Consultant Q&A
John Runyan Responds:
The crucial question I have to ask you is:
“Keep your employees motivated and positive around
change for what purpose?” I need to ask this
because the range of possibilities for your (and
others’) intentions in this situation is so
wide.
At one end of that range, you (and the other
owner/leaders) may simply want your employees to keep
working hard right up to the moment when they may be
abruptly laid off with no options and little or no shared
rewards for their efforts. If this is the case, I would
rather not help you move toward this end. Unfortunately,
over the past few months I have seen and heard about too
many other owner/employers in the new economy who have
knowingly manipulated their workers to maximize the value
of their businesses right up to the moment of their
acquisition or merger. Then they have dumped these people
with little or no concern for their human or financial
well being. As a correspondent to AQP, I hope and trust
you are not one of these leaders.
At the other end of the scale, you and your
management colleagues may want your employees to stay
motivated and positive about change in order to better
sustain some form of their current work and/or to ensure
that they can better shape their future jobs in a merged
business.
First and foremost, I encourage you to treat
your employees as intelligent, mature adults. Beginning
right now, the best way to combat the anxiety and
reactivity that demoralize workers in this situation is
to provide them with a steady flow of clear, timely,
accurate information about the current state and future
of your business. I suggest that your CEO and
managers/supervisors communicate in person with your
employees on a regular basis (perhaps every week or two)
about the entrepreneurial situation, financial realities
and immediate prospects and plans for the business.
If you choose not to share this data and
perspective, you are inviting your employees to fill the
inevitable information void with their own uncertainty,
fears and speculation. Left in the dark or with mere
glimpses of reality and scraps of information, your
workers are much more likely to waste their time and
energy in guessing, worrying and complaining.
Second, I suggest that your CEO, managerial colleagues
and you take the time to sit with your employees in small
groups to discuss all of your reactions to the impending
changes in your business. In these debrief sessions you
can listen to your workers and hear their fears and
concerns. You can share your own thoughts and feelings,
perhaps finding some common ground with your employees
who have helped bring your business to this point. You
can offer perspective, advice and support to those who
genuinely need help in making sense of the wrenching
changes ahead. And you can stand up personally for the
values of working with each other that matter most to you
in this crunch.
Finally, in these sessions I believe that you
can spell out exactly what your employees can do to
improve their chances for weathering any of the changes
you outline. If having your employees prove their
competence and commitment could lead to new positions in
a merged enterprise, tell them that. Give them your best
read of the situation and the odds of overall success.
Then let them decide what they want to do—giving
them more choices about how to help the business and how
to look out for themselves. These are a few of the ways
you can truly join your employees in facing these
uncertain times with integrity and maturity.
JOHN RUNYAN is a Senior Consultant, now
affiliated with Leadership Everywhere, LLC, in Seattle.
An educator and consultant for 25 years, he specializes
in coaching leaders and helping to create "learning
organizations." His e-mail address is JRMRV@aol.com.
John's colleagues, Elaine Sullivan, Leopoldo Seguel,
Rhonda Gordon, Rene Pino, Catherine Johnson and Merrilee
Runyan, inspire and help him to think carefully and write
clearly in response to these
questions.
W. Pearl
Maxwell Responds
March 2001 News for a
Change Homepage
Issue Highlight —
Someone To Watch Over Me
With A Little Bit
Of Luck
