How to Keep Good Employees in a Bad Economy, Marshall Goldsmith

Marshall Goldsmith is an old friend of mine – and I always enjoy reading his ideas. This one popped into my reader courtesy of the Harvard Business Review.

“As we make our way through the challenges of the global economic crisis, high-impact performers are in demand. I’m speaking here of the indispensible workers who are willing to do what it takes to help the company succeed even in the most difficult of times. Those who pick up the slack when the organization is forced to cut back; those whose ideas save time, money, and effort; those with a positive outlook who help keep the organization moving forward.

.. http://bit.ly/cwYJMG

via Ping.fm

Posted via web from mick's posterous

CIOs Must Build Staff Trust in Times of Uncertainty

From the CIO blog ... Toyota Motor Sales CIO Barbra Cooper makes herself more available to staff through fireside chats and by creating her own IT "stimulus package."

How do you keep your staff motivated and inspire courage in this time of job uncertainty?

During a similar time of duress and economic uncertainty in the mid-1980s, I was vice president in charge of a very large IT distributed operation. It was impossible for me to get information from my bosses about what was going on. It was awful; I felt totally hamstrung, and my staff was looking to me to provide them with something. This taught me one of the biggest lessons: People fear the unknown more than they fear bad news. You are far better off saying that you may be facing layoffs at some point, but you don't know when. It gives people an opportunity to plan their lives and prepare for the choices they may face.

The most important strategy at this time is trust. Your staff may not trust the company during a downturn, but if they feel they can trust you and that, at a minimum, you will be fair and forthcoming with information when you know it, they will have more courage in facing ongoing uncertainty.

In a large organization, you have to design some techniques to bring people to the table that don't normally get proximity to you. I bring in groups of five and spend an hour answering their questions in a safe zone where they should feel comfortable and free to ask anything and share their concerns. If your direct reports are doing that too, you can get a critical mass going and keep the lines of communication open. It's a release valve that you can't achieve through internal blogs or the "rah-rah" e-mail that goes out once every couple of weeks. Intimacy is critical.

Read the rest of the article ...

Customer Relationships are Recession Busters

From Kevin Eikenberry's blog ...

This post is about two things: recessions and a solution to them.

Don't worry this is not an economic treatise about the definitions and causes of economic downturns sometimes called recessions. Rather, it is an explanation of how we can think about these events differently and, when these circumstances surround us, how we can improve our results regardless of what the media tells us.

While regional, national or global level economic indicators can show that an economy is slowing down, that people are losing their jobs and the like, I believe that for individuals, a recession is little more than a change in circumstances that we can choose to participate in or not. I would argue that recessions don't even exist for us as individuals, unless we allow them to.

Recessions and Our Response

First, if you are reading this and have lost your job or are facing significant changes in your situation due to the events being labeled "recession", please don't get angry with my comments, but continue reading with an open mind. Use these ideas to be proactive in dealing with the opportunity you are now facing.

The media and/or politicians may say we are in a recession. And yet, businesses are still buying products and services (though perhaps a bit less than 'normal') and businesses are still hiring employees and moving forward.

The key for you and your business is to be the one who gets a larger percentage of the orders or the interviews or job offers that are available. In this proactive way you can choose to recognize that recessions are macro not micro events. You have a choice about how you will view the event the media calls "recession."

What I'm saying is that times might be a little tougher and that it might not be as easy as it used to be (or will be again), but so what? You can succeed through a better plan and a bit of persistence. When things are a little tougher, it simply separates out those who are prepared to work harder and more creatively.

Read the rest of the article ...