Table Tennis Warren Buffet Style

Warren Buffet astounds me. He is one of the most successful investors in the world as well as a businessman and philanthropist. He is known for his personal frugality despite large amounts of wealth. It's not every day you witness someone giving away 85% of their fortune (to the Gates Foundation). He is the primary shareholder and CEO of a conglomerate holding company called, Berkshire Hathaway.

He did something I truly admire in a leader – he took responsibility. According to a recent article in The New York Times, last year he took himself to task for the company’s decline in book value. This year he was able to sing a higher note when he described to shareholders how he used the last 18 months to buy a string of assets that netted the company income of $8.1 billion last year. Sixty one percent higher than in 2008. He said, “It’s been an ideal period for investors: A climate of fear is their best friend.”

Usually we think of fear as the ultimate derailer. If I’m afraid, how can I move? How can I work? How can I thrive? How can I survive? However there is another paradigm…As Buffet, you can consider alternative solutions, ones that leverage innovation and people. Even if Buffet himself thought up all the ideas of where to invest and companies to acquire, he still needed people to execute these deals and without his people working in unison towards this goal, I wonder how much of the company income would have risen?

Fear can be a great leverage point if you know how to utilize it to motivate your workforce for new and innovative ways of thinking. How are organizations seizing on the fear that is pervasive in the market as well as in their boardrooms, staff offices and cubicles? How are organizations turning fear around to thrive in these economic times?

In recent weeks I wrote about Fortune Magazine’s list of the top companies that avoided layoffs during the economic downturn. Overall each invested in their people. They knew one clear point…if you don’t water a plant it whithers and oftentimes dies. Same is true with employees – if you don’t cultivate them they will leave, be stagnant or not get the job done well or at all.

Let’s take a page from Mercedes Benz ‘s management who looked inward to take a decisive step – “When management discovered that further cost reductions were unavoidable, the CEO and executive team (28 people total) accepted pay cuts. The tough choices paid off, resulting in a 10% total reduction of labor costs from mid-2009 to year-end. “

What a concept? All companies made tough choices in these rough economic times and still they put their people first, and by doing so were able to maintain their employee base while growing loyalty.

It does start with leadership. If you pave the way, employees will align. However leaders have to be willing to springboard innovation, creativity and lead by example. And you must take the time to engage and generate buy-in. Employees may not necessarily align and take initiative just because you want them to. Take a page from Warren Buffet…he invited shareholders to his company’s annual meeting and promised to play table tennis for spectators and urged them to buy goods and