Managing Turbulent Times

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It is a known occurrence that after every high there is a low. However, mankind for some reason does not align with this fact. When we need to sail through the rough sea, all that is required is to be vigilant and to apply all the experience and wisdom. There is no room for faulty experimentation.

Tough times are moments of introspection. When we reflect on what we did and what we need to do, hope arises. Hope is a powerful emotion that shows us opportunities. Once the opportunities are sighted, then the experiment for success begins.  The best times are the ones when we don’t need to spend the time to sight opportunities as we are surrounded by them.

My experience with the Industry at large, shows some organizations grow irrespective of times. These are organizations that have their processes and fundamentals right. The cause and effect keep the momentum going. Ultimately it is all about Leadership Behaviours. Vision combined with shared strengths, faith, and perseverance can accelerate a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy positively.

Let us now discuss a few essentials that will give us the path for managing difficult times effectively.

1. Do not solely focus on bottom performers, but do also pay heed to performers who compromise on ethics and values as the latter brings more pain and financial losses
2. Be focused on vision and objectives. The law of attraction will take effect and miraculously generate business
3. Assess your constraints and make it clear to your people that, by nature constraints are non-negotiable and performance is achieved in spite of the limitations
4. Do take risks but back them up with the precise resources. Do not compromise under cost-cutting measures for this aspect
5. Avoid impulsive emotive decisions and control all aspects through data and vision
6. Review rigorously. Have your control processes precisely defined
7. Get your contingency plans in shape
8. Select the best teams to deliver and empower them
9. Implement coaching and training that is focused on high-end leadership skills and productivity enhancement
10. Brainstorm repeatedly to generate ideas. You never know which one will click
11. Take special care of your employee’s insecurity; it may create knee-jerk reactions and safe decisions that will take your organization nowhere. A lot of failures may not get discussed which is not suitable for the control mechanism
12. Look back and assess with teams all the past memories of managing turbulence successfully and the associated strengths to build new projects for new possibilities.

Needless to say, if you hire the best you get the best. A low always precedes a new high. It is essential to be ready for the new high rather than succumb to the low and then struggle when the high comes. Persistence and appreciative inquiry are key.