By Suzanne Murphy
While today's business environment may not be very desirable for growth, it does offer opportunities that would be difficult to take of advantage of in more robust economic times.
After months of helping client companies strategize on how to survive this economic crisis, we have unearthed some genuine opportunities that many organizations are successfully leveraging to make significant positive changes.
In the spirit of looking for the silver lining in every cloud or making lemonade when life gives you lemons, consider whether your organization could capitalize on any of our Top 10 Opportunities that this crushing economic crisis has made available. We offer a collection here for you to consider.
Top 10 Opportunities in Today's Business Environment
1. Bring out Your Dead(wood)
To parody the famous line from Monty Python's Holy Grail, the need to cut costs provides an opportunity, perhaps even a mandate to, Bring out the Deadwood that has been hiding out in your organization for some time. Not only do these under-performers not deliver the results that you need, they also cause a huge morale hit for the employees who are busting their butts to deliver the goods.
Click here for the Monty Python “Bring out the Dead” scene http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grbSQ6O6kbs
2. Enforce the “No Asshole” Rule
Robert Sutton's famous book The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't discusses the organizational impact of employees who don't play well with others - the corporate bullies; the mean spirited; the socially inept who just don't get it, and those who would step on their grandmother to get ahead.
These individuals often survive because they cloak themselves in “hitting the numbers”. People excuse their behavioral shortcomings because they don't think these producers would be easy to replace and fear a significant performance hit if they let them go. This is fear is particularly strong when times are good and the labor pool is tight.
So, the good news about the bad times is you don't have to settle for someone who can do the job well but makes everyone around him/her miserable. You can probably get a great skill and behavioral fit for your organization by enforcing the “No Asshole Rule” company-wide.
3. Build Loyalty – Become the Employee of Choice
It is often said that the true character of a person is based on what they do when no one is looking. I think the true character of an organization can be judged by what they do for employees when there is no direct or immediate business imperative requiring the action.
There may be a temptation to do less for employees in the current environment because: 1) everyone is under pressure to cut costs 2) there is an abundance of qualified prospects that would be very grateful to have almost any job.
We strongly urge you to resist that temptation. Here are 3 solid business reasons to think long and hard about abandoning programs that build loyalty and position your organization as an employer of choice:
- Times will get better and you do not want to create a reputation that will make you less competitive in the future.
- Doing less because "you can" will have a significant impact on staff morale and productivity – especially in times of high personal insecurity. The resulting cost savings could net little financial advantage.
- Don't forget that you are still competing for customers and building employee loyalty has been shown to spill over to customer loyalty – it's kind of a Corporate Karma.
If you do need to scale back or abandoned programs for employees, over-communicate the rationale for the changes. Everyone understands that these are difficult times and is willing do what is necessary to survive - but they don't want to be taken advantage of!
4. Job Enrichment
One of the positive outcomes of having to do more with less is the opportunity for people do expand their contribution in a way that makes their job richer and more purposeful. Tap into the passions of your staff and ask them to do more in those areas that are meaningful to them. You may be surprised at the fresh burst of energy you unleash.
5. Job Advancement
Corporate belt tightening could open job advancement possibilities for the best and brightest in 2 ways:
- Many organizations are asking people to step up and take on more responsibility and expand their roles. This is good news for people who may have felt underutilized and are capable of a much larger contribution.
- Most companies are clearing out the deadwood to cut costs but this will also provide new opportunities for advancement for medium and high performers.
6. Invest for Better Times
With all the budget slashing going on it might seem crazy to be thinking of investing for the future. Many companies are just trying to stay afloat. However many of our clients are still doing training and development. They are only spending money on programs that are VERY pragmatic and targeted on core skills and competencies that are producing immediate results.
All that being said, this really is a good time to assess what you could do today to make your organization more competitive tomorrow.
- Brainstorm what steps you might take towards creating a more competitive tomorrow*
- Prioritize those ideas against a couple of key criteria, such as cost, time and/or available resources.
- Act on those steps you can take today. (A major impediment to progress is lack of follow-through!)
- Constantly evaluate progress on your current actions, as well as how you could act on the other steps as we move through this crisis.
*Ask us about our popular, fun and effective team-based exercise in our Leadership Development programs and strategy consulting called, “Competitive Destruction.” It helps organization's rapidly identify gaps and opportunities in markets, structure and processes – and stay ahead of the competition!
7. Change Your Staffing Strategy
Most managers would agree that is much easier to manage skills than behaviors, yet we tend to hire based on how closely a resume matches a job description. We want someone who can hit the ground running, needs little hand-holding and will quickly produce. This is particularly desirable during boom times when it feels like you can't hire people fast enough.
The problem with that strategy is that you can end up with people who are a terrible cultural fit and who negatively impact the performance and job satisfaction of others (refer to Top Opp #2: the No Asshole Rule).
During this downturn you might consider flipping things around: hire first for cultural fit and second for skills/competencies match. Our experience has shown that this is a winning strategy regardless of where we are in an economic cycle as long as you have strong managers who know how to bring someone up the learning curve.
8. Get Back to Your Core
If the boom times of the previous decades enticed your organization to expand and take on ventures that where perhaps a little too far afield from your core competencies, now is the time to get back to basics.
Times like this call for laser focus on what works, what you are good at and what the market wants today. You need to jettison anything that dilutes your key strengths and provides a distraction from what you need to do to succeed.
9. Become a Culture Vulture
When you answer the questions, “Who are we?” and “How do we do things around here?” you are providing a quick overview of your organization's culture. Are you happy with your organization's answers to those questions? Has your culture evolved into something you don't recognize or want? Is there pressure to do things differently because times are tough?
Individuals, communities, organizations, countries around the globe are using this crisis to reconnect with the core values and guiding principals they want in place to guide day-to-day activities. This is a perfect time to examine the current culture of the organization and determine if it supports or hinders your success. If it isn't working for you, start laying the groundwork for change.
10. Create Change that Will Last
Shortly after the election, President Obama was asked if he had any regrets about winning, given the crises he had to deal on nearly every front. He essentially said that without pain there is little opportunity for real change. The President was excited about the possibilities for change that these difficult times were providing.
Well, given the amount of collective pain we are all feeling, it is clear that leaders have a unique opportunity to shake things up and lead from their vision of how things should be, rather than continue to carry bulky old legacy ideas. Don't squander what we hope is only a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
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