It's Time For Spring Cleaning: Strategies To Stimulate Your Business In A Stormy Weather

The recent Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) Report from the Bank of Ghana highlighted the challenges in the real sector. The monetary policy rate was increased to 29.5%, the highest since the establishment of the MPC, even though market players expected the rate to remain unchanged at 28%. Imposing additional taxes on businesses will likely increase the cost of doing business. These are potentially ominous signs for business, and it might seem there is no way a company can thrive under these austerity conditions. Though strictly speaking, this is not a health crisis, our recent experience with Covid-19 demonstrates that leaders and organisations can respond positively to complex challenges.

There are many complex issues to resolve, and the challenge for leaders is where to focus attention to make an impact in a crisis. Herein lies a perfect opportunity for spring cleaning. Your business was roaring when times were good, accumulated dust, and overlooked some inefficiencies. The weather has changed, the rains are here, and you must clean the choked gutters. Spring cleaning removes the sludge from the business and makes it more responsive during a crisis. Spring cleaning your business will make the impact of perennial flooding associated with economic distress less severe and enable you to sleep better at night. However, undertaking this business spring cleaning is an arduous task. I will pinpoint three main areas where you must focus your spring cleaning efforts and offer a guide to making the process more impactful as you navigate the present economic challenges.

First, start spring cleaning from where you are, with your people:
Every organisation is as good as its people. Talent is the catalysing resource organisations use to carry out their mission. The impact and returns on human capital in the post-industrial economy outweigh the return and impact of financial capital. Many organisations still need to adapt their approaches to managing talent in response to this significant change. The crisis presents an opportunity to look inward and fix the talent issues that drag on execution. Today, you need your talent to be agile, empowered, motivated, etc., to go through the difficult months ahead. It is time to spring clean your team, the environment, leadership, and the mindsets shaping the business. Here are three ideas to prepare your business and people for the rainy season.

Energise the environment for meaningful work; the rains are here.
It's time to actively reconsider how to create an environment that enables talent to fulfil their potential. Take out negative energy just as you would take a toxic person out of the team, and start celebrating and appreciating all the great work done over the years. Set the mood for the team with the story you want to lead with rather than allowing the flood of news about the impending storm to dominate and create fear and panic in the group. Turn bad situations into meaningful learning moments by encouraging the team to reflect on their experiences and take the lessons needed for the future of the business.

The business must put its best foot forward by ensuring that the best people are in the critical roles needed to respond to business floods. For example, if you previously had two people who typically cleaned the choked gutter, you may need to double the numbers or replace them with more skilled people to desilt quickly before the rains come. Conduct an audit of the critical roles required now and put your best talent there.
No business can survive the storm with the usual negativity and "silo mentality" that characterises teamwork in most organisations. Please do not allow it to slide with the mindset that these challenges are in every business. Ensure your team is tuned up and facilitates supportive, collaborative relationships across diverse groups. Get your team to work together in the storm.

Engage every team member in the spring cleaning effort; it's community labour.
Safeguarding the business may mean undertaking high cost and expenditure reviews which necessitates cuts to everything, including compensation and benefits and potential downsizing. These have to be done transparently and with the team's involvement. Business leaders must engage their teams in seeking solutions to the crisis. At the beginning of the year, I facilitated mini-workshops for a couple of clients on the theme, Accelerating in a Time of Uncertainty. For example, I used the strategies many adopt to drive home safely when there is a storm to elicit ideas on how individuals can support their organisations to thrive in the current business climate. Many people shared personal stories and identified ways such strategies and resourcefulness could be extended to the business to enable their organisations to thrive in the current storm. Your team is brimming with ideas, but you will only find out if you engage them. I have always found that there is energy in the organisation waiting to be released. Involving the team creates a sense of ownership, galvanising everyone into taking effective action.

Empower leaders to lead and support others in doing their spring cleaning.
The crisis moment requires that we equip leaders with the necessary skills to energise and lead teams for accelerated performance, as the current challenges require an all-hands-on-deck approach. Team members are also experiencing the pain and will remember how the organisation and its leaders made them feel when times were tough. Hence, leaders must also be resilient and well-prepared to engage teams. Who cares for the caregiver? Recently, some leaders and board members from two of my clients in the banking industry participated in our resilience and talent leadership training. Even before the session ended, one leader said, "We have received a real booster to re-energise our teams in these challenging times." These engagements prepare leaders to support better the teams they lead.

Adopt effective accountability practices that enable leaders to check in on the well-being of their teams (and can account for them when there is a storm). Team leads must also support their teams in undertaking their spring cleaning by engaging them to review their progress on their professional journeys, the skill sets and attitudes that supported their growth, and what has been a drag that has to be changed. Engaging team members in these empowering conversations create trust and energises them to enhance their contribution in a moment of great need.

You must begin your spring cleaning as soon as possible (if you have not started already) because the rains are already here. You can start with any one of the three ideas right now. In my next article, I will share ideas on how to spring-clean your relationship with customers and key stakeholders.

Robert M. Bennin - (CFA, CPTD, FIoD)
Chief Learning Strategist, TEMPLE Advisory