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In a slump? You can get your career back on track, says Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter, author of Confidence: How Winning Streaks & Losing Streaks Begin & End (Three Rivers Press, 2006).

How important is confidence?

KANTER: The only thing that really turns things around is confidence in advance of results. That’s exactly what investing is, whether it’s in a stock or a company, or your time, motivation, or commitment. Confidence is what motivates you to put in resources because you expect you’ll get a positive return. Once success starts, it becomes easier to keep investing because confidence is high.

How do you keep yourself confident during times like these?

KANTER: You look for positive actions. There are always positive actions. If you have a little more time on your hands because the work isn’t coming in, then use that time to fix up your house or get your business ready for when the cycle turns around again. Then you’ll feel better. 

What positive actions might you suggest for real estate professionals?

KANTER: Real estate salespeople, in general, are people with a lot of positive energy. They succeed because they’re very good at helping people envision how happy they’ll be if they buy or rent a property. That’s a real asset. This time is an opportunity to think about anything else that can be done to help people or that will contribute to their community, because that ultimately makes a difference in how valuable property is. This is a wonderful time to make sure the schools are good and to actively contribute.

What if you’re feeling like too much of a loser to contribute?

KANTER: Passivity, withdrawal from contact—those are symptoms of a losing streak. If you give into those, it always makes things worse. The tendency in a losing streak is to look for somebody to blame and not take personal responsibility. There were a lot of people who turned a blind eye to a lack of creditworthiness on the part of borrowers because it seemed too easy to just keep selling, selling, selling. So everybody has some responsibility. To begin to get on a winning streak, say: "In the future I won’t do that. I will look for things that are solid. I will try to influence the industry. I will try to change the culture."

What are the common traits of people who are good at pulling out of a losing streak?

KANTER: Stamina. You need to be physically in good shape. Keep yourself energetic. People with energy are always looking for a place to use their energy. They have an ability to think ahead and think positively to see an opportunity. That’s a creative skill. It’s also a mind-set. We have choices about how we respond to events. We can respond by saying "It’s out of my control." Or we can respond by saying, "Hmm, where is there an opportunity to take advantage of this?" Warren Buffett is saying, "This is the worst stock market in history. Look at all the bargains. I’m buying." After you look at the facts squarely, ask yourself if there’s some way you can personally position yourself, your family, your organization, and your community so that you do something productive to be ready for the future. This [downturn] won’t last forever. You always have to assume there’s a next chapter.

What should people do during the next boom to be prepared for another bust?

KANTER: If you’re really at the top of your game, it’s possible to slide, but you don’t slide that fast. If you’re just cruising, then you are often being carried by the momentum of other people’s success. Then you’re much more vulnerable to external events. Losing streaks often begin because of external events. Yet some people and some companies manage to weather them much better than others.

When things are going up, people believe they will always go up and when things start going down, people start fearing they will always be down. Those people who are strong and become leaders don’t get too arrogant and believe that things will automatically go up without hard work, and they also avoid the worst of the downturns by remaining positive and looking for productive actions.

You talk about values-based capitalism, which is when business people look beyond the bottom line and try to also make a difference in the world. How will that be affected by the economic downturn?

Individual philanthropy might suffer because people don’t have the wealth they once had. But I think we’re going to see an increase in community spirit. If people had oriented their lives around only financial success and that becomes hard to obtain, suddenly people think about what’s really meaningful in life: their family, their community.

This is also one of President Barack Obama’s big themes. If he calls people to service, that will become a cool thing to do. Leadership makes a difference in whether losing streaks go on indefinitely or whether they get turned around. If you have leadership calling on people to be generous with their time—if not with money, because people don’t have as much money—then we can turn this cycle around a little bit faster.

Learn more about Kanter at hbs.edu.