Managing for success in a difficult economy

If you’re a front line manager, the focus is on you to take your community through tough times. Owners and investors don’t seem to have much sympathy with, “It’s the economy,” as the reason for decreased census and budget shortfalls.

It’s up to you to sharpen the skills of your team and to find innovative ways to stay on track and in budget.

Just knowing that it is, in fact, the economy doesn’t really help. Knowing that you’re not alone doesn’t help much, either.

So what can you do?

One resource all managers and marketing staff should tap into is the Advanced Marketing Skills online course (it’s good for 20 CEUs, too) from our online administrator training site, EasyCEU.com. This course can help you understand how to maximize your results from every inquiry and build stronger referral relationships, too. It’s a great place to start.

Here are some other ideas – pick those that work for you:

1. Tap into the team’s ideas and energy.
Make your team the idea machine. Take time each week to brainstorm ideas. Remember brainstorming? That’s when you come up with harebrained ideas as fast as you can, writing them all down without judgment and then see what jumps out at you as a great new idea after the process.

2. Live out your fantasies.
Here’s one activity I do at least two or three times each year: Imagine you have no limits of time or money. What would you do to make things really rock for your company? Write them down. Then explore which of these you can make happen now, without the imagined unlimited resources. You may be surprised at how many of these things you can actually begin implementing right now just by shifting priorities or resources.

3. Train, train, train.
Need to spruce up your customer service? Want to start a new program or service in your community? In this economy you don’t have time to lose. You need everyone – on every shift – really on board with the program, and fast. Find a way (we can help!) to train all your staff quickly, thoroughly and repetitively, if needed. When you’ve invested your time and resources to launch new ideas, ensure their success by getting everyone well trained quickly.

Got a great idea to share? Email me and I’ll pass it on!