of an office at that time, and in the middle of the worst period, I closed and locked my office door, and I announced to the permanent recruiting team that I was coming to sit on the desk with them and recruiting hands-on myself.

And I did – for two years.

Many years later, after the market recovered and some of us ‘old-timers‘ from the recession years were sitting around on a Friday night spinning yarns about ‘the old days’. Two consultants from that challenging era mentioned that the day I closed my office door was the day they decided to stay and see it out with Recruitment Solutions. They believed that if I was going get in the trenches with them, shoulder to shoulder, that was a fight worth fighting.

I want to take credit for that brilliant leadership initiative, but the truth is I had nothing to do in my office. I was lonely, bored, feeling ineffective, scared of the business future, and so I decided to get back to recruiting, where at least I could look busy and maybe make a meaningful contribution.

However, as talk about in my book and often in blogs, leadership is action, and that action had a potent effect on morale and motivation at that tough time.

There is a lesson for all recruitment leaders for today in that story.

What you do often counts for much more than what you say.

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