By Edith Onderick-Harvey, President, The Talent Advantage

The economic headlines remind us everyday that we are in unprecedented times.   Small businesses are looking at ways to survive or even thrive in this down economy.  You’ve looked at ways to cut costs and improve profits.  You may have reduced headcount or hours, so it’s even more critical that your remaining people bring their ‘A’ game to work.  Leaders need to keep people focused, motivated, and engaged.  You need to identify the key positions that will keep the company on track and you need to know who your key performers are.  Organizations need to be aligned so that people can be as productive, effective and efficient as possible.

You and the other leaders in your organization should be asking yourself several questions:

Is everyone in the firm clear on priorities, goals and the decisions behind the choices you’ve made? One of your core functions as a leader is to ensure people are clear about where the organization is going and what it’s priorities are.  This is especially true in a down economy.  Tough economic times create noise in the system.  Many people will be more easily distracted.  Leaders need to have a strategy for focusing and refocusing people within the organization to ensure they are doing the right things and doing things right.  You also need to be prepared to share the rationale for decisions that you’ve made.  People will be more likely to take on new challenges when they understand why it’s necessary to move in particular direction.

Who are your key performers and what are they thinking?  In shaky economic times it is less likely that your average performers will leave.  However, your best performers are always highly marketable and they know it.  Part of their success is the belief that they will always be successful.  If they see their ability to be successful better somewhere else, they will leave.  Even in tough times, there will be jobs available to the best people.  Leadership teams throughout the organization need to have conversations about who their best performers are and how you are working to retain them.
 
Are you re-recruiting them so they don’t decide to use their talents elsewhere?  Leaders should continue conversations with their best performers about their importance to the organization and to listen to their needs.   One of the best development tools for high potential employees is to be engaged in solving business problems and working on key initiatives.  Identify and implement ways to engage your best in solving the pressing issues that arise during this time.

Do your leaders and managers have the skills and knowledge to be as effective as possible? If not, use this opportunity to identify those skills that are most critical during tough economic times — for example, leading in times of change, performance management, strategic performance communication — and develop those skills.  Prioritize and be creative.  Determine the impact, effectiveness and efficiency of your development activities.  Development doesn’t have to mean significant expense and the payoff can be the difference between surviving and thriving.  That said, define the business case when investment is warranted.

Are you organized to optimize productivity, efficiency and effectiveness?  Take a step back.  Does the structure of your organization create silos, increase complexity and minimize the ability to collaborate.  How easy is it for customers to access your organization?  How efficiently can work move through the organization?  Are the skills and capabilities of your people leveraged for maximum productivity?

Is your executive team looking at what they will do when this economic downturn is over? Two key leadership competencies are foresight  and systems thinking.  Foresight is the ability to grasp the forces shaping the future. Systems thinking is the ability to synthesize and integrate diverse elements and to understand how they interact and how they can be made to align to achieve an organization’s purpose.  During an economic downturn the executive team needs to deal with the current situation and continue to plan for the future.  The downturn will not last forever.  You need to use foresight and systems thinking to create scenarios for various economic outcomes and plant the seeds to move the organization in that direction.

During economic uncertainty, organizations need to determine how to maximize resources, enhance revenues and contain costs.  Focused leadership and continued, targeted investments in talent are an essential part of that strategy.

Copyright 2008.