In Times of Trouble, Keep Your "Good Culture People!"

If you have “good culture people” working with you, they are the good ones to keep around in times of trouble.?

What are good culture people?? People who are respected, good at what they do, communicate well, and have adapted well to the environment around them (whether the environment/culture is good to bad, they adapt…yet another reason to keep them…adapt.).

Why?

• They are already working for you, so they are obviously doing a good enough job that they are still working for you and your company.? Resist the urge to immediately get rid of them when financial cuts have to be made.
• They obviously have the skillsets and experience, or again, they wouldn’t still be with you.? Reread #1.
• Do people respect them?? Yes?? Then you keep them.
• They can help you lead and navigate through your company’s difficult times.?

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And “good culture people” can greatly assist, even lead better, during the difficult times.

• Those that are left to work through the difficult times (workers who survived…meaning they weren’t canned) experience a 20% decline in job performance.
• Senior Leaders are homed in short term financial gains and rarely see the turmoil that is occurring.

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Need to have a difficult conversation with someone?? Does that “good culture person” that works with you get along with that person better than you?? Then allow them to be a part of the conversation or even lead that conversation.? This "good culture person" can help during the difficult, turbulent times your company is going through.? They can pass along the difficult messages, and it will be better received.? No, not saying that everyone will just love the message.? But it will be better received by someone that is respected and has been viewed as a “good culture person” of the company.

What this article is saying is that you will keep the people that the company needs to keep moving forward.? But why not keep a few extra people that are well respected in the company to help with the path forward?? Keep those folks that can help deliver and follow through with your message.? Keep those folks that can communicate in between the bad news and keep the company moving forward.? Fight the inclination to lay off this handful of people to save a small amount of costs and consider what they can bring the company.? It will pay far more than their salaries.