Tough times are an inexorable part of any business, but these are the periods that teach most of the businessmen the best lessons of their lives. Just have a thought, as your business is facing some rough days, it’s not just your money or reputation that is at stake, but the people working for your business undergo major part of suffering.
Everyone can work together when the grass is green, but what defines a real team is when they work with the same collaboration and trust when the situations get critical.
Whether it’s a work pressure or an employee lay off process, the way you will help them handle the situation is what will decide the future of your company. So if you are one of those who are currently facing issues with your business, here are some ways you can use this crisis as an opportunity to build a stronger and better team that can fight against any odds.
● Let them face real-world challenges
The problems that your business is stuck in are from the real world, so while you are making efforts to make your team stronger, why not make them face some tough challenges that actually need some power to fight back.
No, no; I am not telling you to make them move a loaded truck, by tough challenges I meant some outdoor games that need some physical strength and smart moves that can help them to streamline their tasks in a way that needs lesser effort to produce more results and reach the desired targets.
● Help them recognize their strength
Everyone sitting in the office might have reached that place with some or the other abilities that they have to make them a different person. But many times people themselves are unaware of the things they are best at. They just underestimate the inner strength that they have and this is what could affect your business.
Help them know what they are good at, give a self evaluation form to each of them and understand what they think about themselves before you give your feedback. Take a one-on-one session that includes your suggestions on how they can improve themselves and add value to the company with their talent to take things back to normal.
● Find a mentor to guide your team
This is the best and the easiest option you can opt for your employee welfare. You are going through a bad phase in your business, the possibility of you making the wrong decision or taking out your time to think and participate in team building activities are very low.
Opting for a startup business consultant or a mentor can be a better option as they have the experience of dealing with various types of people during their journey and know some smart tricks or techniques to understand them and make them work together to deal with the tough situations.
They make your team members undergo a counseling process to understand their mindset and plan some corporate team building activities for them without bothering you about how and where it can be implemented. Here you just need to focus on your business and its problems as rest is taken care of by the experts.
● Activities that tailor trust in employees
The hardest thing to maintain when things start getting wrong is trust between your employees. The fall time is hard to handle because people start blaming each other for the failure that occurred. There are rare ones who are ready to take responsibility for what happened and have the vision to collect the dispersed pieces of the puzzle to place them right into their places.
The good thing here is that such people exist as they are the ones who will help you bring back the trust between your employees. Team building activities like blindfolded partner walking on a path based on his partner’s instructions are a kind of game that fosters trust among the employees to build skills like concentration, listening ability, and trust among your people to use them in their work too.
● Encourage team bonding
It’s human nature that people fall apart when the times get harder. But to make your team survive this hard time, you as a business owner have to make continuous efforts to keep your people together.
Find ways/chances to gather them, allow them to be away from the stress that you all are facing together inside your office. Make them all talk about the situation openly, rather than gossiping internally creating distrust and unclear situations that lead to misunderstanding. Be open to talk to your employees on what’s happening or could happen in the near future to give them a sense of transparency that nurtures team bonding.
Summing Up
Sometimes you have to take one step down to go two steps up, and business downfalls are just a sign of the jump that it’s going to take with its next move. Your employees might not be thinking the same, so keeping them together in such a crisis becomes a must.
A leader has to show maturity by maintaining an equal balance between empathy and business logic to keep its team intact to face any odds. Fostering team building concepts at such time could be a great method to adapt to ensure a sustainable team for the future.
