It is a no-brainer that running a business or an organization is not a cakewalk. There are several challenges that organizations and businesses face while working. They have to achieve their targets, keep employees and clients happy, make quality content and maintain productivity, etc. This could get real hard at a time of crisis. At such times, the organizational culture is of utmost importance. Here is how you can build an organizational culture in a situation of crisis!

7 Tips to Build an Organizational Culture that can survive through crisis

The corporate sector – companies and organizations are an integral part of the economy. Their productivity affects the market, their clients, as well as the consumers. And it is simple to say that there are a lot of challenges and obstacles they have to overcome to maintain their reputation, operations, and profit intact.

Challenges such as changes in the work or process, a shift of demands from clients, quality, productivity, etc. can have a major impact on the organization’s profit. Thus, to tackle such things, the organization has to maintain a work culture that all of its employees respect and follow. A fixed organizational culture is a key to maintaining decency and a sense of responsibility among the employees.

However, in a time of crisis, it becomes quite difficult for an organization to keep a work culture intact. The recent biggest crisis for organizations can be said to be the COVID-19 pandemic. All the employees were sent home and were made to work from home. No supervision could be done at home.

Thus in such scenarios of crisis, how can you expect a company to keep its work culture intact? How can you minimize errors that your employees make?

Well, here are a few tips which you can use to build an organizational culture that can survive through a crisis.

  1. Be empathetic towards your employees

As leaders, it is always critical to remember that it is not the organization that goes through a crisis, whenever one erupts. It is the employees as well! You have to give your employees a little time to adapt to the changes. Be empathetic towards them. Try to feel what they are feeling. Try to imagine all problems they are going through. If they have been sent to work from home, several distractions are luring their focus out of their work.

Discuss the challenges your employees are facing. Try to give them some resolutions that might make their life easy. This will help you to become a role model for your team or employees. They will feel free to discuss their problems with you. This can significantly impact their productivity. Employees have that sense of giving and take, so if they feel that you as an employer or team leader can understand them, they will try to maximize their productivity in return.

  1. Give your employees some time to adjust

Not everyone can adapt to changes quickly. Some people are slow starters but are productive once they get their rhythm. Give your employees a little time to adjust and understand the changes that happened due to the crisis. Ask them if they have any doubts about how you will be able to help them.

Again, keep in mind that you are only giving them time to adjust and adapt, and not for them to rest or get lazy. Make sure there is proper communication regarding how much time they can take on one particular thing.

  1. Do not try to micromanage your employees or team

Your manager or team leader getting on your nerves is the last thing you want as an employee. Do not try to keep a track of every minute or every call or sale. Instead, try to watch how much productivity you are getting from them. Do not call them every day asking for one thing or the other. This will just irritate them and give them a feeling that you do not trust them with the responsibility.

Give them the freedom to work well and try to assign them a decent number of targets that are not too high to achieve and not too low to be a deficit for you or the company.

  1. Be a little flexible

Give your employees flexibility. It is not easy at the time of a crisis to be logged in and deliver at a usual pace. There are several distractions a person goes through. Trust your employees to deliver. Ask or assign them the target and leave them on their own. Allow them to be independent and work well. At the end of the day, you will see that your trust has paid off most of the time. This will also help in generating a trust factor between you and your employees.

  1. Prefer a discussion over an announcement

If you are a leader, you must lead your team well. During a time of crisis, it becomes critical to communicate with as much transparency as possible. The reports, the problems, the targets, etc., have to be transparently communicated to your team and employees. Do not simply announce such things, but discuss with your employees how they are planning to achieve the ultimate goal.

Always remember that this has to be a two-way conversation. You have to ask about what tactics your employees are planning to implement and what could be added or avoided in such tactics to ensure the expected quality. Do not let your team blindly rush towards the goal. Systematic planning is one thing that can keep their quality intact.

  1. Seek innovative ideas

Seeking innovative ideas can sound exhausting, but it can ease things for you as a leader or manager. Research and think about how a problem can be resolved more creatively and less expensively. You can also reach out to your team and employees. You never know which employee might already have a great solution to a problem that the company may be facing. Discussing such problems and seeking out innovative ideas with a team will increase their trust and sense of responsibility towards the company. Also, you might find a great way to resolve any problems.

  1. Praise in front of everyone and critique in person

Always make sure that you do not criticize your employees in front of everyone. They might feel ashamed or insulted due to that. Take them out for a tea break, show them their mistakes kindly and ask them what could be done to avoid such things. Not many people take criticism in a good way. So you have to make sure to be as kind as possible to let your employees realize their mistakes.

When it comes to praising or rewarding an employee, do it in front of everyone. Appreciate and applaud their work. Present them as an inspiration for others. This will generate a sense of working hard even more for the rewarded employee and also will motivate others to work hard to get the same appreciation and fame. The reward-giving process is a great motivation for employees in corporate offices.

The culture in an organization plays a vital role in the productivity and motivation of employees to work. It is imperative to attain and build such a culture that can enable the employees and the organization to deliver the required productivity at the time of a crisis. Everything a team leader or manager does, impacts the team as well. So make sure that as a leader, you are not becoming a dictator, because it might impact the team’s performance.