Today’s Top 4 Business Challenges and How to Navigate Them

After nearly two years of conducting business through a pandemic, it's no surprise that companies today are feeling the pressure and facing some tough challenges. On the surface, many of the issues we see today – problems with staffing, retention, engagement, diversity and inclusion, costs, and supply chain, to name just a few – are not radically different from what we have seen over the past decade. But events of the past 2 years have accelerated and exacerbated weaknesses in these areas, which has created a perfect storm of challenges for many organizations. It's no wonder leaders and managers today report feeling overwhelmed. 

The many common challenges businesses are experiencing today fall into four main areas:

Anxiety over uncertainty and disruption

• Unpredictable business cycles, shifting demand, changing customer expectations and volatility caused by the pandemic put workers in a constant state of high alert and fatigue.

Difficulties of remote work / Changing workforce expectations

• From work-life balance and wellbeing to safety, compensation and satisfaction, how employees view and respond to their work experience creates pressure for leaders at all levels. 

Economic pressures

• Supply chain disruption, inflation, labor shortages, cost shifts, and other economic factors are affecting the bottom line for businesses all over the world.

Civic and civil tension 

• Employee activism and rising expectations that companies and leaders take a stand on social issues require deft navigation of sensitive topics.

It's a lot to contend with! The good news is, there are answers to these problems grounded in effective communication. These are things we help our clients with every day, and we see how the solutions we partner on are effective at addressing issues and driving results.  Here are a few that go a long way.

• Conduct employee listening to understand current attitudes and engagement and use what you learn to inform plans and messaging. Measure communication effectiveness over time and adjust as needed for greatest impact. 
• Use communications to rally teams around key priorities and targets and help employees understand how their contributions connect to company strategy, business goals and outcomes. 
• Enhance communication channels to strengthen a sense of community and connectedness across the organization.
• Help leaders be better at connecting with and motivating their teams. Measuring leader communication effectiveness, implementing communication training and providing leader toolkits can be a powerful combination to improve engagement. 

The strategies mentioned above are part of what I call Heart First leadership, an approach that uses empathy, humanity and authenticity to build stronger, trusting relationships with employees, and in doing so, drives key business outcomes. 

If these problems sound familiar, we’ve created a free guide with more than 40 solutions to help you navigate the perfect storm of today’s business challenges. Or, if you're looking for a partner to help you navigate, we're here to help. Feel free to send me a message.

About David Grossman:

I’m Founder and CEO of The Grossman Group, an award-winning Chicago-based communications consultancy focusing on organizational consulting, strategic leadership development and internal communications.

For more than 30 years, I've counseled leaders on the importance of effective leadership communication to drive employee engagement and business results, and served as a thoughtpartner™ to top organizations including Abbott Laboratories, Amazon, Amsted Industries, Hillrom (now part of Baxter), Johnson & Johnson, Lockheed Martin, McDonald’s, Microsoft, and SC Johnson, among others.