'Sizzle' to 'Fizzle'

As a Gulf Coast professional services executive — attorney, accountant, architect, builder, banker, financial planner, insurance agent and more — you're faced with intense market pressure. You may be taking on more than you can handle right now. With fewer people on board, your work load is expanding. And, while billings may be on the rise for the first time in recent quarters, the cost of doing business seems to be outstripping the increases. Where are the additional profits?

At the same time, the managing partner by whatever title he may use is raising performance goals, shortening innovation cycles and introducing new systems that must be learned and implemented.

For a brief time, the staff is enthused with the influx of activities and naturally assumes the quickened pace will subside. They know the upswing is in place, but they can't understand yet if their own roles will be increasing, or will the work flow be more of the same old thing. Aside from a financial consideration, will there be more face time with the boss, responsibility with larger clients, more learning opportunities, titled recognition, a cherished corporate benefit or physical move to a more visible office? And then, what will the company be doing to enhance the current momentum? Have budgets been created for new corporate literature, targeted media advertising, trade shows, incentive and professional public relations consulting?

But all too often, with perhaps one less employee in your department or with the freeze on hiring, there are no new promotional budgets. It's just the furious pace that actually increases and becomes the “new normal.”

Burn out

What began as a normal return of business activity, or even an exceptionally healthy burst of quarterly achievement, becomes chronic overload. The consequence naturally is that this new frenetic activity saps staff motivation. But it doesn't stop there. The down-the-chain result is a scattered focus which at the next lower link begins to confuse and even displease the client base.

If you recognize some of these characteristics in your own Gulf Coast enterprise, consider a meaningful redirection while still meeting goals of cost containment.

The goal for you in this stage of becoming the “come back kid” is in being the spark to escape back to normalcy. Please believe you can sustain high performance over the long term, without over taxing staff or confusing clients.

You'll start your road to sanity by halting the destructive activity of “multi loading.” That's the cumulative result of project and responsibility overloading. It's not just that big project, but the addition of the many small projects, work in progress, plus responsibility to other staff, post service on completed projects, added personal family needs and more. Multi loading, once it is clearly recognized, fortunately can easily be redefined and then, realigned.

In breaking free of this “sizzle to fizzle” management lead activity, try hard to precisely classify your new strategy. Put it in writing so you can live your words every day; or eat them. It could be that important!

Be realistic as to a longer term sustainable thinking. At the same time, the long path starts with the first step, so you want to declare a “stop date” to the high energy phase of corporate projects.

Bye-bye task

Filter all your “needed” projects and see what can be “slimmed down”, “rolled in” or cancelled immediately. Ask first, “do we absolutely, positively need it?” And, “do we have the resources to do it.” “Who will be the lead executive. To make room for Project X, what will be abandoned?”

I like the “stop action” concept of reverse initiatives. Instead of asking staff to suggest new initiatives, turn the question around. Ask staff for ideas about what to terminate! You'll find the best thinking from people who are on the firing line, who do the work, and who instinctively know what is really productive. Assuming your Gulf Coast enterprise consists of more than a few people, you'll want to involve both leaders and managers in the discussions. As your deliberations progress, remember please in the discussions and in the real world, every leader will not be a good manager, and every manager will not be a good leader.

Certainly, not every project or activity will support the corporation's strategy. You need a systematic way to make those hard choices of how to reconstruct the effort of your Human Resources. But, that's why you're in place.

The final word

Maintain periods of calm between crises. Foster a culture that encourages success; recognize interim accomplishments and reward attainment. Don't let the sizzle, fizzle. Redirect it. Keep it warm!

Ideally, an enterprise is powered by what the American Marketing Association refers to as “sustainable energy.” It's a kind of joyful striving among associates. In times of economic difficulty and distress, it's that light shining ahead to help you travel the path to the next level of accomplishment. It leads you to that light at the end of the tunnel. As a final caveat, make certain that light isn't a locomotive bearing down on you!