While I don’t know too many business leaders that look forward to a recession, I know a few strong leaders that do a remarkable job of working through them from a “glass is half-full” perspective.

It’s not yet clear whether we are in or heading for a recession, but the topic is on the collective mind of people in the U.S. and around the world.  If we are heading for recession, the right attitude and the right actions on your part will help your firm weather the storm and even prosper during or shortly after any period of business contraction.

A few lessons that I’ve about leading through recessions from some smart people:

-Don’t listen to the financial news press and pundits tell you that your firm is in a recession.  Talk to your customers, partners and suppliers about their outlook for their businesses, and what if any actions they are taking at this point in time.  Keep the dialog going…forever.

-Establish a few key indicators that will help you monitor where things are heading for your business and watch them closely.

-Create dynamic budgeting systems to constantly review business performance and planned expenditures.  Just because an expense item was approved in budget for the year does not’t mean you have to spend the money.  Scrutinize early and often, but do so with an eye towards sticking with investments that tangibly improve your ability to serve customers or generate revenue.

-If business slows down, some of the savviest people that I know espouse ramping up investment in research and development as well as professional development for their associates.  Increasing volume in the R+D pipeline and improving the skills of critical knowledge workers and leaders will pay dividends for years to come as the business cycle shifts.

-More people stuff.  If you have not done a great job of evaluating your talent, cutting poor performers and reducing unnecessary jobs, now is the time.  Again, don’t cut your nose off to spite your face.  You want to make good, informed decisions and strengthen, not weaken the team.  Evaluate and change performance review systems, invest in succession planning processes and work with all associates to implement Individual Development Plans.

-Your team-members and co-workers likely have a lot of ideas to turn their unique customer and market insights into internal improvements (cost savings, customer service improvement) or external innovations (products, services, revenue opportunities).  The best leaders rely on the individuals that they have supported, developed, and empowered to help them weather the storm.

-Sales and marketing managers—it’s time to put differences aside and focus your energies on programs and approaches that directly feed the lead pipeline.  Marketing leaders need to ensure that their teams understand the importance of supporting sales and sales leaders need to work with marketing to help create, implement and measure the outcomes from joint activities.

-Specific to sales managers.  Now more than ever, it’s essential to be working from a process model and compensation structure that has salespeople doing the right things at the right time in the right quantity to drive activity.

The bottom-line:

No one craves an economic contraction, but maintaining a “glass-is-half-full” perspective provides you and your firm a remarkable opportunity to innovate, challenge existing premises and programs and develop your people.  Smart leaders focus on doing the right things during tough times to ensure that they weather the storm and are prepared to get the jump on competitors as the business cycle turns.  And it always turns.

As Warren Buffett recently said, “I hope to live long enough to see a few more recessions.”