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Turnarounds
A key consideration for turnaround situations is to find a way to build trust. Once trust is in place, success is around the corner. Without it, only short term success ensues. Willing employees get results in ways that you may never know without high levels of trust. Do they come to you and talk openly about issues? Do they offer suggestions when things go wrong? Do they challenge leadership in confident and productive ways? Do they seem to push for the answer in making things happen or are they passive? The answers to these questions will give you insight as to where your organization stands from a level of trust.
Our partner and leadership consultant – Tom Despres relays a successful turnaround experience in his leadership role with StorageTek in Puerto Rico:
“Upon arriving at StorageTek, Puerto Rico, the team was just coming off of a non-union strike – the first of its kind on the island. I worked initially to gain their trust by ensuring them that I would communicate with them on important matters. When we made important business decisions that impacted the employees in any way, I would make sure they not only knew about the decision, but I would also give them some background on the basis for the decision. This helped build trust in leadership and also across peer organizations.
I also focused on making the employees more competitive individually by offering training in the areas of Six Sigma and Lean Manufacturing. This served to give them ways to improve operations in the factory and give them a sense of accomplishment as individuals. I knew we risked attrition once the employees gained levels of certification in these areas, but I also made it clear that we were doing this as a win-win to help both the company and the employee. Only 2% per year (a rate 5x lower than peer companies) left the company as a result. Investing in their development motivated them to work toward improving the bottom line. We achieved levels of performance in the areas of cost control, customer service and quality well beyond previous years.”
Do you have a turnaround story that needs to be written?
Contact us for a free consultation to learn more about how QualiFind can assist you.
