Blanchard LeaderChat

The current economic situation can have either a positive or negative impact on motivation. The pessimist will see these difficulties as de-motivators. However, the optimist knows that difficult times can bring us together in a common effort and goal.

 

It all depends on how you look at it.

 

Findings from the 2008/2009 WorkUSA Survey Report recommend that employers capitalize on “engageable moments” to increase engagement and productivity.

 

An engageable moment is a critical juncture for maintaining and building engagement. It might occur during such programs as new employee orientation, feedback during a one-on-one or when the organization goes through particularly challenging economic times.

 

Let me give you an example.

 

I had the opportunity to work together with some long time employees in our company on a wonderful project to try and capture the heart and soul of our company.  We asked everyone in the company to contribute a story that best defined our corporate culture.  All of the stories would be compiled into a book that will be distributed at our 30-year anniversary celebration later this week. Over 200 people, out of the 300 who work here, contributed stories.  Do you know what people pointed to time and again as our defining moment?  Our response to 9/11. 

 

Why?  It was during that difficult time that we best pulled together to achieve a common goal. We have that opportunity again.

 

You have a choice.  We all have a choice.  How will we enter the day?  How will we respond to the world going on around us?  Will we remain hopeful, optimistic, confident, and resilient when things look tough?

 

What about you?  What are the strategies that you have in place for yourself to remain strong, confident, and hopeful going forward? 

 

It is not the events of the day that define us; it is how we react to them.

Some new research from Watson Wyatt, a global consulting firm which specializes in human capital and financial management offers some indications that a bottom to today’s turbulent work environment may be in sight. In a February 2009 report on the Effect of the Economic Crisis on HR Programs researchers at Wyatt report that the majority of the companies they surveyed have already put their most drastic cuts behind them, and are now looking to make smaller cost-cutting changes moving forward.

 

Key Findings 

• More than half of companies (52 percent) have already made layoffs, up from 39 percent two months ago. However, the number of companies planning layoffs has fallen ten percentage points from 23 percent to 13 percent.
• Forty-two percent of companies have already put salary freezes into place, an increase from only 13 percent two months ago.
• Sixty-nine percent of companies have revised their merit increase budgets for 2009. The median increase at those companies has decreased from 3.5 percent to 1.5 percent.

While most companies are now settling in to what many believe will be a long recession that will not bottom out until the end of 2009 or into 2010, the good news is that, according to this report, it looks like the majority of the layoffs, salary and hiring freezes, and resetting of merit increase budgets have already been announced.

Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

I just finished up the main article for the next issue of Ignite, our monthly e-newsletter.  It features an interview with Madeleine Homan-Blanchard, who is the founder of the Coaching Services division at The Ken Blanchard Companies.  

 

One of the things we talked about was the situation new managers find themselves in as the deal with managing through their first recession.  In most cases, these new managers don’t have any past experience to draw from since they were not in a managerial position during the downturns of the early 80s and 90s.  

 

So how do these managers chart a course without the benefit of past experience?  Madeleine recommends that they take a moment to step back and reflect on some of their own best managers.  Who were the people that provided direction and support for them in the earlier days when these new managers were direct reports?

 

One of the traits that she thinks people will rediscover through this exercise is the power of consistency.  Not that these managers acted the same with every single employee, but instead that they used systems and processes consistently so that people knew what to expect and also what was expected of them.

We just published the results of our annual corporate issues survey. This year’s survey shows that executives and company leaders are somewhat optimistic that the US economy will rebound in 2009. Following the 2008 slowdown that has crippled economies around the world, over 70% of those surveyed expected the economy to begin its recovery sometime this year.  Only a quarter of the respondents thought the downturn would continue unabated into 2010.

 

The 2009 results represent feedback from more than 1,700 executives, line managers, and training and human resource leaders from a range of companies, industries, and countries. Since 2003, over 6,700 leaders have participated in this ongoing study. Here are some of the highlights from the press release:

 

“Participants in the most recent Blanchard survey were asked to describe their organization’s overall outlook in regards to the economy, training expenditures, expected cuts, and coping strategies.  In addition, the survey touched on corporate issues relating to organizational, HR, and management challenges. Responses focused on the most important aspects of future corporate growth and employee development, as well as how employees are prepared to deal with these and other hurdles. Some of the survey’s top responses include:

 

Tactics for Coping in a Down Economy

 

-         Invest in productivity and performance

-         Cut travel costs

-         Increase focus on branding and differentiation

 

2009 Top Organizational Challenges

 

-         Economic challenges

-         Competitive pressure

-         Growth and expansion

 

2009 Top Management Challenges

 

-         Managing change

-         Creating an engaged workforce

-         Reducing costs

 

Types of Training to be Offered in 2009

 

-         Leadership skills

-         Managerial/supervisory skills

-         Customer service skills

 

With the expectation that the economy will begin to recover within the next year, survey respondents also predict that their corporations will not make drastic cuts to training budgets. Fewer than 1 in 5 state that their organization plans to spend significantly less money on training in 2009, as compared to 2008. This desire to maintain an adequate level of training points to the identification of corporate development as a way to ride out the storm of economic turmoil, while also refining and realigning each organization’s own learning infrastructure.

 

While recent news has highlighted the downsizing of well-known companies, the Blanchard survey results show signs that corporations are looking inward to survive current conditions instead of resorting to the old playbook of cuts, cuts, and more cuts. Companies seeking to decrease costs along all facets of the organizational structure are not, the survey suggests, primarily targeting personnel and marketing. Only 29% of respondents listed personnel layoffs and cuts as ways their companies plan to cope with the down economy, while marketing cuts came in at 14%. More than 60% plan to invest in productivity and performance-maximizing strategies, while another 46% plan to focus on their corporate branding and differentiation.”

You can view the entire Blanchard 2009 Corporate Issues Survey findings at:

http://www.kenblanchard.com/img/pub/Blanchard_2009_Corporate_Issues_Survey.pdf

 

 

Join Ken Blanchard, co-founder of The Ken Blanchard Companies, right here on LeaderChat beginning at 10:05 a.m. Pacific Time for a 50-minute Q&A session.  Ken will be popping in right after he finishes a webinar being hosted by our friends at WebEx on Leading in Uncertain Times.  Over 1,500 people are expected to participate in the webinar and there is a good chance that a large number of them will be gathering here to ask questions.

 

If you have a question that you would like to ask Ken, just enter this thread or click on the COMMENTS hyperlink near the title of this post.  Type in your question in the space provided and hit SUBMIT COMMENT.  Ken will answer as many questions as possible until he has to leave at 11:00 a.m. Pacific.

 

And if you can’t stay, be sure to stop by later and see all the questions that were asked.  Or better yet, hit the RSS FEED button on the right-hand column and receive updates on a daily basis!

A lot of clients have been asking us to help them with positioning training in their companies.  Tight budgets have put restrictions on travel and any expenditure that doesn’t immediately impact the bottom line.  Training budgets have been especially hard hit in companies that mostly see training as long-term skill development that you do when you have extra time and money—which is certainly not the situation today in most organizations.

 

It got me thinking about who needs training.  If training is just for training’s sake, the answer is probably no one.  But if it is training designed to help people be more productive on the job, serve customers better, or impact the bottom line in some way, then that’s a different story.

 

So who in your company needs to be more focused and productive?  Who could benefit from managers better able to prioritize work, manage expectations, and provide support?  There are probably a number of people depending on the situation your company is in.

 

In any of these three situations, training can help your organization immediately, and also position it for new growth in the future as the economy improves.

We’re sending out the latest edition of our Ignite newsletter in just a couple of hours with the subject line, “Don’t go it alone in today’s economy.”  In addition to being a provocative phrase that I hope gets a lot of people to open and read this month’s issue, I think that there is also some important wisdom in the phrase that bears highlighting.

 

First, talk to your frontline employees. People will come up with all sorts of innovative ways to cut costs and increase revenues beyond what can be dreamed up in the corner office.  That’s not a knock on senior leadership, but rather an acknowledgement of the fact that the people closest to the work can see things that escape the eye of those farther removed.  

 

Second, people who have a say in determining what should be cut and what new plans should be implemented have a higher degree of buy-in when it comes time to actually implement those plans.  In other words, “People who plan the battle, rarely battle the plan.”

 

Don’t go it alone.  You’ll get better ideas and more cooperation when you involve others in the process.

At a time when everything seems topsy-turvy, it was comforting to enjoy the touchpoint of the Super Bowl.  I listened to the game on radio while catching up with some work and it was reassuring to hear the ads for Lincoln-Mercury (focusing on batteries, tires, and brakes), Subway (eat healthy), MotorCraft batteries, and Barbasol shaving cream—just like always.  It reminded me that even as we cope with a serious recession, there is still a lot of business out there and things are more the same than they are different.  Sure, we’re all saving every nickel and dime, but we are still buying the things we need.  People and businesses are being cautious with their money.  I can handle that.

 

It was also comforting to see that some people—marketers especially—are still working hard.  It was fun to see them adjusting their messages to fit the current economic situation.  No panic—just a necessary adjustment.  It’s probably something we can all reflect on.  What’s the approach in your organization?  Are you adjusting, moving forward, dealing effectively with the situation, or are you holding back, unsure of how to proceed.  That’s a sure recipe for failure.