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In the Chinese calendar, 2009 is the year of the ox. Given the state of the economy, a more fitting representation for this new year would be a chicken. Chicken Little, to be more exact.

In the tale, Chicken Little misinterprets an acorn falling on her head, panics and sets off to warn the king that the sky is falling. On the way, she alarms friends such as Ducky Lucky and Turkey Lurkey and, in many endings, winds up being eaten by Foxy Loxey.

Here are four perspectives that will help us see acorns for what they are and, in a metaphorical sense, avoid Chicken Little's fate.

It's the same sky over Wall Street, Greensboro and Hong Kong. We've experienced job exportation, unemployment and tax revenue shortfalls before, but the current economic meltdown has both deepened our woes and illustrated the interconnected nature of the world's financial infrastructure. We here in the Triad can be concurrently comforted that we didn't get into this mess by ourselves and sobered that, no matter what we do, we won't get out of it alone. Like it or not, it is going to be a long, global, systemic fix that can't be solved by our City Council, county commissioners, new governor or new president. It will require patience, perspective, self-sacrifice and innovation from all of us.

We have a choice of "opening out" or "closing in." Psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton points out that, when facing trauma, people either "open out" or "close in." If they open out, they connect with others, form supportive communities and develop the psychic capacity to reconcile themselves to new, unsettling paradigms. If they close in, they become isolated, rigid, self-absorbed and trapped in futile attempts to simplify complexity and control the uncontrollable.

People have a remarkable capacity to survive almost anything if they open out, but they wither, shrink and fade away if they close in. In a time when we are being hit on our collective heads by the acorns of layoffs, erosion of our savings, deferment of our dreams and hopes, and the prognosis of a prolonged sickness in our financial system, we need to guard against a closing-in reaction. Once we choose this path, we become part of the problem, not the solution.

Opening out is a strategy that not only will protect our mental health, but also will help others. Plainly stated, as a very wise and humble person once told me, "When you feel bad about yourself, find someone who feels worse and help them. You get a double win -- they get helped and you feel better."

Our nonprofit agencies need our time, money, creativity and compassion. Telling them that the sky is falling, feeling sorry for ourselves and walking away is a closing-in strategy that will leave them stranded and will shrivel our souls.

When people think the sky is falling, they need leaders who are helpers and enablers, not blamers and micromanagers. In both public and private organizations, people are increasingly being perceived as costs to be reduced, not human resources to be developed. That reality, however, does not mean that effective leaders are those with an obsession with cost-cutting, micromanagement and over-control. Controlling expenses is a necessary management task but isn't central to leadership. Leaders need to re-recruit organizational survivors, help them conjure up the necessary risk-taking and innovation to ensure future success and empower them to serve customers, not hunker down in the trenches for fear of getting laid off.

Unfortunately, many organizations are over-controlled and under-led. Blaming and scapegoating become a substitute for team-building and empowerment. Once again, our Guilford County commissioners provide an example. The strange political bedfellows of Skip Alston and Steve Arnold appear to be linked in a mutually disempowering campaign of micromanagement. Cutting costs and managing expenses are absolutely essential in today's economy, but true leaders facilitate the establishment and monitoring of goals, get out of the way and find ways to help people feel good about themselves in the process.

Micromanaging, over-controlling and inappropriate involvement in personnel decisions are closing-in tactics that won't help the employees, the taxpayers or the commissioners. The result will be less-productive, fearful, risk-averse employees who collude to give commissioners the illusion of control by telling them what they want to hear as opposed to what they need to hear.

We can turn acorns into alarm clocks. There are a lot of acorns falling in this economy and we can't duck them all. We can, however, use the impact as a wake-up call as opposed to Chicken Little's panic call. Job loss, while often traumatic, also has caused many people to reassess their life and career plans and move into fields that may not pay as well but are much more satisfying and provide more balance between work and family life.

Our region is blessed with many colleges and universities. Demographically, this year's crop of graduates are part of Generation Y, which is comfortable with technology, has a need for instant gratification, and has seldom experienced failure. Many are experiencing rejection for the first time in today's job market. They could close in, become angry and cynical, or they could, as some are doing, reframe their experience as a wake-up call and direct their technology and networking skills to help revitalize nonprofit organizations.

As any novelist knows, character revelation takes place in times of conflict and turmoil. We learn more about ourselves when things are difficult than when they're easy. For some, today's tough times have triggered a rediscovery and affirmation of core values and spiritual grounding.

David Noer (dnoer@elon.edu) is the Frank S. Holt Jr. Professor of Business Leadership at Elon University and an honorary senior fellow at Greensboro's Center for Creative Leadership. He writes a monthly column for the News & Record on leadership, organizational behavior and community issues.