Insights for Managers & Professionals to do better in difficult times
Tanmay Vora
With two recessions in less than 10 years, it is very important for managers and professionals to know how to manage work in such situations. Thanks to Journyx Project Management Blog for pointing to the post “10 ways to be a good manager during recession” over at TechRepublic blog. The post offers some useful guidance for managers to do better with a positive outlook. I’d specially like to mention two points I liked:
Talk often — and do it in person
Yes, you’ve heard it before, but it’s true: Get out there and talk to your people often about what’s going on with the company, impending consequences, and what’s positive in the company’s future. Experts concur that this is something leaders don’t do enough of, or handle the wrong way. Be as transparent as possible. Don’t tell white lies. Don’t surprise everyone with bad news if you’ve known about it for weeks. Don’t send out an e-mail when you could organize a Web conference or a group meeting. All of these things erode trust and make managers seem like impersonal clods, which makes for an unhappy workforce.Look to the future
Everyone is stuck in the present right now: survival. For a change, spend a few hours each week thinking about, and talking about, your company and department’s future. What can you do that will deliver unique value to customers (internal and external) when the economy begins to recover? What can you do now that will help the business survive until then? This can be a positive and healthy way to deal with the stress of the moment. “Reminding ourselves and each other and staff about what is in our control can be very helpful,” Cooke says.
Esther Derby at her blog “Insights you can use” also has a great post “Visibly Valuable” where she talks about few important things you can do as a professional/programmer to remain visible and valuable. One that I found very useful is:
Understand what is most important to work on. List those items in rank order. Work on the most important thing until it is done, or until you are stuck. Move to item two. Repeat.
How will you know what is most important? Ask your manager. Do not accept “everything is important” or “they are all number one priorities” as an answer. Those are not answers, they are signs that your manager is pressured, stressed, and isn’t taking time to think clearly.
Ask your boss some questions that will help him think.
• If you were doing this work, which would you work on first?
• Which has to be done soonest?
• Which one will bring in/save the most money?
• Which one will help you most?
We neither have control over our luck nor on external market situations. Only thing we have control over is our own efforts. Why not give our best?