If you were coach of the All blacks, or the Silver ferns or my old team Tottenham Hotspur (Junior for 2 years, never quite made it to the big leagues…) and you suffered a major defeat or setback, would you increase or decrease your training for your team????

The reason I mention this is we have all suffered a major defeat or setback with COVID 10 and now we must pick our team up and get back into the game. Sadly, one of the first things cut during times like this is the training budget. We saw it with the 1987 Crash and the global financial crisis. Cutting the training budget when things get tough is as crazy as saying to a sports team “we’ve suffered a defeat, so we’re cutting training sessions and hoping we will recover”.

Smart managers will manage the change. They will assess their entire operation, not just the aspects that are immediate costs, or easy to cut. They will think about what they want to achieve and where they want to be in the future and determine what they will need to do to get there. They will take control rather than let the situation control them. Smart managers know that they will need to maintain and continue to develop their people and the skills they have in order, to thrive.

So, ask yourself,

  1. Have I ensured everyone knows what is now expected after the lockdown to ensure their jobs and the business is secure,
  2. Have I met with each individual to ensure they know their responsibilities, tasks, how they are measured and what is the minimum level of performance now required?
  3. Am I facilitating regular training to ensure the staff know exactly how to do what I want them to do,
  4. Have I conducted one-to-one coaching to check that they know how to put the training given into practice in their daily activities,
  5. Have I confronted the poor performers and redirected them back to top level performance?

History has taught us to recognise that many companies will fail after COVID19, but had they asked these questions, maybe they would still be here today.