Editors comment: "Touch times never last, but tough people do."

That we’re living in difficult times is a given. We don’t have to look beyond our cell phones or televisions to see bad news. It’s everywhere. Crime. Illness and death. The economy.

And it’s worldwide, in South Africa, the USA, Greece and Germany, the UK, the Middle East, Hong Kong…

People are reacting to troubled economic times and crime in different ways: we’re going out less, especially at night; we’re selling our freestanding houses and buying into more secure residential complexes, or upgrading our security systems at work and in our homes; some of us are emigrating to other countries; others are downsizing business operations or tightening budgets.

So I was heartened to read an article by Susan Ward on balancesmb.com. She’s a small business expert and multiple award winner who shares some very doable tips on how to survive and even thrive in tough times. Her advice includes protecting cash flow, reviewing inventory management processes, focusing on core competencies, developing and implementing strategies to win the competition’s customers, making the most of existing clients, not cutting back on marketing and watching your personal credit.

Another comforting read is an article on lifehack.org by confidence and communication coach Eduard Ezeanu. In his piece “7 Things to Remember When Going Through Tough Times in Life” , he says maintaining a positive mindset is “probably the most important thing you can do”. It’s this that will make it possible for us to stay upbeat, persist through hardship, find smart solutions and eventually turn the situation around, he maintains.

Here’s his list in heading form: “Even bad times end. You’ve overcome challenges before. You have lots of strengths as a person. It happens to everybody. It’s a learning experience. You can always ask for help. There are always things to be grateful for.”

Something else to consider, in my opinion, is toxicity. Toxic people are everywhere, from presidents and politicians to workplace managers, staff and even the odd cashier or bank teller. Dr Paul Vorster of The Ethics Institute, in his opinion piece about toxic / destructive leadership, says it’s a subject garnering a lot of interest, partly as a result of South Africa’s political turmoil and “also because of the impact poor (or destructive) leadership has had both domestically and internationally, in both the public and private sectors.”

Dr Linda Ronnie, senior lecturer in People Management and Organisational Behaviour at the UCT Graduate School of Business, in an article first published in The Conversation, says that toxic leadership, not uncommon in the private sector, is now “emerging more often in the public space too, as is all too evident in the US and in South Africa right now”. Typical traits of toxic leaders include an unwillingness to take feedback, lying and/ or inconsistency, cliquishness, autocracy, manipulation, intimidation and bullying and narcissism (familiar?), she says, adding that toxic leaders can, if uncontained, can “bring down entire organisations over time”. I’d add countries to this.

While we can point fingers at our past presidents and their cohorts, she says the responsibility to move against toxic leadership in the public sphere extends to society as a whole. “Crucial to overcoming the toxic leader’s negative impact is for other members of the organisation to remain firm and loyal to their principles, and to take a united stand,” she avers. “It is not for nothing that business schools are increasingly emphasising the development of the whole person and encouraging students to reflect on their principles and values as well as to polish up their technical skills. Being in management or leadership today, whether in the public or private sector, requires much more of people than just the ability to understand a balance sheet or hone a marketing strategy; they need to be able to manage relationships and get results with integrity. And, as is so often the case in life, it is only in tough times that the importance of these skills really becomes apparent.”

How do we take a stand against toxicity, though? An article on scholars.org makes the point that people are spending more and more time in the digital world, where they are transferring behaviours that they learn online.

“Online chats in games, online comments about news articles, and bulletin boards for online communities could, in principle, further civil discussions, it says, adding: “Unfortunately, digital culture, despite forging new connections among many kinds of people, turns out to be rife with hate speech and harassment.”

And, “online hostility goes hand in hand with offline hate speech directed at targets defined by gender, race, class, ethnicity, nationality, and various individual vulnerabilities.”

Do a Google search on “how to handle toxic leaders and people” and there are literally hundreds of thousands of articles on this subject, so it’s obviously a huge problem at all levels of business and play, and in countries all over the world. Some of the best advice includes setting boundaries, implementing tight checks and balances, conducting 360 assessments before promoting employees, establishing a relevant reporting hotline and protecting whistle-blowers, holding toxic people accountable (the Zondo Commission into State Capture), not sharing fake news, gossip or negativity, refusing to be a victim, and focusing on the solution rather than the problem.

Just saying…