Last week in my blog about the I wrote about the gathering dark, the situation that we are all having to deal with now and how if you are very lucky then luck may take you through. But not everyone in this world is lucky and it is always better to deal with reality, however messy that may be. The first and often the most important thing is to recognise the reality of reality.  You can waste a lot of time and effort hoping something will turn up, that the world will change.  The evidence that this will happen is very thin.

Much better is to acknowledge the dark, acknowledge its effects on yourself and those you work with. This is a moment for transformational leadership, one of the six qualities that leaders need today. It is also a moment for that other leadership quality of managing wellbeing. 

This does not mean, as one of my readers commented on a recent post of mine, “sitting around singing Kumbya”. Personally, I can’t think of anything less uplifting.  It means understanding the things that are impacting you and those you around you.  It means getting to grips with reality. People are fearful for their jobs.  They are right to be. Apparently successful companies are downsizing while some of the less successful are shedding staff like autumn leaves.  You may have to do this.  Do it in a way that helps people manage the fear.  Firstly, be honest about what needs to be done, if you are going to shed 20% (or 50%) of your people announce a process and a timescale and stick to it.  Make sure your process is fair and transparent.  Nothing undermines morale like an opaque, unfair system. Get the numbers right – if it you have to cut then cut hard and only do it once.  Sometimes ruthlessness is best. Once you have made the cut be clear it is over.

Secondly announce a programme to help both the leavers and the stayers.  Faced with this situation in one of our clients we at Defy Expectations produced a programme call “Leave Right, Start Right”.  It was not expensive, and it helped people work together in groups to think about their future, the talents and experience they had and how they could best employ them.  It helped them recognise their self-worth and feel in control of their lives.  For those who were staying the programme was the same, because in a very real sense a company 20% smaller is a different company, so they too would be starting over.

Do not underestimate the value of the company taking the initiative in talking about the future rather than letting the rumour machine do its depressing work and further undermine morale. Nothing undermines your brand like a bunch of (justifiably) bitter ex-employees who feel badly treated and are voluble on social media.

For the leadership team the sense that they were managing the process rather than being hostages to fortune helps them manage their own well-being.  Whatever the popular view on leadership as a brutal process there is nothing worse than downsizing a company you have helped to build. That feeling of failure undermines creativity and innovation at a time when you need it most.

#transformationalleadership #managingwellbeing

Pat Chapman-Pincher 

Pat is a senior leader who has spent most of her career running, founding and growing leading edge technology companies all around the world.   Pat now uses those business skills and experience as part of the team at www.defyexpectations.co.uk to help organisations accelerate their success by solving complex business issues in today’s turbulent world.