Welcome to our first newsletter as we close of 2008. We hope to create many more for you in 2009 and look forward to your feedback.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for the continued support we received from you in 2008. It has been an amazing year for all of us. As connecting conversations is our passion, I would like to share my thoughts around the current economic crisis we are all facing. It is only through empowering our workforce that we are able to withstand the unplanned changes we face. I believe if organisations build the skills of their leaders and managers they will become more resilient to the changes imposed upon them. Enabled, empowered and innovative employees will carry organisations through tough times. So how do I suggest you survive the credit crunch we are all facing?

Surviving the Credit Crunch

The credit crunch is causing immense uncertainty across the world and generating a flood of people who need our help right now!

Increased awareness of the “Credit Crunch” has meant businesses have to be even more competitive in the market place.  As the mayhem of the credit crunch continues to destabilise our world there is an increasing demand for coaching services. 

Workers in the massacred property and finance sectors who have lost their jobs need to cope with the trauma and find a new way forward for their careers.

Employees everywhere are worried that things will get worse with longer hours, more stress at work and even less job security.

Corporate executives are under pressure to deliver more with fewer staff and are in danger of pushing their own work life balance from “poor” to “disastrous”.

Small business owners who just need someone they can trust to help think through the issues and make tough decisions whilst still providing the inspiring leadership that their staff crave.

And of course, as we all know, professional coaching can help in every one of these situations - and more. Which is why there is an estimated global growth in enquiries of over 10% per month (i.e. over100% per year!).  Coaching is booming!

As the credit crunch bites, pressures are growing within businesses around the world. Corporations of all shapes and sizes are feeling this tension. For some it is the soaring cost of supply; for o thers—dwindling demand. Some unfortunates feel the pain at both ends of the supply chain-and even in the middle with spiralling credit costs! While the causes may vary, few can dispute that the strain on corporations is increasing rapidly.

The executives in these corporations are naturally working hard to help the organization to survive. Yet in these tough times, they also have to be more careful about protecting their own positions. When the environment stresses the company, its executives will often disagree about the best way to respond. The tension created can cause some unfortunate and unwelcome side effects—an increase in political manoeuvring among senior executives. This is especially likely if the CEO does not pay attention to the problem. While organizational politics is nothing new, the ability to handle this dimension is suddenly of much greater importance.

As coaches and specialist in the field of workplace coaching, we are well placed to be able to assist our clients in this respect. By taking this reality seriously, we can help our clients to wea ther the storm, both the credit crunch and the political maelstrom.

In order to help our clients, we use the CREATE Model to approach dealing with the credit crunch dilemma in the following way:

Step 1: What is the Current Reality?  Get Leaders to Understand the Dilemma

If people in an organization are feeling the pressure of the credit crunch, it is likely that as the top executives compete, employees will find themselves in one or more dilemma. By codifying these dilemmas, it is much easier for employees to come to terms with their situation and begin to think clearly about what they can do for the best..

Step 2: Explore Alternatives.  Get Leaders to Investigate the Details and Alternatives

Once they have begun to understand the dilemma they face, we then move to the details and alternatives. Often this can be elusive, yet any attempt to unravel the complexities of the human behavior behind the dilemma is useful.

What are the alternatives/options:  What alternatives can they explore to change the situation to be more positive? 

We have to be realistic. Many of the questions we teach leaders and managers to ask their employees are difficult to answer; however, having them think about these questions sets off an automatic chain reaction in the mind and the actions of the employee. Often they become highly motivated to pursue the answers because they know the importance. There is never a substitute for fact. One lesson that many learn here is that they have paid insufficient attention to building and/or maintaining their political intelligence ga thering system

Step 3: Target Energy – Get them to Plan the Action

Not surprisingly, often the awareness created by the previous steps is sufficient to allow employees to launch into action. This impulse needs to be held in check a few moments more, because we want them to think through their options in a strategic manner. By doing this, they can avoid unhelpful side effects and find easier, more direct routes to influencing the right outcome. Some of the key areas to focus on are:

Strategic Stakeholder Management: Use a simple and effective tool to plot out the key people involved in their goal and analyze their position before planning actions.

Broker Honest Exchanges: Cultivate a relationship of openness and honesty, and manage action to achieve this quickly.

Contingency Actions: Think through the actions and determine what counteractions o thers may take. Is there anything the employee can do to limit the impact of these actions?

Build Political Capital: Build longer term action to ensure you have a strong network of political allies ready for when you need them. Building allies when you are in crisis can be difficult.

When a manager / leader challenges an employee in these four areas, they always find quick and simple actions that they can take to improve their situation; relieve their stress and get more help. At senior levels, being inactive in the political realm is not an option!

Conclusion

In our practice, using brain based coaching, we regularly help our clients to achieve the desired financial results and careers advance rapidly. With the current credit crunch we are starting to see more people struggling to survive, and the steps above become more critical than ever.

As a Workplace Coach training company we have a responsibility to our clients to help them thrive in the turbulent and constantly changing business world, in addition to helping them personally.  Workplace coaching is about helping real people with real issues with real solutions – delivering motivation, improvement and profitability which lasts.

All our best for 2009 and we trust you will have a relaxing and safe festive season. We look forward to working with you in the New Year.

Kind regards

Mary-Joe