Going through any sort of organizational change is a challenge. How do leaders keep themselves focused on the right things? There are many behind the scenes conversations that are taking place that they need to manage. They are part of senior level meetings talking about the change and helping to drive the right decisions. Depending on the leader’s level in the organization and how information is disseminated, they may be learning about the changes as decisions are finalized. Then they need to find the best way to communicate what they can with their team.
Imagine all of these things are going on while you are still trying to manage the day to day work that was already on everyone’s plate. You also need to think about how you are managing the change. The words that you use, the way you answer questions and even how your facial expressions look when you walk down the hall are being observed by your team as they look for clues on what hasn’t been shared yet.
In my experience, leveraging the trust you have with your team and providing as much transparency as possible is needed. Tell them you will share what you can when you find out. Ask them for what they are hearing and what questions they have. This can be helpful to stop rumors that are definitely not true and to help provide talking points for questions. Getting this information can help to provide talking points that all of the leadership can leverage for consistent messaging.
It is one of the most challenging times as a leader, because you may not even have visibility to all of the information, not know where your fate lies after the change and you may have input on your team’s fate, but that isn’t always the case. Even for those who have been through this many times, it still remains challenging. You can’t spend time worrying about things that you can’t control. You have to keep focused on the right things for your team’s benefit as well as the organization.