Leading a team through a reorganisation, a restructure or a bigger role?

What people actually need from you

• Clarity about what is decided and what is not. Say both, plainly. People cope better with "not decided yet" than with silence.
• Honesty about what you don't know. "I don't know yet, and I will tell you when I do" is a complete answer.
• Consistency. They are watching for the gap between what you say and what you do, and they will find it.
• Attention to the people staying, not only the people going. The people who stay are often the ones who quietly leave six months later.

The order of things

When you are leading a team through a reorganisation, the sequence matters as much as the message.

• Understand the change yourself first. Ask your own leaders the questions your team will ask you, until you can answer them or know that you can't.
• Work out what it means for each person before the all-hands. Who is affected, how, and what they will want to know first.
• Say the hard thing once, plainly. Don't soften it until it means nothing.
• Then repeat the plan more often than feels necessary. By the time you are tired of saying it, most people are only starting to hear it.

Looking after yourself

You are also going through the change, often with less information than people assume and less room to talk about it.

• Find someone neutral to think with. Not your team, and ideally not your manager.
• Separate what you can influence from what you can only carry. Put your energy into the first, and be honest with yourself about the second.
• Keep the basics. Sleep, a proper day off, and one thing each week that has nothing to do with work.

Stepping into a bigger role

Sometimes the change is your own: a bigger scope, a new layer, a team of managers rather than a team.

• What to stop doing. The work you were known for at the last level. Your job now is the conditions for the work, not the work.
• Who to lean on. The managers who report to you, and the peers who have made this step before you.
• The first conversations to have. Your manager, on what they now expect; each direct report, on what they need from you; and the peers whose work depends on yours.

What not to do

• Promise certainty you don't have.
• Disappear into meetings while your team waits for news.
• Announce before you understand what you are announcing.
• Treat the people who are staying as fine.
• Do it alone.

When a conversation helps

The Discovery Session is free: 30 minutes, online, and not a sales call. Tell me what is changing and where you are in it, and we will work out what would help. If what you need is an employment lawyer or a stronger HR partner, I'll say so.

For leaders carrying a change over months, I offer executive and leadership coaching, online and in person in Dublin, built around the change you are actually leading.

If you want a standing thinking partner through a change rather than a programme, Coaching Sessions can be booked singly or in blocks.

Most leaders doing this work have it funded by their organisation. Here is how that works.

Questions people ask