3 Positive Things to Do When Your Business Lights Go Out

Super Bowl 47 will best be remembered as, “The Night the Lights Went Out in N’Orleans.”

Adversity happens at the most inconvenient times in unexpected ways, and not just at the Super Bowl, but in business, too. Everything from product outages to a teammate goes out or a vital system fails. It happens. What is a business to do?

Here are 3 Positive Things to Do When Your Business Lights Go Out:

Anticipate It
While it may have been the longest 37 minutes in Super Bowl history, you can bet that the electrical maintenance staff at the New Orleans Dome worked feverishly to restore power. They were trained for just such an experience which is why the situation resolved so quickly.

Preparation is a powerful key to your positive success when your business lights go out. Anticipate adversity and be ready when it happens. Cross train team members. Back up your systems. Keep some extra inventory on hand. Preparation gives you confidence in a crisis.

Anticipate that one day your business lights will go out. Know what you’ll do.

Acknowledge It
The Dome staff kicked into action to get the power back on, but also acknowledged it to the teams’ coaching staffs.

Your first reaction might be, “This can’t be happening to our business.” If you anticipated the crisis, you quickly move past this thought and acknowledge it.

You let others know you know what’s going on, that you’re working on it, and if you can accurately gauge a resolution timeline, share it. Information brings some calm in the midst of the crisis along with comfort that someone is working to deal with the adversity.

Accept It
The lights in the Dome take a while to warm up. You can’t rush them even if 110 million people are watching on TV.

So what’s a player to do? Stretch, play catch, motivate, hydrate, catch their breath, and a myriad of other activities to stay game-ready.

When your business lights go out, remember it takes a while to hire and train a new teammate. Or, for the manufacturer’s backorder to be filled. Or, for the diagnostic to run a systems check and repair the problem.

It is what it is. Accept it and do what you must to stay game-ready. Call a customer and tell her you will let her know when the part arrives. Insure the training videos are ready to play for the new guy. Work on another system.

Keep ready so when your business lights come back on, you anticipated, acknowledged, and accepted the adversity so well that you score profits and win!