SURVIVE AND PROSPER USING A POWERFUL “ONE TWO” PUNCH
be prepared for recovery
Uncertainty is the new normal in what futurist David Houle calls the “shift-age.” The world will continue to move under your feet. Working harder will not assure survival. Unless you are in a recession proof industry such as healthcare or agriculture, odds are your company will continue to struggle with tight budgets, uncertain cash reserves, and having to ask people to do more with less. You survived the crucible, but in spite of overtaxed resources, continued survival and future prosperity depends on your gearing up for recovery.
Leadership strategy for recovery (the powerful one two punch)
1. Give everybody the opportunity to contribute towards their own job security—involve employees in waste recovery and the elimination of rework:
Make everybody aware that cost savings go directly to the bottom line. For example, a $1000.00 waste recovery that happens 10 times a year, adds $10, 000.00 goes directly to the bottom line— If you are achieving a 10% return on sales (surprisingly, many employees assume a return of 80 to 90 % on sales), that’s $100,000 the company does not have to sell. How many jobs might a recovery system support? Celebrate successes waste recovery and the elimination of rework
P.S. If the competition implements waste recovery before you—sayonara!
2. Clarify your company’s cultural values, develop an “ethics platform”, focus a vision of the preferred future, set performance targets—then hold people accountable by adopting a formal performance correction process for ethics violations and marginal performance:
Example: for the cultural-value of INTEGRITY a related ethics plank might be…we never fail to keep a commitment or tell the whole truth. Cultural values are used to inspire whereas the ethics platform (behavioral lines in the sand) is used to discipline. Make sure you have the right people on the bus.
P.S. If your supervisors are not cheerleading and consistently conducting formal performance correction sessions when situations call for them, maybe they (and you) shouldn’t be on the bus.
This post is sponsored by the E book , Secure Corporate Survival by Creating Transferable Wealth and Wisdom