Tired of the gloom and doom already? Overcome with business surveys that tells you that business confidence has sunk to new lows not seen since ‘the great depression’? Then read on.
I offer ten tips on how to turn the negative to the positive, switching from depression to positive projection and progress.
I draw on several firsthand experiences to offer my 10 tips.
- 41 years of professional advice to chief executives and executive teams of large and medium sized private and public corporations preceded by 10 years senior line management experience.
- Firsthand challenge of retrenching over 1200 staff and finding alternative employment for 90 % of them plus being on the receiving end of being retrenched and unemployed.
- Managing turnarounds and advising clients who have been technically insolvent or on the brink of disaster.
- Successfully putting strategies in place that sustain personal, team and organisational longevity and effectiveness
Take care of your customers and your staff. They are the backbone of your business – no one is more important!
Loyalty is everything and crucial in tough times!
Demonstrate genuine care and loyalty through.
- Continuing to prioritise safety and occupational health – no short cuts
- Invest in training and development with a purpose!
- Manage and grow talent!
- Challenge your best people with assignments that grow and develop their professional and personal ability!
- Create a positive and nurturing culture!
- Provide enhancing service to customers, always doing what you can to exceed their expectations and value add!
- Acknowledge and reinforce performance!
Call it as it is!
Call it as it is!
Speak the truth about the health of the business and be real about the economic facts of the business and the rationale for action!
Truth and honesty – an overdue commodity in business
It’s a good time to encourage open and opportunistic conversations. Conduct and facilitate open forums that give ample opportunity for expression of concerns and reservations and the generation of solutions that can make a difference!
Turn the tide, engage with your staff, hear their concerns, but be open to the possibility of change.
Hope, direction, solutions, and a genuine belief grounded in reality will be a key to turnaround.
Focus, Focus, Focus!
Focus on the Pareto items – 80/20 rule – should be applied to act on the 20% of items that account for 80 % of your costs, or the 20 customers that generate 80% of your business.
Ask your team for Help!
Ask your staff for their ideas, ask your customers for ideas. They will always have good ideas to solve critical problems. Listen, recognise, and acknowledge their contribution.
Make it safe to challenge ‘the way we have always done things around here.’ Best of all apply and act on the ideas – it will not be what your people expect.
Eliminate waste.
Be tough and objective on all aspects of your business. Fair, respectful consequence management builds credibility!
Leadership with decisive action will draw followers to the cause of ‘we are serious about rebuilding or reshaping this business’ so that success will generate work and a positive climate for satisfaction.
The tough calls will, in the main, be obvious to all! Don’t assume that the rationale for actions will automatically be understood – explain the rationale, map out the process, and clarify the impact.
Look at reducing.
- Executive perks
- Reducing bonuses
- Putting a cap on salaries
- Reallocating funds to invest in research and development.
- Holiday leave accumulation
- The termination of those managers who are not on the team and are openly sabotaging your best efforts to make good!
- Elimination of deliberate waste or inappropriate use of company resources
And reallocating funds to
- Research and development.
- Acquisition of business and right price to leverage your business/service offer
- Provision of cash for working capital
- Upgrades of infrastructure and systems
- Training and development
- Value adding service and product to customers.
- Reduce production costs and cycle times.
- Working smart
- Rewards, recognition, and acknowledgement of performance
Change the mindset.
Shift the mindset. Realign the internal compass towards a new way forward that is discontinuous with the past.
Modify your paradigm and that of the senior management team.
|
From |
to |
|
Cost – How can we shave and save |
Investment – How can we best invest our funds to get the best return |
|
Singular cost items, multiple units, divisional thought, elements |
Synergy and intersection of costs Economies of scale, consolidation, and integration |
|
I’m too busy for lunch or a break |
My wellbeing is important. I will take time out to eat and break from my work so I can be more effective |
|
Who can we terminate to reduce overheads |
How can we best utilise our talent, tap the latent ability and productivity |
Cycle times and travels – Time is money and opportunity.
Rethink how efficiently you use your time and that of other highly paid and high value managers and staff.
If you could utilise the time of your principal income earners, or key customer interface staff more effectively, what would you save and what could you generate in sales?
Look at.
- Meeting duration, frequency and effectiveness and attendees
- Waiting time
- Follow up actions and accountabilities.
- Travel time (in the air, taxi, in the building, parking, pickups etc)
Courage and confidence to lead!
It comes from within, it must come from your wholeness as a person, your comfort with who you are and who you aspire to be!
It becomes magnetic and attractive to be around you – we love leaders who lead, we are attracted to guts, character and determination!
We are moved by humility, compassion, respect, and simplicity.
Most of all we appreciate and respect authenticity!
Have a vision and a road map and stay the course.
Paint a clear and easily understood picture of a future that is more attractive and compelling than the current reality – a vision.
Develop a plan of how to get from where we are to where we want to be!
A road map with goals, objectives, a defined route, staging points, and a clear line of sight for each person’s job to the ultimate destination.
Ensure that all staff understand the plan, aligned and focused on a common outcome!
It will be tough going on the journey – stay the course!
‘When our backs are to the wall, it just means we are close to the other side!’
Feedback and feed forward
We thrive on feedback. It sustains us and we warm from the glow of praise and positive correction to get back on track!
Celebrate success, revel in the present and be magnetically drawn to the future.
We like to know what is coming up, feeding forwarding and focusing on the next challenge.
That next challenge is NOW!
When conditions are tough, does your organisation retreat—or reset for what comes next?
If the answer is anything less than a clear, confident reset, we can help.
We work alongside leaders and executive teams to cut through complexity, focus on what matters most, and turn pressure into practical, measurable progress. Because we know that real turnaround doesn’t come from theory—it comes from disciplined action, aligned people, and courageous leadership.
We’re ready to partner with you to reshape, refocus, and move forward with purpose. Why not contact Keogh today to start the conversation?
