Engaging your employees in a downturn

The economy may have your business down, but has it got your employees down too? Donna Sizemore explains how to keep your workforce engaged and motivated.

When recession, competition or any other crisis strikes your organisation, do your fingers reach for the panic button? It's simply human nature to do so. Instinctively, as leaders, we might want to curl up and wait until the storm passes. But when fear and doubt replace employee trust and encouragement, panic escalates fast. Yet the key to getting through trouble is right in front of you - your people.

Great managers know that their teams have the energy, ideas and commitment to get the company out of troubled waters. After all, they are the same people that made the organisation strong in the first place. But when managers shut down, when they stop communicating and encouraging their people, it sends a message: brush up your resume.