They say “All that Glitters is not Gold”
Setbacks, failures, halts, all these are part of a business. Times are not always rosy to get your team together all the time. When it’s booming, the huddle stays still and grows stronger; when it’s not, morale takes a down fall.
The sight is a bit usual in small and emerging enterprises where a two step growth often leads to one step-back. It may happen occassionally as customers aren’t happy, opportunities are hard to come-by and growth is out of vision. A business’s real strength is tested when there are pure signs of tough times ahead. It does no good and causes the once-motivated team to fall apart. As you must have heard, ‘building them up takes time, breaking them apart takes just a split second.
It could happen in the most sophisticated and top companies of the world as well. There’s no exception to that. A sudden twist in the tale shatters the budding morale of the young aspiring team. Confidence sinks and the once-together team begins to move apart.
Despite the sudden boom and growth of a business, ups and downs are bound to happen. Keeping the team together is an art. If I looked back to a decade or so, I would see myself standing in the middle of a dilemma trying to sneak out a way so that my team still could be cohesive.
Somehow, I along with my team made it through the rough muddy patches and got a bit of ideas to deal with mayhem. I’m gonna share those with you now –
Tough times call for Transparency– Partial conversations cause confusion, giving birth to distrust and lack of cooperation among the team. A good Entrepreneur must begin with a candid attitude, bringing them all together and putting a fair view. This kind of attitude makes the team indulge, ask questions and prompt a possible solution or workout. This may or may not evoke discussions taking form of arguments, but it’s probably a brilliant way to keep them together and motivated.
What’s the alternate? – First off, you can’t avoid those flip flops or call it reverse of fortune. And you normally bear the thorns of what you can’t avoid. Consequently, you are left with less opportunities and limited resources or alternatives. What’s the best thing to do at this moment? Probably, try and see the big picture. Put the best people do the most required tasks. Make them do what they really can and where they will really be able to succeed. You may need to start from the scratch and put things to work yet another time. This way, you would find yourself always in hunt of being together as a unit.
Bind the Team together – Being a human being, you would just want to concentrate on making things fall back rather than trying to resolute the conflicts or the negativity taking birth. Most owners go through the same situation and most of them make the same mistake. While it’s understandable, it’s also important to be open to communication within and outside the enterprise and wriggle your way back. Be it little talks, conversations, eating together, or just a simple 10 minute conference session, all this would give your team an opportunity to recoup and rebuild.
Conclusion – Hardships may resurface every now and then; identify these as opportunities to build a bond with the team, making them a unit. Now, you know how to keep things smooth, don’t you?
