Summer has descended upon us with warm weather, longer daylight hours, countless barbecues-and employee vacations. With such vacations and the possible necessity for organizational downsizing during a slowing economy, we are expected to do more with fewer people-to achieve our objectives with fewer resources.

Many years ago when I was CFO of a $450 million company, we were forced to downsize because we could no longer afford current staff levels. Amid the natural emotional concerns of letting people go were discussions about still meeting goals-"We will not be able to accomplish X" or "Meeting the deadline for Y is now impossible."

Despite the doubts, we downsized and life went on. We cut out low value added activities and streamlined business functions. Only essential processes remained in place. There's no doubt that people had to work more efficiently and spending was more tightly controlled. But, we managed to improve profitability and the company, and most of its employees, were better off because of the reorganization.

Today, as I work with young, developing companies, I often hear that "we need more resources to achieve our milestones. With cutbacks, we simply can't get the work done." It's a familiar refrain during slow economic environments and even vacation periods.

In such situations, the biggest challenge for the leadership team is to allocate resources in an effective manner and when doing that, to always keep the 80/20 Rule firmly implanted in our minds. Twenty percent of the activity will yield 80% of the value. How often do we seek an incremental level of achievement--the one that chews up scarce resources (namely capital)--but does not help advance the ball proportionally? In lean times, be sure to feed the resources that deliver the most value.

Effective leaders are defined during these times of limited resources. Leaders must be able to work with vendors, developing tradeoffs and negotiating concessions. Skilled leaders must identify and nurture the talents and creativity of valuable employees to help them operate at their highest levels of peak performance. And, perhaps most importantly, leaders need to quickly sense the minimum level of resources that can truly achieve the originally planned objectives--or know when to scale back those objectives.

Both large and small companies are faced with having to do more with less. As a leader, always ask yourself, "how can we achieve our goals with fewer resources?" Our responsibility as leaders is to model effectiveness and help our organizations creatively meet objectives-no matter what the level of resources available. Leaders are responsible for identifying the best course of action and ensuring that course is followed efficiently.

During summer vacation and economic slow downs, I am frequently reminded (perhaps more than I'd like to be) of the old cliché "Less is More!"

Now ask yourself... Am I a Leader?