It’s a challenging work world out there for many folk right now. From conversations I’ve had over the last few weeks, there are increasing numbers of mergers and acquisitions, restructures and layoffs happening across the board, all leading to shifts in organisations.
If you’re a leader, it’s possible that you’ll have to navigate one of these changes this year, which might mean sharing difficult messages, keeping things going and delivering on your targets while there’s a lot of uncertainty around. And, you need to keep things together for yourself, too
Image: Anne-Marie Miller, Carbon Orange
I wanted to share five approaches that have been part of my discussions. These are all (unsurprisingly) about putting people front and centre of what’s happening and may help to make things feel just a little easier for everyone involved…
1. Always remembering that we’re dealing with human beings and not ‘human resources’ or ‘human capital’ can help to keep the right balance between compassion and being professional.
2. Take enough time to prepare. Don’t over-rehearse what you’re going to say, but make sure you’re equipped to have a good conversation that gives enough respect and time to the people involved. You may have done this sort of thing countless times before, but you haven’t done it with this particular person or group. Please don’t take that responsibility lightly.
3. Each of us responds and reacts very differently to change and it’s often not a rapid process. It’s not a case of delivering a message and then disappearing (often with a big sense of relief). When I’ve been on the receiving end of this type of conversation in the past for example, it’s always taken me a few hours for the reality of it to sink in. Once I’ve been more settled with what I’ve been told, I’ve had space to think properly about what it meant. Only then did I have meaningful questions.
4. You’re not only dealing with whoever is sitting in front of you. This stuff reverberates around organisations. So, you will very likely have other people in your organisation who will actively be watching what happens and how well things are managed – or not. You might also have ‘survivors’ – people who are not in this particular round of change but are in the same group or team of folk who are impacted. If they’re a close-knit team, don’t be surprised if you see emotional responses from them too.
5. The change curve (see the graphic) is one of a number of useful tools that help us recognise and name emotions we might be feeling as we react to changing situations, especially when we’re dealing with things we’re not used to. This knowledge can help us build our emotional intelligence. This, in turn, helps us better manage our emotions and both get better at knowing when and how to ask for support and be a good support for others.
If I can give you one piece of advice (and I have lots of insights around this stuff as I know we can do things better!) it’s to remember that we are all human. Change is happening with more frequency and things are increasingly uncertain. If leaders can think about people first (including themselves) when things start to shift, it’ll make things so much easier. And we’re all more likely to sleep better at night.
If you’d like to chat about how you can make the impact of change in your organisation better for everyone involved, then get in touch.