Barbara’s Blog

June 6th was the 68th anniversary of D-Day, the Allied landing at Normandy which turned the tide of World War II. Operation Overlord, the code name for the Allied invasion of Europe, was lead by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower and involved 160,000 Allied troops, along with more than 5,000 ships and 13,000 aircraft. The operation, which proved to be successful, holds great lessons for business owners today.

Think of Gen. Eisenhower as the CEO of a large corporation involving 160,000 employees. His generals were his managers. He had the vision for victory, and set the tone for the operation, telling his troops:

“I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle.”

Gen. Eisenhower demonstrated a number of leadership lessons that business owners can employ today. In Col. Leonard Kloeber, Jr.’s book, Victory Principles: Leadership Lessons from D-Day, seven principles are listed:

1. Vision
2. Innovation and learning
3. Capabilities: people and resource
4. Timing decisions: AIME decision model (Access the situation; Implement a simple plan; Make it happen; Evaluate the situation)
5. Operating principles and values
6. Resilience
7. Your team and team building

While your business doesn’t put lives at stake, like Eisenhower had to do, you do have economic lives at risk. The success or failure of your business decisions and conduct will impact your staff, your customers, your vendors, and even your community.

Thinking like a general, making tough decisions in light of your vision and your resources, and relying on a team that you build are great lessons from D-Day for today.

The October winter-like storm affected a lot of businesses from Maryland to Maine, myself included! There was severe property damage for some businesses due to downed trees. Power outages and downed telephone lines changed everything for many people for a few days or longer.

Here are some business lessons I learned from the storm:

1. Don’t rely entirely on the cloud. While it may be great to be able to access your files from anywhere, there has to be an ‘anywhere’ to log on or get access. With the storm, public areas that did have access, such as some libraries, McDonalds, and Starbucks, were overcrowded, making access difficult or impossible.
2. Don’t leave things to the last minute. You never know when a storm or other disaster can strike. Managing time wisely will help to prevent projects from being delayed because of storm-related problems.
3. Be flexible. If you can’t work on one project because you lack access, use the time to work on something else. You can always be productive, even if it’s catching up on reading by candlelight.
4. Be prepared. Never leave your smartphone without a full charge; it may turn out to be your only means of communication for a while!
5. Keep your perspective. Property damage, work flow delays, and other disruptions are minor inconveniences that can be remedied. Helping others who have not fared as well as you or being thankful for the help you receive is the most valuable lesson of all.