The Hindu Business Line : Four anti-depressants for 2009

Economic depression is defined as a sustained, long downturn in one or more economies and is considered a rare but extreme form of recession. Clinical depression is defined as a mental disorder characterised by a pervasive low mood, sadness, perceived hopelessness, low self-esteem and loss of interest.

Over the past several weeks, I have been having conversations with a wide cross section of people about the global situation and what they make of it. At the end of all these conversations I am convinced that the depression that we find ourselves in is partly economic and partly clinical!

While economics started it, the clinical part has gotten the better of us and is now leading us on a regressive cycle. While economic anti-depressants will be required to get us out of this situation, and these will take a long time to start working, all of us will do well to find anti-depressants that will swiftly heal our psychological wounds and get us back into action.

I would like to suggest four strong psychological antidepressants that I believe will act much faster than the economic ones that are being concocted.

Leverage the power of vision

At a time when we are solving the problems of today and fighting the uncertainty of tomorrow, it might seem futile to recommend that we leverage the power of our vision as an anti-depressant.

There is no one who argues the case for vision better that Joel A. Barker, scholar and futurist. In his best-seller video The Power of Vision — the research for which Barker commenced in 1973 against the backdrop of the Vietnam war, the oil crisis, the Watergate scandal and global inflation — he argues that it is important for nations, corporations and individuals to think about and envision the future, especially in tough times.

He uses the scholarly work of three authors to argue his point — Fred Polak’s The Image of the Future, Benjamin P. Singer’s Future Focused Role Image and Victor E. Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning.

He narrates how Polak proved that nations that had a positive vision for the future did much better and how Singer proved that children with vision are more focused and energised and did much better in their lives.

Barker’s most touching narrative is about Victor Frankl’s personal experience of having survived the concentration camp and Frankl’s conclusion that all the people who survived the concentration camp had one common trait: “They had something significant yet to do in the future.”

I am convinced that the biggest anti-depressant for 2009 is vision. Leaders at all levels and in all walks of life need to leverage the power of their vision, communicate it with passion and conviction and rally their people around it.

It is in times like this that we need to believe in our vision and use it to show our people the way. In 2009, it is only our vision that will help us see beyond the immediate problems and live for the significant things that we will need to do thereafter.

Act by our convictions

In 2009, we should avoid knee jerk reactions of any kind like reducing the cups of tea consumed by people, cancelling employee development spends and avoiding strategic hiring decisions almost as if there is no tomorrow. These will only increase the level of depression and make us look exploitative.

Individuals and organisations should act by their convictions. They should do things because they are convinced about their value or lack of it and not because it is the easiest thing to do.

Focus on Motivators

Not being able to give or receive goodies can be a source of depression and a lot of that can happen in 2009. Focusing on more intrinsic motivational forces such as quality of work, recognition, career advancement, learning and so on will be powerful anti-depressants in 2009. This anti-depressant is, however, like yoga — it does not cost a lot of money, but takes a lot of effort and discipline.

Live by our values

The root cause of a lot of our troubles can be traced to the absolute lack of values and the mindless pursuit of greed by many. In fact, the hall of fame for the greedy is crowded.

Discovering our values and allowing them to guide our actions can be an excellent anti-depressant for 2009. This will work equally well for our business leaders and our young business graduates.

Unanswered questions

While I have outlined four possible anti-depressants, I must admit that there are at least two important questions that remain unanswered in my mind.

Is the current form of capitalism flawed? Many of us grew up to believe that capitalism is the viable economic system. As HR professionals, all our HR philosophies of merit, talent and performance-orientation were derived from this economic system.

The repeated abuse of this system, especially in the US, the wellspring of capitalism as well as HR thought, leads me to wonder whether the fault is with the system or only with its practitioners. One thing seems clear — we need a version change and I will be busy trying to find an answer to this in 2009.

Is this model of leadership right? If the collective corporate leadership had a role in getting us here, I am not sure if that same leadership can get us to a better future. What kind of leadership will we then need in the future? As a practitioner of leadership development, I will be trying to find out in 2009.

In closing I must say that I am looking forward to 2009. It will certainly be a great time to learn and grow! Trust me, we can be happy in 2009!

(The writer is the founder and CEO of totus consulting, a strategic HR consulting firm. He is also the co-founder of the Executive & Business Coaching Foundation India Ltd. He can be reached at ganesh@totusconsulting.com)

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Four anti-depressants for 2009