Leading through an Acquisition

2024 is anticipated to be a prolific year for acquisitions, so I thought I would share some learnings from my last year working at a company that was one of the most prominent acquisitions of the year. I will start with how to lead your team once the acquisition has been announced. Spoiler alert, it is not that different than what you had planned before the announcement.

You wake up to a press release that your company will be acquired. Not long after, people on your team start texting you. Likely your CEO will call people together to share the news and why the acquisition makes sense strategically. The main message to employees is that everyone’s role is to keep doing what made your company a desirable acquisition target in the first place.

When you gather your team, the questions fly. Will I have a job? Will our site remain open? Will our team stay intact? You will be able to answer few if any of these questions. Yet it is important to acknowledge that you have heard your team and share them with your communications and human resources colleagues to keep a pulse on the most immediate concerns. This will be important throughout the acquisition process and guide what information the transition team seeks to bring to employees next.

Then…pivot to what you can control – your team goals. Your team will have objectives for what you planned to accomplish before the acquisition announcement. If you do not it is the time to get those defined and discuss what would change, if anything, when considering the proposed acquisition. Remember, you remain separate companies until regulatory approval and satisfying customary closing conditions, so for most teams, especially in sales, marketing, research, R&D and manufacturing, growth objectives continue to be priority.

If your team is like mine and more involved in the activity that supports a merger, like legal, finance and IT, you may have some new priorities that bring unique career experiences for select team members working on the transition. Further, your leadership may update select operational priorities. For example, you may slow walk the implementation of a new payments system until certain milestones, or if you were planning a new talent development program, you may accelerate the rollout because you want to keep people engaged during this period of uncertainty. You will prioritize based on the objectives.

Once team goals are reset, meet with people on the individual level to keep your team growing. As a leader, you want to make sure that every person has interesting work, grows their skills, and is well positioned for the new combined company or beyond. Stating and following through on this intention will go a long way with your team.

Be a go-to resource for your team. Stay connected to the corporate information about what will happen next. Every acquisition follows a similar path with the announcement, shareholder approval, regulatory reviews, closing, and then integration. Laying this out for people helps, as does regrouping when events happen to share context and what will happen next.

And lastly, remember that people need the goodness of celebration and community. When your team reaches the latest sales target, or the company launches a new product, ensure recognition and celebration of the achievements and all the people who made them happen. Keep the special aspects of your culture and community alive. Continue with volunteer events, food trucks to celebrate summer, annual research awards, or whatever traditions you have. These experiences contribute significantly to satisfaction at work and importantly can even become part of the culture of the combined company.

Being acquired is a unique career experience. It is one where if you lean into change, and take care of your team with goals, growth, being a go-to resource and keeping goodness alive, new opportunities will come your way.

How have you kept your teams engaged during an acquisition?