Page 177 - Accelerating out of the Great Recession
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ACCELERATING OUT OF THE GREAT RECESSION
5. Drive results. Running day-to-day business operations in a
slow-growth environment will be a significant challenge.
Motivating the organization when tough decisions have to
be made will require a well-balanced approach. Initiatives
need clearly established milestones and metrics—and
unambiguous ownership. Leaders need to track progress
rigorously against those metrics and milestones, intervene
when necessary, and communicate any changes of direction.
At the same time, leaders need to celebrate success and rec-
ognize the contributions of individual team members who
have achieved results. Testimonials from customers and
employees that demonstrate a company’s values and
strengths can be amazingly powerful and effective. Some
executives think that video clips and small rewards (and
awards) can be gimmicky. Perhaps—but they work.
6. Invest in affiliation and retention. Retaining the best tal-
ent will become an even bigger challenge in the context
of slow growth and fewer available opportunities to cre-
ate a satisfying career path. It is important to actively
manage the attrition of lower-performing employees in
order to ensure that there are career opportunities for the
most talented people. Additional measures will be neces-
sary, especially in light of demographic challenges. While
leaders in the 1930s focused on securing jobs for the
most skilled workers (by lowering the number of work-
ing hours per head and, when necessary, shifting high-
skilled labor to lower-skilled jobs to keep them on the
payroll) and also added social benefits that in part com-
pensated for lower wages, today’s leaders will have to
come up with innovative approaches in the field of work-
life balance and compensation.
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