We all face professional disasters of one kind or another. It’s inevitable, whether you work in your own business or for someone else. And sometimes those disasters are brought on by us (whether we want to admit it or not) and sometimes those disasters are externally occurring but impact us anyway.

I was going to list a few disasters but then I realized that I could fill the next 100 blogs with disaster story after disaster story; and you’d be likely to match me with your own disaster stories.

So what happens when disaster strikes?
There is an excellent article at the Management Excellence blog that I thought you’d enjoy called “Surviving as a Leader When Things Go Horribly Wrong.” It’s by Art Petty, a management consultant and college professor at DePaul University.

He lists seven tips that leaders must follow when disaster strikes. Of course, you should read the full article for yourself, but I’ll briefly list the steps here:

• Early recognition. Petty says that you need to learn to spot disaster as early as possible in order to mitigate it. How to do that effectively is not easy but it’s critical. Invite your staff – who might have their finger on the pulse of the situation better than you – to raise the warning flags if they sense it coming.

• Get rid of panic and confusion. Oh this is so important! Clear, decisive leadership is always needed, never more than a disaster situation. Keep a level head and a calm demeanor and your team will follow you… and likely survive!

• Your team mirrors your approach. Related to the above tip, Petty says that however you respond to the situation will be how your team responds. (Hey, that’s what makes you their leader). So watch what you do and be very intentional.

• Trust your team. This is an important one and, if I were making the list, this item may not have made it onto the list. As a leader, you may want to solve the problem yourself. However, that’s not why you have a team. Put them to work and trust them to do it. That can be a hard thing to do as a leader!

• Break down the impossible into the possible. Every seemingly insurmountable crisis is actually a big series of very manageable parts. It seems unwieldy but when you break it down, it’s quite solvable. And, in my experience, you rarely need to solve all of the parts in order to reduce the crisis to a minor annoyance.

• Manage the environment. In this tip, Petty says to stay involved and empower your team. Most importantly (in my opinion) stay aware of the situation and all of the moving parts.

These are great tips for handling a crisis. However, the real test comes when a crisis hits. Will you remember? Why not create a file called “When ‘it’ hits the fan” and keep a few crisis management tools, including this blog, bookmarked for later.

See you floating to the top!

Related posts:

1. The End is Near (But it’s No Big Deal)
2. Horror story from the front lines of project management
3. The Advantage of Virtual

Everything you enjoy about business lunches is now available on Twitter with Business Lunch Club. If you find yourself unable to have a real business lunch, simply tweet while you eat and add the hashtags #businesslunchclub, #bizlunchclub, or #blc.

Here are some ideas to get the benefits of a business lunch from Business Lunch Club.

1. Find others who are stuck at their desks over lunch. You’ll make your at-your-desk time far more productive while you eat.

For example: Stuck at my desk. Anyone else in the same boat? #businesslunchclub

2. Start a discussion about a topic that you might normally talk about over lunch. You’ll engage others in topics that interest you and shape the discussion on Twitter.

For example: How has the economy been impacting your lead generation? #businesslunchclub

3. Participate in a discussion that someone else has started. You’ll add value to other people as you talk with them. Several people can join in at once, just like a real discussion.

For example: Re: lead-gen I’ve had to really ramp up the value of my offering. How about you? #businesslunchclub

4. Ask for help. Leverage your relationships to ask professionals for advice on issues you face in business.

For example: Can anyone point me to a good online bookkeeping system? #businesslunchclub

5. Get to know your followers. You have lots of followers but how well do you know them? Get to know them a bit better and perhaps you’ll discover some potential opportunities.

For example: Taking a break from work for #businesslunchclub. @IAC_Heather tell me a bit about your business

6. Talk about a joint venture or collaboration idea. Twitter is the perfect place to start up a discussion, test interest, and find experts to collaborate.

For example: @AaronHoos I’d like to work together on an ebook about sales. #businesslunchclub

7. Introduce a couple of colleagues who you think are a good match for each other. Network and help others to network. This is like #FollowFriday but far more focused.

For example: @IAC_Heather, you should talk to @AaronHoos about that book you’d like to write #businesslunchclub

8. Visit BusinessLunchClub.com and meet other people who are #businesslunchclub participants. Follow them to gain access to a whole new network of people interested in win-win business growth.

For example: Hi @AaronHoos I saw you on BusinessLunchClub.com and wanted to follow you #businesslunchclub

As originally posted on: Blog by Aaron Hoos

Related posts:

1. Tips to get more out of #businesslunchclub
2. Lunch 2.0 Launched! #BusinessLunchClub, #BizLunchClub, #BLC
3. Today’s #businesslunchclub discussion (July 13, 2009)

But in my last post I mentioned that not all business growth is good. Growth that happens too fast, for example, without any warning, can cause financial, manufacturing, warehousing, and customer service problems galore.

In this blog I want to talk about another problem of too-fast growth.

Problem 2: Rapid growth that is unpredictable may decline and leave a burden on the business. I’ve seen this recently in a colleague’s business. Just two years ago, business was inferno hot for him! He was so busy he couldn’t keep up with orders for the product his business created. Then the economy slowed. Today, his business is sound enough to pay his bills and allow him to put a little away for the future so he’s not worried about feeding his family. But he is concerned about his tax bill. The spike was unexpected and when he pays taxes this year on last year’s income, he’s paying taxes out of less money this year than he was earning last year. Not only that, as a manufacturer of goods, he has a small storage unit full of unsold items. That’s because he ramped up production quickly during that busy season, but he didn’t anticipate the decline… so he was still producing a high number of goods when the slump struck.

Solution 2: When your business grows, manage it carefully. Don’t just ride the rapids with an oblivious smile. Be aware that it may eventually slow down. Make sure you have money put away for taxes and other expenses that might lag into a slower period. And, watch the warning signs very, very carefully to make sure that your production doesn’t match today’s demand… but rather, that it matches tomorrow’s demand. Warning signs might include slowing orders, but even that might be too late. Get in the habit of proactively calling your customers and estimating capacity into the future. Offering discounts on bulk orders, even when times are good and customers are willing to pay top dollar, can help you keep your finger on the pulse of your customers’ needs.

So, business growth that is not carefully managed and spikes, then falls, can also be costly for a business in inventory and warehousing, taxation (and other lagging costs).

In the next blog, I’ll talk about one more business growth problem I’ve seen.

Related posts:

1. When Business Growth is Bad – Part 1
2. When Business Growth is Bad – Part 3
3. Free Teleconference: Fast, Efficient Business Growth for Busy Entrepreneurs Who Want to Be Busier

Project Management gone wrong #1: ‘Sam’ was a web design freelancer who was hired by a multinational corporation to help them create a user-friendly web-based educational tool. Unfortunately, the details of the project changed frequently. Even the name of the project changed an unbelievable 6 times over the course of the project! Sam did his best to make each change as it reared its ugly head but he found that there were simply so many changes to be made that he quickly burned through the pre-determined budget trying to match existing content to the company’s inability to decide on anything; no money was spent on new content. The result? Sam delivered a project but it fell into disuse quickly. Sam didn’t have a good experience working with the company and the company was disappointed with the results so they never hired Sam again.

Project Management gone wrong #2: ‘Maria’ worked in an IT department at a large organization. She was given a budget and assigned to complete a software conversion that would see some of the company’s data converted into a different format. As time went on, however, the budget was adjusted by the CFO who felt that she didn’t need as much money as she did. Later, a delay in the project caused by previously unforeseen conversion issues meant that she reached the end of her budget without completing the project. The CFO told her that no further funding was available. Maria moved on to other projects and the conversion that she hoped would be her key to a promotion was shelved indefinitely.

Project Management gone wrong #3: ‘Erika’ was a freelance writer who was contracted by an organization to create new hire manuals. The project started, then faltered, as the Recruiting and Training manager decided to revamp the learning path of new hires. The project re-started, then faltered again as several managers in the client organization disagreed on the expected outcomes of the manuals. The project re-started, then faltered yet again, as the Director of Human Resources explored the possibility of revising the project to include other manuals as well. With every re-start, the budget burned up because Erika needed to get up to speed on the changes.

These 3 stories are true. They all took place within the past 6 months. They all happened to people I know.

If you look closely at the stories, you’ll note that each one experienced some problem related to the three elements of project management: scope, budget, and time. While each one had a primary issue (Sam’s was scope, Maria’s was budget, and Erika’s was time), every element is interrelated and one impacts the others.

What is needed here is strong project management. After all, each of these are indeed projects. But organizations simply pass the entire project to one person – an internal employee or an outsource professional – who is hired to do one thing (complete the work) but is actually expected to do two things (manage the project and complete the work).

Simply put, a project manager is needed as well. Project management requires a unique set of skills and talents and training that Sam and Maria and Erika (and others) may lack. These professionals were skilled in their area of expertise but were not as interested in doing the work of project management.

Project management requires skills in resource management, negotiation, customer service, creative problem solving, and there’s even some political savvy needed.

Ironically, project management seems like an additional layer in the hierarchy of a project but it is an essential layer that results in greater benefit than if the project management role was folded into the role of the person performing the work. A project manager?

• Can keep all parties on track and keep the flow of information moving.

• Acts as a conduit of communication to make sure all parties are talking about the same things.

• Saves time and money by keeping projects moving and ensuring that budgets are spent wisely.

A project manager seems like an additional layer in the project but the result is the same as the equation 1+1=3. The very presence of a project manager adds value to a project by ensuring that the scope, budget, and time all work in unison so the project finishes successfully.

A project that finishes successfully starts with a project manager. If you have a project – whether large or small – you can ensure its accurate and timely completion with someone shepherding it through the creation process. If you have a new initiative at work, or if your business has evolved and requires a solution, or if you’ve been tasked with creating internal or customer-facing content, don’t start with the creation of the work. Don’t ‘roll up your sleeves’ and dive in. Don’t go looking for a freelancer. Start with a project manager. And that will be an investment into the successful completion of your project!

When you succeed, I succeed,

Heather Villa, CMA, MBA, MSM

Related posts:

1. Project management best practice: The report
2. Horror story from the front lines of project management
3. Project Management Success Requires Flexibility