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Leading in Tough Times <br />Judy Sorum Brown <br />The question of how to lead people through the uncertainties and fears of tough times has long <br />fascinated me. It is an inquiry which I have carried across all sectors, many fields. So I particularly <br />appreciate the invitation to share with leaders in the field of aging services, what seem to me to be a <br />dozen critical leadership practices for such times. <br />Recently, as I was exploring this same question with mayors and community leaders, one man said, <br />“The leadership you need for hard times is the same leadership you should be practicing in good <br />times.” I think he’s right. And I suspect that notion rings true for many of you. <br />And in conversation Wendy Green about Leadership AAHSA, the program we lead dedicated to <br />leadership development of the next generation of leaders in our field, I was struck that the themes I <br />am about to offer you are at the very heart of the teachings in that program, a program dedicated to <br />fostering innovation among emerging leaders in our field. So perhaps these ideas are not only <br />critical in tough times, but serve us well in all seasons, and particularly when we yearn to help our <br />organizations and our field innovate. <br />Let me offer these leadership practices, which have come to me from many sources, academic and <br />practical, from others and from my own experience: <br />Maintain a steady, relentless focus on what matters no matter what. When times are tough, all <br />other things may fall away, but our “no matter whats” are what will see us through. They may be <br />values, relationships, goals, commitments, vision. They may be our “hedgehog”, to use Jim Collins’ <br />term. Sometimes it is the tough times themselves that clarify what matters no matter what. In the <br />41-minute video entitled “Shackleton’s Antarctic Adventure” narrator Kevin Spacey relates how the <br />British explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, whose ship, in 1915, has been crushed by the polar ice pack, <br />in a moment realizes that his “no matter what” to cross antactica on foot, has been replace by a new <br />goal: all home alive. That is the ultimate “no matter what” for his crew of 27, and through weather <br />that makes our challenges seem less daunting, he and his men, finally return to England, “all well.”