Taking advantage of current economic conditions.

• Author: Cingoranelli, Dominic

When economic conditions are tough, a firm and its clients can either hunker down or they can exploit the conditions to create significant improvements. The current conditions have created an unprecedented free pass for organizations to make changes that they've put off for far too long. In our consulting work with other organizations, we find that there are some "do's" and some "don'ts" to consider in this area. What you do and don't do will vary depending on your circumstances, but I want to share some ideas that we've seen work. First let's start with the "do's" you should consider.

Get your management team to change behaviors

Over the last few years some management and supervisory level people may have been able to get by without fulfilling their roles and responsibilities as managers and leaders. Managers really need to start developing and training their people. We've heard a lot of excuses for not training people--we're too busy, we don't have the right people, we need more experienced people. However, if you want it done right, you have to do it yourself.

The way you get the right people and people with experience is to hire interns or entry level people and train and develop them to become better at what they're doing. Your people need guidance and help. Your management team should be doing this--get them started now!

If the only person you can make better, faster, and stronger is you, a manager, then you're worth way less in the marketplace than if you can make others better, faster, and stronger. This concept represents a fundamental shift in the way some small- to midsized firm owners need to think and operate. Your people are a key resource, and you need to invest in them.

Make training and development more objective and robust

Beef up your human resources practices and determine what each individual is responsible for. If you haven't done so already, identify the competencies that your people need to develop as they follow a career path at your firm. Competencies are observable, measurable behaviors, activities, and skills built up through experience; they are used to achieve work objectives. Use these competency models to create learning and development plans for your people. And spend time with your people to help them along.

The annual performance review is often a waste of time. Instead, you need to meet with your people every month or two throughout the year to help them grow and develop their professional skills. Use...