Does your voice have your back?

Victor was the CHRO of an IT MNC of some repute. They were going through tough times. As is wont, attention turned inwards and the leadership decided to figure out cost saving moves. Down sizing or rather right sizing as they chose to call it was the most preferred option of optimising cost. 

It wasn’t going down well with Victor. He was disturbed because these were the very people that his department had selected, hired, trained, upskilled and deployed across various roles. He felt all that talent slipping through his fingers. It would be so much more difficult to hire them again or get people as skilled when things returned to normal. Not to mention the emotional onslaught of letting go off so many people, some go who were friends now. 

Usually calm and easy to talk to, Victor was struggling. Every morning when he addressed his team, his voice had begun to falter, as if he were choosing what to say and how much to leave out. His staff began sensing this unrest and grew jittery. They had of course heard the rumours. 

Riley, their CEO wanted to pull this off with surgical precision. She decided to right size the staff of 1000 in a day. This meant that there would be layoffs to the tune of 180 employees in a single day. 

Riley’s demeanour surprised Victor. She had been associated with the company for longer than him and was completely in control of her emotions. She told Victor that there was to be no communication to the employees before the said day and that his team was to work in confidence. She didn’t want this to affect their standing in the market.

On the appointed day, Riley addressed the entire staff in one go. She walked them through a presentation that showed exactly where they were placed financially and why this right sizing move was the only way the the leadership team could see as the way forward. Her entire team stood on the stage with her to take questions regarding severance pay, outplacement, exceptional requests and the works. Riley spent the entire day talking to each and everyone of those who was let go.

Victor was awestruck. Listening to Riley talk, and the way she handled herself and her emotions the whole day, inspired him. He realised he still had a lot to learn from this company and its leaders. She created an impression on the senses of the listener. Turns out that voice really was a way to connect the head and the heart after all. 

The next day she spoke to the remaining staff addressing their unsaid fears. Victor was present for this briefing. The tenor of her voice calmed their fears. She held herself upright and stood on the same level as the employees. Riley hated stages and any kind of level connotations. She was unafraid in the acceptance that times were tough and really she didn’t have all the answers. She told them that like them she too was taking one day at a time and now that they were short on hands, they might’ve to take on more than before. It was time to stick together and see each other through. But she understood that they all had families to run and if they found better use and pay for their talents elsewhere, she would let them go amicably. 

Riley’s communication and voice managed all the emotional onslaught that Victor was afraid of. The employees genuinely understood that the severance was their best bet in these times and respected Riley more for it. They were taken by the honesty in her voice. While many of them hadn’t worked with her closely, they really looked up to her now. The remaining employees too began to look to Riley for affirmation and continuous communication. They trusted her implicitly. 

The process of trust building in leadership starts when they are unafraid to show that they are human too. That’s what is executive voice- a voice that people want to listen to, generate credibility and even in tough times push people to give their best. Executive presence is an oft used word in corporate and many times it refers to if they understand the weight that they carry at work. 

What did Riley do that set her apart? 

Homework and preparation 

As Riley’s coach, I know she practised her voice and posture. Some of our sessions are about diction and eye contact with a large audience. She could have let Victor do the talking. But this was one of the most important things going down in the history of the company and she couldn’t not address her people with all the facts herself. She took time to understand the needs of the people that she would be facing and prepared her talk along those lines. She worked to build an idiot proof and sound narrative. She worked on how to deliver it too.

Focused on solutions

The best that Riley did was being honest about not having all the answers then. She understood and communicated what was required, but didn’t pretend to know how this was going to eventually go down. It doesn’t hurt to say that you don’t know. When you say things that you don’t mean, your voice gives you away. On the other hand, when you say exactly what you are thinking, your voice literally has your back.

Tapped into social cues 

This was perhaps the most difficult part. The part where as a leader you have to read between the lines. It was what people were not saying that was the elephant in the room. And Riley had the courage to address it. She didn’t rely only on her slide deck or the team behind her, but also brought in a huge difference by being humane about the move. She was able to switch gears between being compassionate and being driven. In the midst of all this, she was available for her employees and she listened. 

Executive voice is a communication tool, but nowadays in this world of fast moving tech, changing political rhetoric, and introduction of a new generation at the workplace, it is the only way to distinguish yourself as a leader. Voice lends a degree of authenticity to the leader that can’t be replicated on or percolated through social media. But every attempt at voice has a solid courage aspect to it, that isn’t talked about as much. And much to contrarian beliefs, your courage is only directly proportional to how vulnerable you are able to be.

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About the author:

My passion is to create opportunities and catalyse relationships that help us thrive! I believe that personal, organisational and societal change is an interactive development process and through my interventions I seek to build awareness and action across all. I have had the privilege to have coached and trained leaders and management teams in 40 plus countries globally and on all continents.

Over the last two decades, I have engaged with leadership development, L&D and talent management across the entire spectrum from diagnosis to design to implementation. Currently I run my own niche Executive Coaching Practice to accelerate leader's path to success through my focus on #LeadershipBranding.

Drop me a message at [email protected] or to schedule a call with me please use : calendly.com/shivangi

Here are 2 initiatives I have founded : www.thrivewithmentoring.com, a non-profit that catalyses women to women mentoring (currently present in 5 countries) and www.xponential.cc (through which I bring award winning leadership trainings such as Crucial Conversations and Power of Habit).