A few weeks ago, in a Marketplace Mores column, Matthew Lynn of Bloomberg News published a piece that declared, “If you want to be wealthy, it helps to be rude to people”.

He cited research conducted by the University of California, Berkeley, on students from various socio-economic backgrounds. The wealthier students tended to be more disinterested in others and less likely to engage in conversation than their less-privileged brethren. The psychologists concluded that what they were seeing was a reflection of basic animal behaviour: the higher animals are in the food chain, the stronger and fitter they are, the less they need others. “It is the experience of wealth that leads individuals to become disengaged”, observed Professor Dacher Keltner.

With this as the backdrop, Lynn then talks about CEOs, who he has found to be, often enough, an unpleasant bunch. “They bully, cajole, threaten and fume. There are very few examples of (CEOs) flattering or charming their way to the top. The accumulation of wealth requires an ability to crush rivals, stamp on employees, and sweep aside all opposition. Charm doesn’t come into it.”

I disagree. It is true that some chief executives can be… how should I put it?… determined. It is also true that some can be downright aggressive when push comes to shove. But I would argue that the ability to lay on the charm when and as required is a fundamental skill that most decent CEOs have mastered.

Engaging with others, generous listening, sending “I’m interested” signals… all enable successful leaders to enroll employees in corporate programs, secure the loyalty of customers in negotiations, create alliances, finesse bank loans, enthuse analysts, etc.

Most customers and suppliers will push back when they feel they are being bullied. Rudeness would be rebuffed vigorously. Balance of power is often established behind the scenes, while the more visible road to good intentions is being paved thickly with charm. Sometimes it works the other way around. One player is allowed to make public points if he is willing to make private concessions. There’s winning and there’s winning.

Employees are more easily cowed by authority; the fundamentals of hierarchal behaviour are well ingrained in most of us. But the true enrollment of employees, instilling real excitement, involvement and commitment, is not possible without first creating a belief in the sincerity and caring of the CEO. A ‘charming’ CEO will always get the benefit of the doubt. At least the first time.

CEOs tend to talk to other CEOs. Alliances, in theory a coming together of equals, can not be consummated if one potential partner aggressively pushes a win-lose scenario on another equally ‘determined’ chief executive. I have seen many an alliance and numerous potential acquisitions founder, not on the basis of due diligence but because of ego-driven obstinacy and the inability to finesse, i.e., charm, one’s way past clearly surmountable stumbling blocks.

By the way, if you are going to be rude, you had better be the CEO. It is a trait less tolerated by superiors, peers and staff as you work your way down the org chart. And it is one I’ve seen used as an excuse when staffing sacrifices have to be made.

In most cases, charm is a first resort, bullying the last. Power, wrapped in a smile, is almost impossible to resist. It is the ultimate expression of walking softly but carrying a big stick.

You see a lot of advice these days on how to survive the recession. Financially, the first order of the day – as always – is cash flow and that means, first and foremost, keeping your job. Investments are for later; working is for now. We need to eat.

To that end, I humbly put forward, for your consideration, five suggestions for surviving the cut. Admittedly, I am not alone in providing free advice. The First section of the December 8, 2008, issue of Fortune magazine, for example, also offered up five tips, four for keeping your job (though only three are useful) and one in case you don’t.

My credentials: I have lived through – and, indeed, helped organize – large scale layoffs. It is a troubling process – even for the most human with the best of intentions. It damages the soul, leaving scars that – in my case, at least – will never heal.

That said, I have learned things going through the process that are worth sharing. I have learned, for example, that there is a jockeying for resources. The number of cuts are usually fixed (by someone in Finance!), but the nature of the cuts is often up for debate and the specificity of the cuts, in most cases, comes down to the individual. The good news is that there are generalities that can be observed, generalities about who gets cut first, who, unbeknownst to them, balance ever-so-delicately on the bubble, and who survives without question. Even when whole departments are shut down, there are those plucked from the anonymity of the group. It is worth understanding why.

1.    Find a mentor. That is, find someone in a high place who likes you and who thinks what you do is valuable. Someone besides your boss. In the layoff planning sessions, lists of names will be bandied about. You want someone to say, “Woah! This name should not be on the list. If anything, I can find a place for him.” It will be costly. Names do not get removed from lists; they get substituted. So your benefactor will have to give up something to get something.

How do you find a benefactor?

2.    Get noticed. Most people think that lying low is the best strategy for survival. Keep your head down, they say. Never be the first one over the hill. This is incorrect. In my opinion, it is exactly the wrong strategy. Working hard, in itself, is not enough. Toiling in obscurity is not nearly enough. Starting early – like today – get involved in a high-visibility project. You have to bring something to it, of course. A specialty. A skill. One of the people I know who was designated for termination was a brilliant analyst who was always the first choice of every project team leader. Her value was widely known. She was simply in the wrong place – a department being eliminated – at the wrong time. The Finance department had no idea she was even on a list. When it became known she was to become a ‘free agent’, they happily reached out for her.

On the other hand…

3.    Avoid not-for-profit projects. Surprisingly, being a good citizen carries no weight. Working on the company’s United Way campaign, for example, pays zero dividends. Organizing the Christmas party…ditto. I have actually heard it said, to nodding faces, “Yes, she’s a fantastic person…always involved…but that has nothing to do with the business.” If you have to get involved in a project, make sure it is one that moves the business, not civilization, forward.

4.    Be self-sufficient. Don’t count on your boss to hold your hand; he has problems of his own. If he has to give you work, you are almost certainly expendable. If he has to help you get your work done, you are vulnerable. Faced with a down-sized department, your supervisor will look for a self-sufficient, self-starter whose hand he doesn’t have to hold.

5.    Do not be self-indulgent. Do not be a contrarian. These are tough times for everybody. They are about to get worse, so there will be plenty to complain about. The last thing your supervisor needs is a whiner. I had one employee who had too many principles for her own good. On several occasions, she considered suing the company for imagined wrongs. Everything down to the air she was breathing was subject to debate. Not surprisingly, so was the opportunity for advancement. When it came time to prepare ‘the list’, imagine whose name was near the top.

So there you have it: five things that will help save your job. Please note the word ‘help’. In a sweeping layoff that reaches triple and quadruple digits, even the best can be swept out to sea with the bathwater.

One more thing: these tips will be of service, cuts or no cuts. Right now, you have to think about your job but, remember, your career is just around the corner. So keep your head while looking ahead.

Good advice at any time.

Okay, so the principle of investing during a recession having been established (see: PIMS Points the Way Past the Recession), what did my former company do as it came face-to-face with an imploding economy. In fact, the company was heading straight into a perfect storm: it serves the construction industry which was already well into the downturn (in some regions, the downturn looked awfully like a drain and the sucking sound we heard was usually caused by falling prices); the exchange rate was working against exports but opening the market to cheaper imports; the company is a heavy purchaser of oil-based raw materials which until recently were at historic highs; meanwhile, other commodities it purchases heavily were being gobbled up by the Chinese; new technologies were being introduced by well-heeled competitors…the list of threats was long and forbidding.

Time to yank out the PIMS database. The marketing budget was not going down without a fight. In fact, I had little trouble convincing my colleagues of the need to keep investing in marketing and product development. To my surprise, we had even less trouble convincing the Board. The issue arose with our attempt to determine the extent of this investment.

I came up with a plan to focus expenditures on winning technologies, products, markets and even specific customers. My Power of One presentation explained why we should put all our money on leadership products, first movers, consolidators and core markets. I was successful on the principles of the thing, but not the details. My colleagues were all for focusing, but to most that meant keeping the pressure up on those areas and pulling back elsewhere. Which translated not into the reallocation of funds and resources but into cutting what had now become ‘non-strategic’ investments. Hmph…here I was, hoisted on my own petard!

Seeing the Big Picture

It was useful, however, to take a broader view of things. Pulling back on the marketing spend (as I would normally define it) was offset by pushing ahead in R&D and operating efficiencies. What is Marketing in fact? Arguably, the additional investment in R&D and operations covered two of the four Ps…maybe even three. In fact, the company was about to embark on the biggest capital program in its history.

So now the marketing exercise was to get the biggest bang for the buck being spent on the ‘focus’ items and find a way to keep the rest sailing along in their slipstreams.

Remember the last post? “In down times, consumers and businesses alike look to safe havens, familiar brands and dependable suppliers that focus on delivering consistent value.” While we kept plugging away at our key focus items, all items were ceremoniously dumped in the safe haven / familiar brand / dependable supplier basket. Public relations, customer service, complaint handling, loyalty programs…all those things that make customers comfortable with a brand were tightly managed with the safe/familiar/dependable relationship in mind.

The jury is still out on how, ultimately, this strategy will work. But the company is sticking to the plan and, in fact, has returned to the black well ahead of schedule. The future looks bright…even if, right now, that future feels very far away.

Note: Our best wishes for a speedy recovery to David St Lawrence over at Making Ripples. The long-time blogger, author, artisan, community activist, gentleman and friend recently suffered a heart attack. This obviously strikes close to home, given my history. Take care of yourself, dear reader, and pay heed when your body sends you signals that something is wrong.