When your company is having a tough year, how do you approach it?

Our reader poll today asks: When your company is having a tough year, how do you approach it?

• We take urgent action and double our efforts to turn the year around – 65%
• We stay the course and hope things improve – 29%
  
• We give up and say, “Oh well, tough years happen. Next year will be better” – 6%

Push harder. That’s what most of you report your company does when facing a difficult year – you push harder to turn things around. While that’s a good short-term course of action in many instances, you must remain mindful of long-term impacts. Cutting costs, conducting layoffs, and pushing people to work harder and longer can have immediate financial impact. Unfortunately, those approaches aren’t sustainable and can cause long-term problems. Burnout, attrition, and damage to your brand as an employer can create bigger problems down the road. Whatever actions you take to turn your year around, be mindful and ask the question about how these short-term actions will affect your long-term prospects.

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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These results were originally a SmartPulse poll in SmartBrief on Leadership which tracks feedback from more than 240,000 business leaders. Get smarter on leadership and sign up for the SmartBrief on Leadership e-newsletter.