When companies struggle, whether because of a bad economy, poor decisions, or other factors, top management’s reaction is often to become tight-lipped about the turbulent situation. 

Employees are shut out from strategy discussions, and any ideas they might have for fixing the problem go unheard.

But in many if not most cases, such secretiveness is the wrong approach and can even make things worse.

For organizations with tens of thousands of employees, it might make sense to limit who participates in strategy. But for smaller organizations, where every person contributes to a thriving culture and facilitates effective operations, there’s a lot of value in involving everyone.

 As my book title suggests, I call this all-inclusive way of dealing with things “uncomfortable inclusion.” I put this philosophy into action when I came to the Nevada Donor Network in 2012 at a time when the organization was dysfunctional and on the verge of losing its membership in the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network/United Network for Organ Sharing. That would have shut down the organization for good. Over time, with a few fits and starts along the way, the organization rose from floundering to soaring as a current world leader in the industry.

I acknowledge that uncomfortable inclusion is an approach that can be messy and difficult, but I believe that involving the entire organization in strategy and problem solving can reinforce synergy, cooperation, and unity while cultivating better ideas and innovation. And that’s true whether uncomfortable inclusion is put into action at a failing company, or simply activated at a place where leaders believe their teams and organization could be performing better.

It is critical to include everyone because ultimately the frontline staff knows best what their environment is going to look like tomorrow and likely a few years down the line, and they are best positioned to be innovators. Why wouldn’t we have them as part of the planning process?

Some of the traits needed to embrace this inclusion approach include:         

• Transparent. This one may be especially important because Gallup reports that millennials especially say they want leaders who are open and transparent. Uncomfortable inclusion means being transparent to the point of discomfort If it is not uncomfortable, you are not being inclusive enough. When you’re transparent with team members and include them in decision-making, you create a network of stakeholders who participate even in small decisions. When it comes time to make more impactful decisions, a leader can tap into that banked brain trust to make the best decision possible based on feedback from a proven set of deciders. 

• Accountable. People within an organization need to be accountable for their actions and to each other. I talk about how we’re serious about our values, and we hold people accountable. It isn’t enough to be technically competent. Each member of our organization, regardless of title, role, or results, must adhere to our values. We maintain our commitment to quality and excellence, and we are supremely, publicly accountable when we fail.        

• Committed. Adopting a more inclusive approach requires commitment, possibly a commitment to changing the organization’s very culture. But the goal may be more attainable than it first seems. Achieving success in a seemingly hopeless situation requires hard work and a committed mindset, but it does not require the reinvention of the wheel. It does not even require luck. All it requires is willingness and a mind open to learning and implementing actions that can facilitate transformative success. 

Make no mistake, doing this is messy and hard. It might seem unnecessarily difficult, complicated, and yes, uncomfortable. But keep chipping away and remember this: Success is achievable, even from the bleakest and most dysfunctional starting points.      

Joe Ferreira (www.joeferreira.com), author of “Uncomfortable Inclusion: How to Build a Culture of High Performance in Life and Work,” is CEO and president of the Nevada Donor Network. Ferreira speaks and consults worldwide about establishing and improving organ donation and transplantation systems he’s helped pioneer in the United States. 

Many entrepreneurs discover that building a business brings difficult challenges, which in turn require resilience to overcome. 

 But simply having the capacity to recover and keep going doesn’t always lead to better results. Resilience in the context of long-term business success also means learning from past difficulties and, as a result, changing direction to the right path. 

 “Pivot” has become the preferred word among business owners while trying to survive the COVID-19 pandemic. For many companies now, it’s pivot-or-die. 

 Resilience and the ability to pivot go hand-in-hand. Resilience is the key ingredient of success and the thing that will never let you down. And it is also about looking at different paths and taking one, acknowledging you were wrong, learning how to fix it, and doing so.

 Here are five tips to help entrepreneurs be resilient and pivot in these challenging times:

• Hope for the upside, but plan for the downside. In business, it’s easy to let a vision of great things ahead trick you into ignoring the real possibility of failure. Every entrepreneur does it. Every great business has more than one plan. COVID has weeded out those businesses that never planned for the downside.

• Let go when your gut tells you to. Today’s business world moves too fast and leaves too many behind for a struggling entrepreneur to stay stuck in their ineffective ways for long. You have to trust your instincts and learn when to step away, and to find another path. Rather than beat your head against a stone wall, find a way around, over, or under that wall, and continue on the new path of your choosing.

• Give in the deep end — even if you’re not fully ready. I have met many people in business and in life who trust the philosophy that your next move should be the one for which you’re already prepared. I disagree. Pursue your next path regardless of your level of preparation. Be decisive. Be confident in the fact that if you’re smart and focused, you’ll learn faster when you’re in over your head or out of your depth.

• Learn the powers of contingency management. Entrepreneurs sometimes get overwhelmed by adversity because they are too controlling by nature. Empowering people as a regular practice and overseeing a collaborative work culture leads to calm and problem-solving when difficulties surface. Manage the situation, but don’t rule it. Care for your people, but don’t set them up for failure by micromanaging them. Hold them accountable but don’t be a dictator. Being resilient as a company and pivoting the right way can only happen if there is mutual trust and a comfort level between the business owner and his workforce.

• See every closing door as a new one opening. When things aren’t working as they once did, entrepreneurs need a mindset that embraces a challenge and is excited by finding a new way to make things better. I have found that the most important lessons in life are the ones you don’t see coming, and they bring opportunities you hadn’t considered. When a new opportunity presents itself as a better way, take the risk.

 Resilience doesn’t just get back up. Resilience finds a way.      

James Webb (www.jamesharoldwebb.com) is the author of “Redneck Resilience: A Country Boy’s Journey To Prosperity.” His career in radiology saw him rise from a technologist to becoming a leader in the industry as the entrepreneur of several companies. After over 40 years in the medical field, Webb focused on the fitness sector, owning and overseeing the management of 33 Orangetheory Fitness franchises

Any number of factors can cause businesses to struggle. A lack of working capital. Poor planning. Ineffective management. 

But one factor that always affects business performance is employee engagement and the degree to which employees feel valued by their company.

Your company’s profitability depends on its people — and you want your team to be composed of the brightest and the best. In this labor market, to recruit and retain the best people you must first make your company a desirable and compelling place to work.

That means offering attractive wage and benefit packages, along with a healthy workplace culture that keeps employees engaged and productive.

Instead of seeing employees as an expense, businesses need to view them as assets that help improve the bottom line.

In my work, I have learned that there are four pillars of profitability that are critical to business success, and all four in some way impact employees. Those pillars are:

• Payroll. Employees expect the correct amount of money to arrive in their bank accounts on time and they want their information easily accessible online. That sounds basic, but businesses sometimes fail to make payroll, or they commit errors when deducting for things like taxes and benefits withholdings. Employees’ paychecks are what enables them to meet life’s responsibilities, so payroll errors and omissions are not things that can be tolerated.

• Employee benefits. If businesses don’t offer such benefits as health insurance or a retirement plan, the better employees will look elsewhere. But smaller businesses usually are at a disadvantage when compared to larger competitors. For example, in 2018, about 85 percent of employees at businesses with 100 or more employees were offered a retirement plan. In contrast, just 53 percent of workers at businesses with fewer than 100 employees had such plans, according to a U.S. Department of Labor report. The report said cost and regulatory complexities are factors discouraging small businesses from offering retirement plans.

• Risk management. Many small businesses have a certain level of risk baked into their business models. They may rely on heavy equipment, vehicles, machinery, or other factors that can potentially threaten the safety of the workplace. The question is: How effective is your risk management program? Often small businesses that have a clear exposure to employee injuries do not have any formalized risk management program in place. It’s important to prioritize and clearly communicate this risk-management program so employees know the company views their safety as paramount.

• HR compliance. A myriad of employment laws and regulations have been passed through the years and businesses need to make sure they are in compliance. The workplace is a melting pot of liability for employers. Are your hiring practices lawful? What about your compensation plan: is it discriminatory? What about terminations: do you have all the bases covered? How do you determine when an employee deserves a promotion or a raise? It’s important to have an updated employee handbook that addresses all these issues along with current job descriptions that are compliant. This makes things clearer, for both management and employees, who like to know where they stand.

To truly drive employee performance, you also need to drive employee engagement — the emotional commitment that each individual team member has to their organization and its goals. Healthy employee engagement means people truly care about their work and their company. It’s up to owners and managers to create an environment where everyone is allowed and encouraged to consistently produce their best work.      

Bill Lyons, the ForbesBooks author of “We Are HR: The Business Owner’s Definitive Guide to Professional Employer Organizations,” is the CEO of Lyons HR (www.lyonshr.com), one of the largest privately held professional-employer organizations in the country.