It could be a lawsuit or a slump or just plain fatigue, but most businesses will at some point hit a wall and need to recover.
The biggest loss from a crisis is often company morale. If you see your employees losing their enthusiasm, it’s time to be a leader and pave the way back to the environment you enjoyed before the issues arose.
If you’re a small business owner and you’ve never experienced a crisis then you’ve beat the odds – so far.
Whether it’s a personnel crisis such as dealing with a sexual harassment lawsuit, a problem caused by extenuating circumstances that affects all businesses like a natural disaster, or an issue with how the company operates such as a personal injury related claim against your business, you’ll need to be the leader with the level head.
Dealing with issues and resolving them can be painful and change your company for the worse. Morale will slump if everyone dreads coming to work each morning for even more bad news.
When you’ve weathered the storm (whatever it may be) the process of rebuilding your business begins, and that doesn’t just mean dollars and cents.
Imagine if you were in your employee’s shoes and had placed trust in your employer. You may not have betrayed their trust but their trust in the business as a long-term fixture in their life could certainly be affected.
That shattered trust and tainted image can be just as difficult to rebuild as any aspect of your business hit by previous problems.
So what do you do?
Many business owners will be drained at this point and this can make the situation ever worse.
In some cases, the burden of leadership can cause employers and managers to react negatively to their employees, which only serves to make the problems worse.
Let’s look at three easy ways you can breathe life back into your business by regaining your employee’s trust and faith in your as a leader.
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Be honest
You’re having a difficult time and the reasons are obvious as to why. So why present a false image?
Smiling through the pain will only fool your team for as long as you’re in the room. Lying begets lying and you’ll be making things far worse by not facing up to the problems.
Instead, be very open and candid about things. Talk to your employees about what happened and don’t stifle any conversations regarding the problem you overcame or the one you are trying to overcome.
Keeping secrets from people you want to trust you is futile, so put a strategy together where you’ll actively address what happened and what was needed to rectify things. Remember though, if it was an employee-related problem, don’t share confidential information that could damage you, the business and other employee’s reputations.
Tell everyone what was wrong and what was done to fix the issue. Accept input and if you’re at fault accept blame.
By being honest with them you’ll demonstrate true leadership skills and I can assure you they’ll appreciate you for it.
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Be generous
This will be difficult if whatever issue you’ve just moved past was costly, but remember it wasn’t your employees’ fault and they had to endure it too.
Incentivizing recovery can make a big impact with them as it shows you acknowledge their own contribution to the business and that while it seemed like you were alone against the world during the crisis they were all there as well.
Keep point #1 in mind and let them know that you’re providing rewards for working harder during the recovery period because you want them to believe in your business with the same level of commitment as before.
This can be as complex as a series of rewards based on individual achievement or as easy as a weekly lunch out together on you.
If you strategize properly you can use this as a perfect opportunity to build an even more united, happy team of employees.
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Be better
The last thing any employee should ever see is you fall back into any old habits that opened the business up to problems in the first place.
Did you have a policy or plan before that could have protected the business? Well you better have one now!
Was there a rainy-day fund in the event of an emergency? If not, then start one and let everyone know.
Look at things from the perspective of an employee who doesn’t have all the facts you do regarding the problem. They’ll assume the worst and if you then address things as per point 1 but go right back into your old model, then it’s only natural that your best employees will likely start rethinking their employment with you or even start working on their resumes.
While it might be costly or challenging to your ego to initiate the changes required, it’s imperative to do so. The changes might not be easy but the decision to make them should be.
You might think the issue was a one off, and even if it was and the resolution is difficult, you should still take those steps.
Your employees will quickly lose confidence if the person in charge exhibits stubborn, risky behavior especially if it’s right after they’ve just come out the other side of a crisis.
All of this will take a lot of effort on your part. There are plenty of great reasons to contact a professional HR consultant and getting help rebuilding employee morale is one of them. In over 35 years of working in human resources, I have yet to see anyone who didn’t need some help with this issue.
If you have just beaten a crisis, are in the middle of a crisis or see one coming and aren’t sure what to do, please get in touch. Together we’ll work on not only making sure your business experiences as little negativity as possible, but we’ll protect and/or rebuild your employee’s trust in you and your business as well.
Business Leadership, Change Management, Team Management