“When you’re coming in to sit down with your staff and tell them that your current model isn’t working, it has a negative connotation to it,” Adache says. “So you have to quickly know how to spin it into a positive. I talked about the successes we had in the current approach. I talked about how we need to make it more successful, which I think is what every company strives for.”
Be open about the obstacles your business is facing and why what you’ve been doing isn’t working anymore. But make sure you follow that up with a discussion about what needs to be done to get things turned around.
“You have to explain, ‘I’m right there with you,’” Adache says. “They have to buy in to the long-term opportunities of remaining positive. The only way they are going to do that is if you paint the picture why we’re months away or even days away from turning the company around for the positive. You have to paint the picture and then get them involved in painting the picture even better.”
As you move forward in the discussion and gather input, keep in mind that you need to be the one who puts together the plan that hopefully gets you out of your funk.
“Give some ideas and a general direction of where you’re going to sail the ship,” Adache says. “Along the way, you can make some detours based on the input of everyone you have. Be open and simultaneously searching for other options while you’re moving ahead, even if it appears you’re moving in the right direction and things are going good. You need a backup plan and a backup plan for your backup plan.”
Most important, keep an open mind and an open ear.
“If you’re too hard-headed and not open-minded enough and you don’t listen to your people, you could crash and burn on whatever you’re doing,” Adache says.
How to reach: Adache Real Estate LLC, (954) 566-7400 or www.adachere.com
