‘The only constant in life is change’ – Heraclitus.
In every business, things change, stuff happens and all too often s**t happens too – there isn’t a business out there that hasn’t been affected by covid, for good or bad.
It’s never been more important to keep your team up to speed with what’s going on; to manage the change so that people are as unstressed as possible – even when the threat of redundancies may be looming.
Communication is everything when it comes to managing change, so here are my 6 top tips for getting it right:
- Be very specific and very clear about what is changing, and why.
- Think about who might be affected emotionally by the change, and speak to those team members individually. Listen and address their fears but don’t sugar-coat things.
- Tell your team the good news – what’s in it for them, what are the benefits of changing. And if there is no good news, tell them that too, and thank them for their patience while you do what has to be done
- Paint a clear picture of what will happen when, and manage their expectations in terms of any timeframes. Include how regularly you will update them, weekly or maybe daily depending on your circumstances.
- Make it clear what, if anything you need your team to do and get them involved whenever you can.
- Give anyone who has concerns the opportunity to come and talk to you 1:1.
As a people manager, it’s always important to communicate clearly and honestly, but during uncertain, and unsettling times of change, it is essential.
Do one thing: reflect on how you’ve communicated recently.
If a stranger walked in, could any member of your team bring them right up to speed about the state of play? Even if that was to say, ‘We’re not totally sure about the future but our boss brings us together every day, to give us a quick update and answer any questions we have.’
NB Your Communication System is key to building your Business Rhythm, and is step 5 of a 9 step roadmap that we lead our clients along, to build the business-critical systems that will make their business scale-ready, and free them from their day to day operation.
To learn more about the 9 steps that will move you from slave to scale-ready, visit:
https://www.mariannepage.co.uk/chaos-to-consistency.html
