Charlotte Business Professionals

By Renae Sanders of KRS Consulting LLC

on November 16, 2009

Published in : Management

Keywords : Workplace relationships, trust, leadership, Renae Sanders, productivity, loyalty, empolyee satisfaction, KRS Consulting

{mosimageLocal economists predicted the recession would end in late October or November, by all accounts; the economy is starting to stabilize, though impact to main street, small business and individuals may take time to be fully realized.

Many businesses are also looking to turn their attentions back to business growth and development. Mobilizing the workforce and building productivity on fewer resources will be critical to the success of businesses, large and small. But the last year has severely impacted the relationship between companies and employees.

Businesses now have the monumental task of reestablishing teams and team work after displacing thousands of workers. They were colleagues, teammates, and friends of those who were "left behind". These layoffs not only impacted poor performers or the least tenured; this year's downsizings severed the contract between corporations and many of their best contributors. The contract between company and employee has been shattered in ways Enron and Worldcom had not. To us, Enron and Worldcom were isolated situations.

Morale is down. It's time for us to rally back; get our heads in the game. The road to recovery is not impossible, just challenging. If this were a baseball game, we would call the team to the huddle and declare, "this game is not over unless we sit on the bench and give up. Our job is to hit, run, and score. Let's do this for Johnny! [All of us are Johnny.] Let's do this for our home town!"

Leaders and managers must now begin to move their remaining workers toward reestablishing the broken links left by displaced teammates and friends.  The road toward trust will not be easy. Leadership and trust go hand in hand; trustworthy leaders have more success in building collaborative, high functioning teams.

We honor our fallen by continuing the battle. The time has come for leaders and managers to re-evaluate past leadership practices and behaviors and build authentic relationships which acknowledge the value of relationships to employee satisfaction, loyalty, and productivity. Workplace relationships must be developed with more thoughtfulness than ever before.

The author modified this article from the original article which appeared in the July 2009 of Working Charlotte Magazine under the name, Dominique Michaels. By, Renae Sanders aka Dominique Michaels

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