Your leaders changed and that just happened

The lead time between a CEO change and the following update of organization chart is about one quarter to barely one year.

That is my bet, or at least what experience told me so far. Of course that the lead time between a new CEO announcement and the rumors of organizational change is close to 10 seconds. We could assume that people are somehow living a mixture of fear, excitement, curiosity and some almost are also willing for it. Others will struggle to keep their projects on, there will be ones more conservative. In the end, we cannot say that when it comes and the official communication arrive is totally unexpected.

Reflection: how could we reduce the time between rumors and official communication? Why would be important to do so?

I'm really excited to announce that we did some changes on the areas we have that we are going to tell you on this online session.

Why they decided to change the leaders?

Try to figure out things as a CEO. You are on top of what is work purely with leadership. Your definition of what you do are decisions, influence, give vision and direction. Your success is write a compelling story that from your ideas to organization execution they help instead of holding them back. You want to strive, amaze the customers, see a great P&L result. You want also to share confidence, to see real numbers, to be able to act and tell your story fast in order to provide focus, guidance and inspiration.

We cannot forget about the market itself. Competitors, technology and customers change faster than we think about it and the amazing feature of tomorrow is outdated next quarter. The capacity to change internally will reflect on changing externally when executed with care, focus and guidance.

On the other hand the executives take a look at the organization chart and a shuffle wouldn't be that bad. In a five years exercise the profile needed for one area is in that person that is now in another place, while there is another one that could be great in this place, leaving a place left for a promotion of that rocket rookie and maybe the person who leaves the one area from before actually could lead a new entire idea we just had when we were thinking of a reorganization. People have their ambitions too.

That is the perfect mixture. New vision, an updated organizational chart and a hell of a team of great people willing to rock.

Reflection: Why are we waiting to shuffle the organizational chart?

Manage yourself

Yes, in the next two weeks I leave and you will get to know a new [leader, director, manager, person in charge].

You dear agile something is used to change, right? Lean Change Management probably is your veins (or any other metamodel for change management). Change & Transformation, our favorite words of all time, are barely the same and you are into it since the last agile adoption. You're the guy for it and that's why you have to take care of yourself.

Detachment is key. Decisions made come to execution and you're on the lead of the emotional turnover. Deal with that means be able to recognize the need of closing cycles, starting with you. You'll face uncertainty, the relationship you were building the last quarters or years are now going to finish. You may stay connected to the people who are leaving but the leaders you built that rapport are going to be new ones and that is important to acknowledge.

Reflection: How did you deal with changes and endings in your job/life?

Ego can speak loud these days. If you stay and others arrive suddenly you're the bridge between the old and the new. Probably you have precious information and will manage what to hold (your prejudice) and what to release (your observations). Being wise in that matter means you helped the leadership transition and you got back to your place from before, having a great rapport with your leadership team and knowing a great agenda of what to support them in being awesome.

Reflection: How take the most of your tacit knowledge in that transition?

Tell yourself a mantra: you are building a new relationship. Get sharp on crafting questions, they are your tool to unleash their collaboration. Allow yourself to let go what worked in the past and flow. You'll be back again with a great leadership team.

Start with a proper goodbye

If you have the opportunity to know that someone is leaving and change is coming, use it for the sake of allow people close their stories with that person. Working with teams that use Agile frameworks usually we recommend time and space of inspection and adaptation. Emotionally speaking, when a leader changes there is a huge opportunity to set and close a learning cycle.

Learning and emotions walk very close together. This is the first stone of your transition. On top of this you will help build the environment for the new leaders. That's why you can and should hold a great conversation and recommend a "final session with our leader(s)". With elements of remembering things and celebration you're allowing the old to go for the new to come in.

Let's take a look on how this session looks like.

• It should have some stories from the past. Extremely concrete from the past year and qualitative and aspirational from the beginning of their leadership. Invite them to tell those stories or ask them to define how they want those to be told.
• It must have elements of gratitude. Is key to a group of people look at their work and despite of the outcomes be grateful for it. They spent a lot of time together and surely had their ups and downs, but now the relevant is to look at the bright side and say thanks.
• It could have some insights to the future. It is sure that they want to leave a message to the teams and the teams probably want to leave a message to them. You should be able to reply something at this point and prepare them to next steps of transition or at least give the confidence that you'll be on it and will make it with care.

I'm really proud of what we accomplished this year. We made our vision come true. It was a pleasure to lead you on this journey and I'm pretty sure you're going to keep this [area, department, division] having impressive results and impact.

Behind the scene, make sure there is any gift being prepared for them. This gesture is quite important. Follow the organizational culture, maybe there is something common in place and you just have to leave the teams to do so.

Reflection: What would you like to receive if were you leaving the team?

Remember that you don't have to lead anything here, only the things you want to be in charge or you fell that the teams are overwhelmed and need your help. It is also a precious moment in time: to start building a culture from scratch. This means building fundamentals, pillars and habits of collaboration rather than guiding people or acting on a reactive way. Take advantage of such opportunity.

With a proper closing the teams will be more ready, even eager, to get to know the new leader(s) and move on with the new organization.

Understand the demand of the ones who are starting

Now we will separate you in breakout rooms and you will get to know your new [area, department, division] leadership.

I hope that you had some time upfront to know who is going to be the new leadership of the teams you're working with. You may plan ahead and directly ask them what are they expecting. If there is a change of more than one person in the leadership team make sure you hear group voice and individual voices as well.

My preferred way to work in this start with a new leadership is to know the person with its goals and follow to build a strategy conversation. That's valid from getting to know each one, to present them to the teams and to build an identity to work together. I like to connect first through the heart and soon reach the head and the hands. Find with each one were you may connect with. This can help you build the important rapport you need with the leaders.

Intrinsically, the ones who are coming want to do their leadership things at their way. Although some continuism can be expected, specially in areas that have good performance, in less or more time we may face some disruptions on what were the objectives and how we may accomplish them. They will look for feel comfortable, which for them means be more authentic in the way they want to manage and lead their area.

Reflection: What is the first impression new leaders want to give? What was the first impression they actually made?

I don't have to say the importance of transparent, honest and clear conversations with them, right? Of course that there were great things did in the past, that can or cannot work. Here the game of assumptions is the worst without transparency. Open up and remember they're empowered, hold them accountable for their leadership.

Remember, maybe here during a period of time you'll play a more protagonistic role as you'll be the connection between the old and new. If the newcomers do not realize that, make sure that they understanding the needing of a proper transition and equip them with information to start figuring out things by themselves.

The art of asking is one of the most important tools you can use in this beginning. And yes, I'm repeating myself here. Stick to that, please.

Even if surprises arrive and in the end the start is not what you were expecting, stay solid in building the relationship with the new leadership. Create a constant feedback loop to understand what they need to feel comfortable and prioritize your attention to them. Try to separate were you purely coach or facilitate and were you maybe have to teach something.

We will finish our agenda of today presenting the next 90 days plan to improve our [teams, work, area, division] and reach our [new?] + [vision, objectives, commitments]

Arcs: 1-1’s, leadership team, the teams, the whole area

You have finished the cycle, you're on with the new leadership, let's organize a little bit the many arcs you may have opened. In leadership transition communication is crucial to keep a good transition environment. More than that, be able to separate each arc in order to integrate them is the core of your change execution.

1-1's are that moment where you're heaving your attention dedicated to a unique human being.

Map out in this change who might need at least a coffee break. In today's hybrid working environment this is that asynchronous message you left saying "are you available" followed by a 3 minutes wait and then "let me know when we can chat 15 minutes".

There are people who you'd like to be close during a period of time. Use this opportunity to have structured 1-1's with them and make sure you convert those 1-1's in a periodic conversation, specially with the new leaders.

Reflection: How are you doing on active listening?

The teams demand another course of action. They probably have their routines in place and will invite you to join to help them if needed. You could separate the leadership team from that perception. This is probably the team with more disruption and you should put some priority on that.

Probably you may lead the creation of some routine to the new leadership team, again depending on the scope of the change. It is time to review all that great content of team development you have on your mental shelf, maybe you remember of Tuckman, but there are plenty ones that can lead you to the starting point: it is a team on its beginning.

As soon as possible you may have an intervention with the whole area where those teams belong. This can be the first interaction with the new leadership team, but shouldn't be the only one within some reasonable amount of time. Again the lead time of rumors in change over change will be close to 10 seconds while Teams channels burn with comments and you are just presenting the name of the first new leader.

It can be truly engaging when the new leadership team present themselves and commit to get back to the teams. Within one or two months from the launch (with a checkpoint with some people from the teams) the whole area could be together back again and have this burst of engagement and vision. Use this even to put some rhythm to that and create this time and space where we all get together and celebrate what we have done and what comes next.

Those arcs will become alive and now if you didn't have at least the new organization came to set up what is important to each scope of your work, from individuals to teams until you get to those teams together as an area.

Measure the impact & keep continuously improving

Of course that you have in place a process to measure how people is doing. Right? But in case you don't, you may get precious feedback with a simple survey. Try to prepare 1 to 3 questions that the participants can respond with a quantitative evaluation (from 1 to 5 or from 1 to 10). Ensure some open feedback as well.

Reflection: How to build an effective continuous listening cycle?

Take a look at those TOGETHER with the all other metrics you have from the teams. Production metrics, results, process metrics and people metrics may guide you through the awesome path of continuous improvement. Name one agile something that doesn't love those words side-by-side: continuous improvement. I assume you master many of the metrics of products, production and process so I'll give some focus to that survey I mentioned above.

Ask people (did I mention asking before?) how are they. Do not freak out with the results, rely on qualitative feedback to start a course of action, check the trends and keep measuring for your whole life in this area. Historical data will help you navigate through changes and you may find the sweet spot of engagement because you have a framework of continuous listening in place. Don`t forget to deep dive on those ups and downs that capture your attention, is both important to understand what was fantastic and what was not so good.

If you have other areas changing at the same time is a great opportunity to exchange information. Common trends are organizational feedback that allow other scope of action being considered. Isolated trends means areas can help each other because usually in what you struggle is where your neighbor strive. Copy and paste is mandatory and be humble to follow what your fellow agile something is doing.

With your constance in this mind-set of improvement you're not only making a great job on support a leadership change, you probably preparing those people to be less depending on you. This autonomy will open the room to position you more in the coach / facilitator side, leaving space to your creativity solve more structural and challenging issues your area and / or organization have.

Keep that amazing job of yours and don't forget to stay present in listening and sharp in questioning. You just did a great job (again) and you're collaborating to build a better organization. Thanks to your courage we are a step closer to be awesome.

If you liked this article and need any help to?leadership transition feel free to get in touch or to comment and share. I'm here to support fellow coaches and facilitators being awesome in their organizations. =)

Thanks to Alejandro Maldonado for reviewing and feedback.

Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash