Ilissa Miller is the CEO at iMiller Public Relations (iMPR) with two decades of experience in sales, marketing and product development.
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Whether it’s a global financial crisis or a pandemic (or both), business leaders often face challenges that they didn’t expect and have to make hard decisions to keep their business afloat. If you Google “how can employees help struggling companies overcome a crisis?” you will find many responses about how companies can help struggling employees, but not a lot in reverse. This article touches on how employees can help companies adapt to unforeseen market shifts.
As the CEO of a public relations company, I work with many companies adapting to the “new normal.” Often, our advisory and consulting services morph to best business practices in general. That helps to align a company’s ethos with its market position to ensure congruency in everything it communicates. When you have a consistent message internally and externally, clarity is enhanced. This requires a careful communications approach, being able to clearly detail what a company’s position is and how it aligns with the market, as well as provide guidance for employees on how they can help during challenging times.
As an executive who has led departments at companies and has run my own companies during a host of global crisis situations, I’ve found that there’s a lot to learn from employees who have great attitudes. A can-do approach through any situation helps make great companies even better.
From where we sit, most managers and business leaders feel the same way about layoffs and furloughs: It’s not the decision they want to make, but it’s one they need to make to save the business. When employees look for or create problems, can’t seem to align with changes, and are taking more time to manage the shift, then it might be time to cut the cord. Employee lag could have repercussions throughout an entire organization. Often feedback about an employee’s performance has already been given; if not, then give it. What do you have to lose? In the end, it will be your decision or theirs. At least give them an opportunity to make it theirs.
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How can employees help their company through challenging times? Here are three key points:
1. Understand what’s going on in the company and how the world’s issues impact it.
If the world has a stronger impact on the business than can be controlled, assume that these effects are rampant across other companies and industries. Being thankful for the opportunity to be employed when so many others are not can help employees shift from a place of frustration to a more appreciative approach that begs the questions “How can I help?” and “Are there other areas where I can support the business?” Even just putting these questions forward provides leadership insights into your attitude that could have a positive impact on your role.
2. Assess your attitude.
In the early days of the dot-com bubble burst, I worked at a company that had to close 10 out of 13 locations globally and downsize the remaining substantially. This caused a lot of angst, added responsibilities that were barely communicated and required a laser focus on the goals. If you were lucky enough to survive the layoffs and closures, this meant that the business leaders trusted you would be able to deliver on the business’s goals. In this instance, the goal was sales and new client acquisitions — the core focus remained the most important goal to attain.
Bad attitudes often hide in actions such as excuses and the inability to stay focused on the tasks it takes for you to perform your core job. Managers see these manifestations. Even in trying times, they will do the best they can to steer employees in the right direction. When bad attitudes ensue, employees imply that they are not open-minded, translating to an inability to “hear” the feedback needed to adjust. This sends individuals down a tailspin that will no doubt end in loss of a job. Managers want can-doers, with attitudes that illustrate their ability to adapt and deliver. Adapting is very important; delivering is more.
3. Focus on quality, efficiency and expediency.
Craft responses that help to clarify an employer’s (or client’s) needs. Identify areas to create more efficiencies, and share these with other employees or team members to stay focused on the company’s core business goals. Any other distraction may cause concern or alarm to a management team already struggling with hard decisions. When you manufacture or unintentionally create distractions from your core purpose in a company, those distractions will likely be seen, heard, discussed and considered in their already grappling process. Stay focused and attuned to what the business needs, and execute on that with precision.
There’s only one thing worse than an individual company grappling with shifts to their business, and that is when it’s rampant — happening to many businesses, industries and individuals everywhere. This pandemic has wreaked havoc on a variety of industries and jobs with ongoing uncertainty. We don’t know when it will end, how long it will take to recover and when the next economic boom will be.
If you’re one of the very lucky ones to retain your job and have an opportunity to positively impact a company’s ability to pull through during a crisis, then you know that it will take whatever you are willing to do to make it happen. Even if it’s not what you were hired to do or want to do. When you commit to success, you show yourself what you’re truly capable of. I challenge you to try as hard as you can. As they often say, the alternative may not be so good either.
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Author: Ilissa Miller, Forbes Councils Member
