How to keep your office upbeat in a beaten up Economy

We all have heard about the bad economy. Something that is effecting everyone in one way or another: Budget cuts, layoffs, bankruptcies and businesses going belly up. Is this causing your employees moral to sink? Is fear in the air at your work place? Fear is not going to stop things from happening in a positive manner but make them worse. So what can you do or say as a leader in the office?

•Don’t keep talking about the bad economy. What people focus on becomes their reality.
•Create a new focus for your team, or your organization. Start a big initiative. Put your energy in productive work. Engage employees in an organization –wide, or a department-wide, service enhancement or process improvement effort.
•Get out of the “limited pie” mentality, where people fight for pieces of a shrinking pie. Summon people’s creativity to create a totally new pie, or enlarge the existing one. Break up the walls between departments. Open up the organization for the winds of innovation and change.
•Don’t waste time waiting for the other door to open. Jump with both feet and get busy.
•Instead of reducing your efforts, consider doubling them. Resist becoming paralyzed, not taking action, or waiting for things to improve. The world will not stop because you don’t like the way it is going. Push forward and quit waiting for change. Be the change you want to see happen
•Communicate often, delivering a message of confidence and hope. It’s not the end of the world. It may be only the end of an old way of doing business. This could be your exciting opportunity to create a new way of thinking about business, and turning that thinking into reality. Positive word/works will be need to
•If your organization has gone through a budget cut or reduction in force, communicate the reasons for this action and then move quickly to communicate the expectations, vision, and plans for the future. You must model, in words and action, the message of hope you need to deliver.
Pamela Larberg- 2009