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In This Issue:
Leading After a Layoff |
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Introducing our
newest book
How Leaders
Build Organizations Where Employees Love to Come
to Work
ORDER
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"The task of the leader is to get his people from
where they are to where they have not been."
— Henry Kissinger
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The unthinkable has happened - your
organization has experienced a layoff. You are left with a
group of employees who miss the “good old days” and are
afraid of the future – afraid that their position may be
eliminated; afraid their workload will increase; afraid they
will lose benefits; and afraid they will be lonely since
they have lost friends in the layoff.
As a leader in the organization, you may share some of the
same fears your employees do. Now is the time to focus on
what you can do, not on what has been lost. The layoff is
behind you. You are now faced with a tremendous opportunity.
The opportunity to engage the workforce you have left. By
seizing this opportunity you will be positioning your team
and your organization for success. By ignoring this
opportunity, you will be left with a discouraged,
disgruntled workforce more concerned about their own
personal survival than the organization’s success. This
month we offer you six tips that will help you use your
leadership position to keep the team you have left engaged
100% of the time.
Strive for excellence, not
perfection,
Peter B. Stark
and Jane
Flaherty
P.S. We're proud to introduce our
latest book, Engaged! How Leaders Build Organizations Where
Employees Love to Come to Work. We've been interviewed by
numerous publications including Forbes, Industry Week, Reuters,
Incentive Magazine, Contact Professional, and ExecDigital.
Here's what our readers are saying . . .
“To succeed in business, treat your
employees well and they will treat your customers well. Peter
Stark and Jane Flaherty get it! Read this book and keep your
people Engaged!” –Ken Blanchard, coauthor of The One
Minute Manager
“It’s rare when I can open a book to any page, start reading,
and instantly be glad I did because right away I found something
useful. That’s the case with this one.” –Lori Poole,
executive vice president, California Bank & Trust
Read more
reviews from great leaders at the Phoenix Suns, Farmers
Insurance, Crain Communications, WD-40, Wells Fargo, LG
Electronics and many more . . .
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1. Sell people on the
problems, not the solutions. Many times, people
feel that since the layoff has been made, everything
should now be OK. Nothing could be further from the
truth. We will experience a ton of problems moving
forward. Many people believe we should view 2009 as
even more challenging than 2008. Tough times are
ahead!
2. Have a compelling positive vision of the
future. Although there are going to be
significant problems, it is important for leadership
to have a compelling positive vision of the future.
To be able to tell people the organization is going
to experience serious head winds moving forward is
the honest thing to communicate. This communication
needs to be backed up with a positive vision of the
future. The message could be something like this,
"Although we are going to be in the middle of this
economic downturn moving forward, if any team can
survive and thrive, exiting the recession even
stronger than we entered, our team will get the job
done!”
3. Focus on hard tangible results. Although
people feel depressed in a down economy, focus on
managing the hard results that can be measured. If
everyone is focused on achieving the best possible
results and accomplishing their goals, there is less
time for people to sit around complaining about the
bad economy. When results improve, and people know
that their efforts contributed to the results, most
people feel better.
4. Fast change is better than slow change.
When it comes to change, it is important for leaders
to remember, fast change is easier for employees to
deal with than slow change. If you need to make a
layoff, make it deep enough to get the job done.
Some companies are having layoffs on a weekly basis.
This on-going, slow change is deadly to morale. It
is what we call the torture drip of change.
5. Clarify new roles and responsibilities.
When things get tough, the lines become blurry.
Positions may have been eliminated and the work will
need to be absorbed by someone else. When people
leave, it is important for everyone to know who will
be responsible so customers do not experience the
negative impact of an organization's downsizing.
6. Remember, there is no such thing as
organizational change. The only changes that
take place in organizations are personal change. As
each individual personally changes, they empower the
organization to change. Encourage employees to
think, "I can learn, I can change and I can do it
really quickly." To complain about having to do more
with less is a waste of time. Everyone in the whole
world is being asked to do more with less. Employees
with the ability to adapt, be flexible and quickly
outlearn their competition, are the ones who will be
guaranteed lifetime employment.
Need
help? Peter Barron Stark Companies has
been building organizations where employees love to
come to work and customers love to do
business for more than twenty years.
Our Services Include:
Please visit our
website,
www.pbsconsulting.com, contact us via email,
peter@pbsconsulting.com or call us toll free,
877.727.6468.
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