Everywhere you look you see bad news.  Our economy is the worst it has been in a very long time.  Major companies are already laying-off employees.  A layoff is a no-win situation.  Customers lose, families lose, and the company’s brand and goodwill are significantly diminished.

There is a better way.  By putting everyone - vendors, employees, colleagues, and even customers - on the Halpin Step Up or Step Out System™ you can immediately improve productivity, innovation, connections, and enthusiasm. Increased revenues and greater profitability will occur.  In a very short time you can increase attrition so that the risk of layoffs disappears.

What’s the magical approach?  This takes commitment from you, the leader, investing the time getting clarity about what is important to you and creating crystal clear expectations.  This usually requires some high-quality down time followed by think time with a blank legal pad. 

Once you have this clarity the next step is putting in a systematic, structured approach to both communicate your expectations and to gather input as to why the expectations are not currently being met.  This provides an immediate opportunity to better explain and provide context for your expectations.  Once this authentic dialogue occurs, you and your colleagues are in a position to negotiate these expectations.  You can build support structures & interim check points to ensure that the negotiated expectations are fully met in the required time frame.  This creates a win/win/win.

When you shift your mindset from being the victim of others’ lack of responsiveness, you become the driver of the results you want.  This creates the opportunity for your colleagues to Step Up and bring their own passion, enthusiasm, and innovation to the situation.  If they choose to Step Out of your organization rather than Step Up, that’s fine too.  You now have the vacancy savings which give you more options in these tough times. 

My clients' successes with this approach indicate that 90% of your colleagues will step up and your company will benefit from the creativity and energy with increased productivity, enhanced communication, and greater connections between you and your colleagues.  The win/win/win can then be replicated with all your stakeholders, vendors, customers, and employees.  Your company will gain greater market share, increased revenue, enhanced profitability, and more loyal stakeholders.