Leadership in Troubled Times: Don't Waste the Crisis

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February 12, 2009 - John McGuire

The domestic and global economies are enduring difficult times. The media is focused on the situation and everyone, including your employees, is mesmerized by the coverage and very worried, and with good reason. They may be unsure about their job, feeling concerned about the economic outlook overall, and unclear about what they can do to improve the situation. Our new president has stated that the worst may be ahead, but we will succeed. 

Your employees have lots of stress related energy. They want to do the things that will help fix the situation and are willing to modify the work or the culture to help improve the chance for success. Develop a strong business plan, manage the plan aggressively, and encourage employee involvement. Let the employees help maximize the performance of the organization.

Be opportunistic in making substantive positive improvements to your enterprise. You can lead the transformation. Below are some proven best practices for these troubled times:

Be visible. Your presence and body language can be reassuring to employees.

Communicate clearly and often. Your employees want and need clear, honest and frequent communication from senior leadership.  Explain the current situation, provide a fair assessment of the opportunities and issues over the short term, and let them know when they can expect the next update from the executive team.

Model the performance and behaviors that you desire. Expect the same from your employees. All managers look good in the good times, but only good leaders look good in difficult times.

Demonstrate the characteristics that are needed in tough times: competence, confidence, and enthusiasm. Employees will follow you if your management team is-competent in the work they do, confident about the long term outlook, and enthusiastic about the ability to survive and succeed.

Do the right thing. When the situation is difficult, employees will judge the leaders actions. Respond with aligned mission/vision/values. You don’t always have to be right but you do have to follow the Golden Rule. Treat others as you would like to be treated if in a similar situation.

Set and demand high standards of performance. Now is the time to:

• Reduce costs including the cost of sales, manufacturing, overhead, and all other expenditures.
• Decrease cycle times for all business processes including product development, supply chain, budgets, etc.
• Improve customer service (external and internal). Involve your customers in setting comprehensive standards and giving feedback. Raise the bar - permanently.
• Gain market share. Your competition is experiencing the same business climate. Set an aggressive plan to improve market share now and reap all the benefits when the economy improves.

Manage and reward performance. Recognize and reward good performance. Deal with poor performance and/or bad behavior quickly.

Lead with courage and commitment. Be someone others will follow. This crisis will pass and employees will remember how they were treated.

Share the success. Find ways to share the current and future success of the enterprise with those responsible for building the business. The recipe for success will be a combination of inspiration and perspiration!

Focus on areas important to your organization. They should include: quality products and services, customer service, partnership, innovation, fiscal stewardship and long-term sustainability.

This is the perfect time to look at the following:

Strategy	Does our plan support long-term growth and profitability?
Structure	Do we have an effective and affordable organization?
Process	Does our cycle enable us to have the right product at the right time and the right price?
People	Do we have enough talent to meet the plan? Do we have too much payroll as a percentage of sales?
Rewards	Do we recognize and reward great performance?

Now is the time to make the necessary changes to your company and culture. If not now, then when? There has never been a greater need or a better to time to change the performance expectations and behaviors to ensure long-term excellence.

Build your organization to meet or beat the short- and long-term objectives of the enterprise…Don’t waste the crisis!

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John McGuire has more than 25 years of Human Resources management experience. He currently is vice president of Search Services at Gatti & Associates, a national search firm specializing in the placement of human resources professionals. Founded in 1985, the firm is nearing 5,000 successful assignments. You may contact John at jmcguire@gattihr.com.