Ken Blanchard’s Top 10 Tips for Surviving the Recession
Companies that will survive the current economic climate will be those with the best leaders. If you want to be one of those leaders, here are 10 steps you need to take:
1. Acknowledge Reality
If you are in any doubt about your company’s future, don’t deny it. Take a good hard look at your bottom line and assess just how bad the situation is.
2. Share that reality
Your people will be imagining the worst, so share the truth about the reality with them. By opening the books you create a sense of ownership of responsibility in colleagues and allay their fears.
3. Maintain regular communication with your people
Increase the amount of regular communication you have with direct reports. This supports cooperation and gives people opportunities to suggest cost-cutting measures you might not have thought of.
4. Define a customer-focused vision
Move beyond ‘satisfying’ customer needs and think how you can take service that bit further to create a strategic advantage and drive repeat business.
5. Balance concern for results with a concern for people
Both are equally valuable because both lead to profits and success
6. Make responsibilities and accountabilities clear
Make sure everyone is clear about their responsibilities and accountabilities, and how their job contributes to overall organisational success.
7. Manage people’s energy
Don’t allow people to spend too much time worrying about what they can’t control. Make it clear you have trust in the power of your people to keep this show on the road.
8. Invest in training
Keep people motivated and on track by training them in self-leadership - possibly the best morale and bottom line boosting initiative any organisation can employ.
9. Accent the positive
Catch people doing things right whenever possible. Remind them of the last time things were bad, and how you continued to thrive long term. See the downturn as an opportunity to win market share.
10. Plan for better times ahead
Business has and always will be cyclical. Keep reinventing your business and make sure your organisational structure serves your people and your customers.
Ken Blanchard is the best-selling business author and head of The Ken Blanchard Companies. For more information on the Ken Blanchard Companies’ leadership training, and free Webinars on a variety of management issues, go to www.kenblanchard.com or email [email protected]
© The Ken Blanchard Companies, 2009
