How Your Leadership Team Can Prepare for Unexpected Change

Steadying the helm during change is a vital role for your leadership team.

Whether the market is fluctuating or there’s been an unforeseen loss on your leadership team, your business will inevitably see changes that are out of your control. The upcoming presidential election, for example, is bound to have a ripple effect on virtually all businesses.

A welcome lesson that experience teaches all of us is that everything is cyclical. We’ve seen the fallout from elections before; busy periods are often followed by lulls and vice versa. All leaders need to be ready to manage change. Here are three essentials for how your leadership team can minimize problems and manage challenges resulting from change.

Keep Leadership Team Attitude in Check

Over the past few years, organizations have had to adapt to new requirements and employee demands. Whether it is flex scheduling, hybrid or remote work capabilities, or different professional goals and career trajectories, the reaction and attitude of leadership can simplify the ride.

First and foremost, a healthy workplace culture built on trust will make any changes easier to bear. It is always good practice to listen to concerns and ideas, think before reacting, and expect short-term and longer-term implications.

Manage Stress All Year Long

Stress is inevitable at all levels of your company. Work life doesn’t happen in a vacuum, and leaders and employees alike are consistently working through personal challenges. Pile on work demands, deadlines, missteps, and the probability of overflowing emotion and frustration skyrockets.

Executive leadership is expected to always be the example and set the tone for the rest of the organization. Regular contact with an impartial third-party leadership advisor can help. The common analogy is to compare executive leaders with elite athletes. Coaching makes it possible to consistently bring your performance to the next level, especially during times of change.

Communicate Clearly with Each Other and Your Employees

Clear, consistent communication is always a good idea. But it is particularly necessary during times of change. How you communicate best is up to your leadership style, industry, and company culture. Good communication must start within the leadership team itself, then with other tiers within your organization. What you share, how and when you share it can alter the message dramatically. The key is for your language to be timely, easily understood, and, most notably, genuine. 

We’ve said it before and will say it again: change is unavoidable. So, the better your leadership team performs all the time impacts the fallout during times when you can’t see change coming. How does the saying go…? Plan for the worst and hope for the best. Said another way, preparedness allows for optimism.

Liddell Consulting Group has worked with leadership teams and executives to maximize performance for over 20 years. The process has been vetted by hundreds of organizational leaders and results in measurable change. To learn more about how we might work together to improve your leadership team performance, contact us!