It is possible to survive the rough periods
In today’s tough times, (an anyone remember when it wasn’t tough?) many phrases are bandied about by management consultants, business gurus and the ‘Think Positie!’ crowd. TED talks, abundant with ‘Back to Basics’ ideas on survival and growth strategies, with subjects like “Innovate!”; “Aggressive expansion rather than one step at a time!”;and “Don’t cut your advertising budet, spend more!” Sadly, looking at most companies under duress, re-inventing The Basics” is clearly not enough to get back on top.
FIND THE FOCUS
Why is that? Perhaps one of the answers is that struggling companies tend to focus predominantly on outward activities. Concentrating their depleting resources at defeating an enemy that is waiting outside the door. Adverse market conditions, declining purchasing power from consumers and even bolder attempts by competitors to restore their own profits, indeed demand an ingenious, well-executed counter business strategy.
But when last did a strategy meeting also take into account the most important contributor to a business’ success? Is there any point in executing a new strategy if your organisation and people aren’t ready and able to support it?
Too often, organisational readiness to carry out a new strategic direction, is checked against the capacity of its IT systems to support it. Not wrong, but only a small and very expensive part of it. So what is basically missing?
DEALING WITH THE PRESSURE AND HIGH STRESS LEVELS
An organisation struggling to keep its head above water will often find its management and staff under major pressure. This pressure is unrelenting and can lead to extreme stress levels. The intensity of stress is aggravated by budget cuts, departmental changes and worst of all - lay-offs.
The psychological impact of retrenchments is as much underestimated in its undermining of the effectiveness of an organisation as is the increase in workload and subsequent even higher pressure on remaining staff.
AVOID THE EFFECTS OF STRESSED-OUT STAFF
In South Africa stress is more and more recognised as a debilitating condition for individuals. The range of physiological and psychological ailments that can arise from stress are well publicised. What is lesser known and appreciated is that a struggling company is not only running the danger of becoming unprofitable or worse, but that its organisation itself becomes stressed. Now it too starts to display various debilitating disorders. Stressed people have difficulties in managing their emotions, in particular at the workplace: management’s conduct towards staff becomes problematic. Decision-making becomes difficult due to increasing brain fog and the tendency to procrastinate grows. Deteriorating management performance impacts the company’s performance. Stressed staff, like all other people, are besides being tired, easily frustrated, worried, nervous, angry and unhappy. Put them all together in a few offices and you can see how this can lead to serious breakdowns in communication and co-operation between departments and people.
FIXING THE VICIOUS CYCLE
Management atention is nw constantly drawn to staff perormance-related maters instead of executing a business escue strategy. One can see how easily a company under siege can fall victim o an enemy it has created inside. It all becomes a vicious cycle.
Fortunately, unhappy staf, staff onflict and poor iterdepartmental co-operationcan be controlled and managed, unlike unfavourable market conditions. Healty and engaged staff ae efficit and ready to take on new challenges. Increased productivity ontributes directly to profiability. If a company finds itself in tormy waters, it should take the temperature of the organisation egularly and where necessary, ofer their people access to stress-management care. A good strategy is one thing, but when it comes down to basics, only healthy and engaged staff an and want to carry you through the bad times.Frank Vos Changing a stressful career as CEO of a leading international ompany for a new life that is aligned with his passions and interests, at Vos Consulting he povides business and HR advice, specialising in organisational fficiency tough employee engagement. He uses the tenets of emotionalintelligence, quiet leadership and sound business principles to facilitate change in the workplace.