3 Pieces of Advice for People going through M&A's

As many know, Linde (the company I work for) and Praxair are merging. It seems like almost all industries have gone through mergers, acquisitions and divestitures as part of their normal business cycles. Through personal experience, this is now my 4th ride through the M&A change curve. Even now, a bit longer in to my career, I found that my anxiety was higher than I expected it to be.  As I have had great mentors over the years, I reached out and received great advice that I would like to pass on.  To my mentors, thank you for such great support.

1) Be very proud of your job but when asked the question, "What are you most proud of?", don't be in the position to answer, "my job".

2) Bet on yourself. The one person you should know the best through self-inspection, is you. If you can't bet on yourself right now, then get/do what you need to change it.

3) Don't let your job determine your value. It is human nature to correlate your job to your worth. After all, you get periodic reinforcement (i.e. paychecks) to create value or provide a service. There are times when a company’s needs do not match your skills, or business decisions are taken to support required changes. In these cases, it is not your fault, but rather situational. Stay grounded in your personal value, not what someone else assigns to your role.

To my colleagues that are going many different ways and to others who may have been through these kinds of change or will someday, I hope that the advice that helped me reflect and stay calm can help you as well.