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7 Steps to Manage a Power Sweeping Business Through a Crisis
INDUSTRY NEWS
ASSOCIATION INSIDER
7 Steps to Manage a SPOTLIGHT INDEX A CRISIS Power Sweeping Business Through
There’s too much to do. Taking on a big project that does not immediately contribute to revenue generation doesn’t seem to make sense, and possibly never will. Creating a crisis management plan may appear to be one of those wish list projects. After all, it’s a plan you hope will never be realized. But, it’s like insurance — you hope you’ll never need it, you may have even begrudged what it cost you to have it, but if you find yourself in need of it, it can be the most important advantage you have at that time.
The gamut of possible business crises includes economic disasters, natural disasters, social unrest, terrorist attacks, oil spills, building fires, sabotage, loss of a key company leader, and many other kinds of catastrophes. Maintaining a strong crisis management plan for each different kind of potential disaster can help avoid potentially extreme damage to a company’s financial health and its brand.
MANAGING YOUR POWER SWEEPING BUSINESS THROUGH A CRISIS
Disaster can happen to any business, at any time. Preparing for managing a crisis is essential to leading your company through a challenging period and on to a successful outcome. Without a practical plan in place, managers are faced with trying to figure out what is right for the future while under the pressure of an extremely stressful, often confused situation, sometimes without enough facts. Being equipped with the formal guidance a set crisis management plan provides allows everyone involved to understand their roles as leadership navigates through the crisis. Here are seven valuable tips that
owners of any size power sweeping company can use standard part of good strategic planning and prudent to help develop the framework of your own business risk management. crisis management plan: Create a list of all the potential crises that could 1. DEVELOP A STRONG CRISIS happen to your organization. Develop a detailed plan LEADERSHIP TEAM. that your leadership team can use to direct activities Highly effective leadership fosters a company of workers, allocation of resources, and culture of performance excellence and strong the flow of information throughout the crisis period. values. These attributes serve well to ground your The more detailed you make your plan, the more crisis management plan design. These management organized and less chaotic the process of managing qualities convey the the business during the crisis professionalism of demeanor will be. Review your crisis and relatability of the message Assemble your management plan periodically, that defines your brand in a crisis management to improve it and update it time of difficulty. A response to reflect new technologies, based on strong company team of people in increased resources, loss of values is naturally more various internal external resources, and other inspiring to the internal team and external important changes that can whose motivation to execute affect the execution of the plan the crisis management disciplines that in significant positive or negative plan, and more favorable to are most relevant ways. customers and the community. Assemble your crisis to the situation. In designing your plan, consider how each type of disaster can management team of people be expected to impact your in various internal and external company’s employees, customers, vendors, and disciplines that are most relevant to the situation. the surrounding community. Your advance plan Those may include human resource firms, finance, may make a difference in the well-being of people legal services, construction, engineering, public involved and in some cases may be responsible for relations, and others. Compromises between these saving or losing your business. So, carefully evaluate varying viewpoints of this diverse group should be the feasibility of your plan, and have it scrutinized by reflected in the finalized plan. as many knowledgeable people as possible. 2. CREATE A PRACTICAL CRISIS Build-in flexibility, emphasizing the need for effective MANAGEMENT PLAN. agile responsiveness and improvising as needed in all Without a clear plan and leaders that are hesitant areas of the plan in cases where reality overwhelms to accept responsibility for managing in a crisis, a any part of the plan. business is at increased risk of the worst potential 3. TRAIN EMPLOYEES TO FOLLOW THE CRISIS consequences in the event of a crisis. Anticipating MANAGEMENT PLAN. and planning for the need to lead through a crisis is a As workers perform their daily tasks in the field and
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the administrative office, they should understand Those are, of course, all valuable upgrades to the that their role is not just to carry out their usual everyday workplace dynamic and culture of your power INDUSTRY NEWS responsibilities, but also to detect potential issues as sweeping company. they emerge. Employees also need to be empowered 4. OBJECTIVELY ASSESS THE EMERGING to communicate concerns SITUATION. about such developments The best chance of When the unexpected arises, directly to senior averting an oncoming focus on putting emotions management. The best chance of averting an oncoming crisis is in early ASSOCIA crisis is in early recognition of a possible problem, TION INSIDER aside as well as you can, remain calm, and bring all your attention to the critical process recognition of a possible prompt analysis, and quick of analyzing the situation, problem, prompt analysis, course correction, or other identifying the cause of the and quick course correction, emergent circumstances, and or other remedial action. remedial action. determining what your first SPOTLIGHTEmployees should clearly INDEX several steps should be over understand their roles in the event of an actual disaster. the next hours, and then over the next days, weeks, and
Crisis management planning and training are advanced months. agile initiatives that improve a team’s readiness, By clearly defining the problem, you have taken a large responsiveness, collaborative skills, and confidence. step toward deciding on an immediate course of action
toward solving it. Keeping your composure will also model the kind of professionalism you want to encourage your employees to emulate as you and your team begin to coordinate and go forward to manage and ultimately overcome the crisis.
5. KEEP ALL STAKEHOLDERS FREQUENTLY UPDATED.
When people are left with a prolonged sense of uncertainty about how a crisis is being managed, years of hard work to build a brand can be lost within days and weeks. On the other hand, when information is shared, people are helped to understand the process the organization is undertaking to manage the situation in an exemplary manner. This generates renewed confidence that your business leadership maintains the professional procedures for successfully managing such issues and any others that might arise in a power sweeping operation. Maintaining a frequent flow of information updates to employees, customers, suppliers, and other close associates of your company helps keep operations running as smoothly as can be expected during a challenging situation. It avoids having rumors flourishing and leading to employees and others sharing inaccurate reports across social media and elsewhere.
6. COMMUNICATE WITH THE PUBLIC PROMPTLY AND CONSISTENTLY.
Protecting your brand in a crisis depends on timely and consistent communications with all stakeholders and the general public if the problem extends beyond your business to affect people out in the community. Communications should start with acknowledging the problem, continue with providing updates as additional steps are taken in the process of alleviating the situation, and end with the final phases of implementation of effective solutions. Sparse, inconsistent, or dishonest information naturally damages a business’s credibility. Develop a thorough set of communications protocols and directives as part of your crisis management plan. Include provisions for information updates to internal and external
stakeholders, news media, your company’s website, and social media pages. Designate a social media monitor to respond to posts and users throughout the crisis.
7. INCLUDE SUCCESSION PLANNING.
A fundamental piece of your crisis management plan is laying out a business leadership succession plan. Identify the person who will step into your role and continue operations, if something happened to you suddenly? Clearly set forth the steps to be taken if you suddenly
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are unable to perform in your leadership role. The succession plan may direct a transfer of management and/or ownership to a family member, a business partner, an employee, a trustee, or another person, or it may call for the business to be sold. Consult with your SPOTLIGHT attorney to ensure that all legal requirements are met to ensure the validity of your succession plan.
The succession directives and the larger crisis management plan must be established while things are running normally and all parties involved in authoring the plan can concentrate freely and clearly. Advance crisis planning affords your planning team the important advantage of being able to take their time to develop ideal strategies for managing succession or any other kind of crisis.
CONCLUSION
Even the largest and most well-managed power sweeping businesses can find that a crisis of one kind or another can have a severe impact on profitability. For smaller operators, the risk is even greater, as a lesser impact can cause a devastating effect. Inadequate business continuity planning and preparation can leave leaders overwhelmed with emergent demands for resources and prevent the rapid and effective response to crisis conditions that are necessary to sustain the organization and its stakeholders through a period of unexpected extreme challenges. The consequences of insufficient preparedness for crisis management naturally can include a negative impact on the ability to meet customers’ needs, reduced revenues, employee attrition, work stoppages due to impacted systems and processes, serious issues with vendors, loss of profits, and brand damage.
The above list of seven basic preparatory strategies can serve as a general guide to position or partially position your power sweeping business to weather a crisis of most any internal or external kind. However, in ASSOCIATION INSIDER case of an event that extensively damages or destroys the physical housing and assets of the company, an additional continuity plan that provides for moving some administrative and dispatching functions to alternative locations and networks is necessary to cover disaster management for all forms of prolonged crisis INDEXconditions. As you design a crisis management plan for your power sweeping business, ask for a lot of input from industry peers, other business management experts, your leadership team, your field, and administrative staff, customers, information technology and telecommunications services experts, lenders, financial managers, your attorney, and any others who may be able to contribute well to the process. Remember, of course, that coming through a crisis with the least possible lasting negative impact on your business depends on both the robustness of your formal crisis management plan and its appropriate fit with your organization’s fundamental values. Yes, crisis management planning is a big project. But, the pay-off in helping everyone move together in a clearly specified direction at the onset of a real business crisis will far exceed the effort and time invested. Ensuring that you have prepared yourself and your team in advance for whatever may come, can reduce the magnitude of a threat to the continuous operability and long-term viability of your enterprise.
BY BOBBI JACKSON
