By Doug Van Dyke, Leadership Simplified, www.leadershipsimplified.com
This holiday season Kris finds himself embroiled in the prickliest economic environment he has ever experienced. He was promoted to upper management of a publicly-traded company two years ago. His career, to-date, has been brimming with great accomplishments. Kris began his career during the recession of the early 1980’s, and he was a junior leader during the economic slowdown of 1991, but this is the first time he has been in a high-profile leadership position during some exceedingly challenging economic times. Kris is struggling with what to do. On the one hand, he wants to project pragmatic optimism about his company’s current situation and prospects. However, he fears that additional personnel cutbacks and belt-tightening are on the horizon. He wants to be honest, he wants to be fair, and he wants to increase productivity – all at the same time.
What to do, what to do? Many of you may find yourself in some semblance of Kris’s situation. You may be confused about just what to communicate, and uncomfortable with driving people for better results.
There are several actions that I recommend you consider. First and foremost is to focus on things that you and your team can control. I have pretty much been a broken record in this area. Trust me, the “control what you can control” band will play on. Other actions to consider involve sharing with your people what behaviors you expect. Two sets of recommended communications follow.
Set one includes behaviors that you expect your team members not to embrace or to jettison if they possess these symptoms.
Now, on to behavior set two which focuses on increasing personal impact in the workplace.
Now we come to our bonus tip of the day:
Bonus tip of the day: have everyone on your team update their resume or list three skills that they possess that you don’t know about. Review the information. Think creatively about your business or work unit. Are there skills and abilities right under your nose that could be used to broaden your product offerings? Are there new products or service lines that could be created that would offer a complimentary cross-sale?
Leaders, do not lose your creativity or aggressiveness just because we are being faced with challenges. Lead, create, communicate – and include your people every step of the way.
Please think strategically about how to position the aforementioned thoughts and actions in your world. Then, deliver value by helping your team members, helping your organization, and helping yourself.
Be well, think pragmatically-positive, and don’t drink too much eggnog this holiday season!
Doug Van Dyke is a leadership and communication consultant, executive coach, and business planner. His book, Leadership Simplified, as well as audios and video are available at the Productivity Store of www.leadershipsimplified.com. To learn more about consulting services, coaching, and training, or to have Doug speak at your next event, contact him today at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or at 941-776-1121.
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