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If your company is terribly efficient, you used the last months of 2012 to set goals for 2013. I’m not referring to the business plan, I assume that process was completed before the leaves changed color. What I am talking about is the annual exercise to set individual or team goals. Given the typical 4th quarter press of business, my guess is this is now something you are just getting around to and, if that’s the case, Here are a few suggestions....

As my good friend and longtime colleague, Dan McCarthy, likes to say “out of chaos comes opportunity.” I couldn’t agree more. The question is, are you in a position to take advantage of the situation immediately or are you, yourself battling headwinds that require remedial measures first?

There are a couple of reasons we chose to call this “The Gutsball Blog.” One is that “Gutsball” was the working title for my book (nka “Out Executing The Competition”) until the publisher had other ideas and I had a felt need to use the term somewhere, somehow. But I’d like to think the most important reason is that the ability to play gutsball is a characteristic common to most real leaders. In scanning through my previous blogs, you’ll see that leadership and what makes for great leadership is a rather recurring theme.

This may spark a reaction in some circles (e.g. the Obama Administration?), but I do not believe we are in the midst of so much as a mild economic recovery. U.S. unemployment is over 8%, Europe is a mess; even those juggernauts of growth, India and China are experiencing stalled economies. In years past, it was said that “when the U.S. sneezes, the world catches a cold.” That’s arguable today, but for whatever the reasons, most of the globe seems to have come down with the flu and it’s been spread around by a number of countries with symptoms.

What do business leaders do? What are the tactics for weathering the storm? Ensuring survival? Maintaining morale?

It’s that time of year again. Yes, I know the kids are back in school and soon the leaves will begin to change color. The esoterics are something I’ll deal with another time perhaps, but today I want to discuss that time honored corporate rite, the creation of the business plan for next year. Many companies are somewhere along the completion spectrum right about now.

It may sound too simplistic to ask the question, “Why is customer satisfaction important?” But the answers are perhaps less obvious than you think.

When the winds of change blow, what do you hang onto? When uncertainties abound, what’s your anchor? When complexity is heaped upon complication, do you have a baseline? When catastrophe strikes, and it always does, can you be counted upon to do the right thing, first time and every time?

While growth in China continues to surpass by a significant margin, the stagnant, if not troubled, western economies, I sense “a disturbance in the force”. Moreover, I would advise caution with respect to reported growth rates, not a lot of transparency there, when considering first or further investment.

So, the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) here in the U.S. has decided they may not be so crazy about the idea of one global accounting standard, according to the New York Times over the weekend. Huh? Now you come out with this? After how many years of international squabbling and causing every business person I know to wring their hands, if not freeze in place, at the thought of yet again more reporting requirements and government oversight.

It’s been said that companies are perfectly designed to produce their results. And, you can apply that statement to both good and bad results. By the way, don’t limit your thinking solely to the bottom line because other numbers e.g. customer and employee satisfaction are equally important; there is strong evidence to support the notion that they are directly correlated, to profitability.

As the debt crisis in Europe worsens, there are questions that must be asked: “Where was the leadership?” “Why was there no accountability?” “How could things have gotten this far?”