With full respect for President Lincoln and the Gettysburg Address...
When times are trying for your company, your industry's market, and/or our economy, when your employees may focus on other than the engagement you desire.
Consider these Four (Specific) C.O.R.E. recommendations
Communication. Create and maintain a Communication Plan. View the situation as crisis so you will keep your people aware of facts relevant to fulfilling their responsibilities.
The loose idea of "I'll update my people regularly" can quickly be back-burnered. Then forgotten.So, create a plan to communicate with your people. A start-of-day e-mail, a walk-around-the-shop every afternoon, a begin-the-morning 5-minute meeting.
Make regularity part of your communication plan. Stick to it.
Make frequent communication part of the plan. Stick to it.
Present information you and your people can validate. Share the rationale behind decisions being made. Keep it clear. Keep it simple and short. Invite questions. Discourage speculation by offering none of your own.
Opportunity. Host discussion sessions for your people. These are less frequent than the above communication offerings, perhaps weekly or every other week. They offer more detail and opportunity for two-way conversation, lasting perhaps an hour.
Employees can ask detailed questions and receive answers as detailed as you can provide. This provides you the chance to facilitate (a skill in and of itself) discussion of what's going on, how it feels, what it means to your people's performance, your business's operations, and what can be learned and gained from this not-so-positive experience.
You do not want these discussions to linger on the negative or end there either. Don't be "everything will be OK" Pollyanna, and do not allow the discussion to become a crying session.
Resources. Keep up the training. Keep providing tools and situations allowing employees to heighten their engagement, to improve the skills and knowledge and performance.
When times are bad training and development are often the first to be axed. That's a knee-jerk reaction from management and sends a dark signal to employees.
If you do it, your people notice. Maintaining your company's commitment to skill development for employees supports their existing confidence in the intent and the future of the company.
Engagement. Keep in mind that this is the time for you to lead as well as manage. A (good) leader celebrates the opportunity to engage, with the employees, in creating success. Negative conditions are just that, negative. However, you can use them to demonstrate to your employees your engagement in seeing it through, in finding alternatives to "just take cover." The more you energetically, enthusiastically implement the C.O. and R. above, the more you build the confidence and remove the fear among your employees.
And Seven More...
Atmosphere. If it's already beautiful, comfortable, motivational, see that your office atmosphere stays that way. If it's not, spend the minor amount of money on flowers, posters, and other decor. Remember the positive message of soup, crackers, flavored teas, sugar-free hot chocolate, and soap in the employees' pantry.
Management. Be sure that managers and supervisors adapt to the times. Now may be when some of your most efficient managers can use skill-building in how they manifest equality, mutual respect, and common courtesy for their reporting people. A couple of hours training and development may go a long way.
Recognition. Let your employees know that now, more than ever, they are valuable...and their performance is, too. Here are some economical employee recognition ideas.
Telecommute. If your business allows it, telecommuting offers a number of advantages, especially in times when economic tension is high. Allowing one day's telecommuting a week provides an employee relief from in-office stress and saving on commuting expenses.
Input. Demonstrate appreciation of employees by inviting their input. Now employees will appreciate being asked for their ideas and suggestions for process improvement, expense reduction, morale boosting, and more. Be sure to listen to and appreciate all ideas, whether applied or not.
Focus. Engage employees in a specific for-the-good-of-the-business focus. The intention is to direct their attention away from fear and worry in such a way that it contributes to the business goals and objectives. Example: View everyone as a customer. Look for ways to improve everyday processes. These may seem simple, should-be-done-all-the-time suggestions. Remember, your people are distracted by the current situation. You want to bring their attention and effort back to engagement.
Gratitude. When someone knows her efforts are appreciated, she's more likely to increase her efforts. Gratitude is an expression of appreciation. Double the number of times you say, "Thank you." Add the sentence or two that give the reason for your gratitude.
Managers must maintain attention to their company, attention to their area of responsibility, and attention to their people. Things get tight and the weight on the manager's shoulders increases.You may view these 4+7 suggestions as just more to do.
You may decide to use them as ways to get back to the normal weight on your shoulders somewhat sooner.
I really agree that you cannot underestimate the value of a simple "thank you!". It costs nothing but just shows that the person's work is appreciated. In the current climate, we can't always give financial reward, so some old-fashioned gratitude can go down very well.
Pete
http://www.leavebooker.com
Posted by: Peter | November 14, 2008 at 07:54 PM