Right attitude will help face challenges

Facing difficult times - Be prepared! It seems that there is no end to the influx of bad news. Most of the world's greatest economies are in trouble again. There will soon be implications on our economy.

The question on everyone's mind is; can we survive the next phase of difficult times? What should be our response as employees and individuals? Psychological defeat leads to physical downfall, accept challenge with a positive attitude. Survival during difficult economic times represents a challenge that each of us has to accept whether we like it or not.

The most important ingredient required to survive is attitude. Accepting the challenge with a positive attitude can equip you to not only survive, but thrive under difficult circumstances. My focus is purely on behavioural aspects not so much on technical aspects.

Start with the right attitude; stop worrying -'worrying about tomorrow' or difficult times. It does not add anything to your life. Instead, worrying will bring you wrinkles and unnecessary stress forcing a psychological defeat that will translate to physical defeat without your knowledge.

Experts are quite confident that the present crisis is still far from the difficult times experienced in 1929. According to the economics, the world economy has proper mechanisms in place in case of difficult times. Now that these times have come upon us, let's just relax, cross our fingers and hope that these preventive mechanisms will do what they are supposed to do.

If the generation of that time survived the deepest recession ever, there should be no reason why we shouldn't survive the current difficulties, with more brains at our disposal globally.

Focus on the things you can do. You can't control market reactions in these difficult times. You could reduce or put on hold your company's expansion programs, until you have a good hold on the situation.

You can minimise expenses and implement austerity measures to remove unnecessary fat from the operation. Simply focus on things you can control or influence and do not mind the things that you cannot do anything about. Forget worrying about things that have no bearing on your business or personal life.

Distinguish between noise and real issues and decide what to respond to. The first thing to understand is that difficulties, trials and turbulations have allowed us to become what we are today.

All successful people are made from adversity!. So this is an opportunity to further strengthen yourself with knowledge, competencies and skills.

Build acceptance and credibility within the organisation to survive.Create personal credibility and reputation that anyone would be proud to have. Be confident, dependable and reliable in the eyes of your superiors.

Employees need to develop visibility through their everyday actions and behaviour. Stay ahead of the curve by bringing incremental value to the organisation through change management.

Find better ways of doing the same old thing for greater value creation. Take personal interest in the success of the organisation as well as co-workers.

If your business is failing it is because your actions are not aligned to critical need. You must be accountable for every single action performed on behalf of your business.

To stay competitive, every employee should be in a constant state of learning and you need to realise that staying competitive during difficult times is harder.

Typically competition for individuals increases during recession and staying competitive in such an environment is harder than normal.

Continue to think long term; it's a vicious cycle with good and bad.

The Oxford dictionary defines recession as "a temporary economic decline during which trade and industrial activities are reduced".

Who can't survive with the thermostat adjusted a couple of degrees? I wish you strength to achieve your business goals and overcome any hurdles along the way! Right attitude and action will help you to face the challenge.