Archive for December, 2009

Between December 2007, the official start of the current recession, and June 2009 more than 40,000 U.S. organizations held layoffs in an effort to reduce costs, increase profits, and improve shareholder value. Unfortunately, studies over the past two decades have shown that most of the time layoff initiatives rarely actually achieve those objectives. Instead, these studies have reported time and again that less than 50% of the companies using downsizing as a cost cutting and profit increasing measure actually achieve that objective; in fact approximately 25% actually realize a decline in their overall profitability.

Why don’t layoffs produce the returns executives hope they will? It’s the people factor.  Employees are emotionally and psychologically traumatized by layoffs. At the very point in time when employees must be fully functioning and able to take over the tasks of those who were laid off, they are unnerved, frightened and skeptical. Those qualities are not what a company needs to be successful.

My colleague, Deanna Banks, Ph.D. and I spent the past six months studying what leaders can do to re-energize their workforce after layoffs. We found that certain types of leaders are more successful than others at enabling staff to recuperate from the damage that layoffs cause.

What Not to Do

As we interviewed employees from companies that had layoffs, we often heard stories of management teams that took action to stifle any expression of emotion. One employee even reported that the staff was forbidden from gathering in coffee break areas, hallways or offices. Rather than understanding and dealing with the outrage their people are feeling, some leaders simply want people to get over it, now. They say “Just accept it and move on.”

The truth is that when emotion grips people, they simply can’t move on. It is critical they are provided the liberty to share their concerns and work through the emotions they are feeling. If management tries to rush this process and stifle the concerns the employees are expressing, the situation will only become more turbulent.

What To Do

Whenever a layoff takes place, everyone involved is forced into a state of disruptive change. Most researchers agree that people’s emotional responses to change follow a fairly predictable pattern.

If people on your team are suffering through emotional reactions to layoffs, you can’t force them to skip ahead. You may be over it and ready to forge ahead, but your staff won’t support you in those efforts until they are ready. Your job, rather than to push for progress sooner than they are able, is to help them progress at their own pace through the change process.

Interestingly, we discovered that the best strategy for helping employees recover from layoffs is one where the manager actually matches his or her actions to the emotions employees are experiencing. This does not mean mirroring the employee’s emotion (for example responding to anger with anger). Instead, the manager should try to understand what emotional need the employee needs met based on their behavior, and attempting to meet that need so that the employee can continue the healing process.

In our research, we found that successful leaders:

1.  Reduce shock by increasing communication.
2.  Respond to anger by expressing concern.
3.  Address anxiety by emphasizing clarity.
4.  Reduce grief and hopelessness by using supporting behaviors.

Employees who are emotionally supported are likely to be able to refocus on their job and maintain commitment to it. They will look to you as their manager for direction rather than feeling suspicious and sad. Rather than ending up stalled creatively, they will be more able to take control of their emotions and begin producing and taking necessary risks.

While there’s no panacea for recovering from a layoff, how the layoff is approached, how employees who are let go are treated, and how the surviving workforce is supported go a long way to determining the organization’s future success and viability.

Wendy Mack is a professional advisor, trainer, and author with a focus in leading and communicating change. Contact Wendy at, or Download her free e-book, Transforming Anxiety into Energy at www.WendyMack.com

It is becoming more and more important for senior management to support the projects, plans and goals of a group, and it is up to the team leader or department head to gain that support.  Yet, in my work in change management over the past ten years, I have found that persuading executives to support an initiative continues to be one of the biggest areas of concern for group managers.

To try to better understand what senior management needs to support a project, I asked a number of vice presidents and executive vice presidents from both the private and public sector for their advice.I learned there are two things often ignored by team leaders in their presentations.  By focusing on them, your chances of gaining executive support will be greatly improved.

Expecting Immediate Support

According to several executives I interviewed, team leaders and function heads often mistakenly conclude that one brilliant pitch is enough to gain agreement and buy-in.In truth, even when the initial proposal seems like a great idea, the support does not come instantaneously.

One government agency executive I spoke with mentioned that it has taken three to four years to build enough support to gain an increase in congressional funding.While we hope that all business does not take as long as the government can, the purpose of his telling me that was to highlight the fact that managers and project directors must see their programs with a strategic and long-term focus.  He suggested that managers looking for support should:

1.State clearly the ways that the entire organization will benefit from your plan.

2.Work with co-workers in other departments and groups.Find ways to combine priorities and goals into single initiatives in order the strengthen the benefit to the entire organization.

3.Talk in advance of your proposal to senior management and other stakeholders in the organization.Ask for their advice as to how you can best fit your ideas into the overall goals of the company.Be willing to change your proposal based on their feedback.

4.Be patient and make your proposal for resources only after you have created a strong enough case and have received informal support from executive management for your ideas.

Failing to Be Strategic

This is a crucial point when it comes to gaining support.Executives of most organizations have developed strategic goals for achieving the organization’s vision for the future.   You are much more likely to gain support when you show how your team’s plan will help to further the strategic goals.. To achieve this, you need to be proactive in finding out what the organization wants to achieve strategically rather than waiting for someone to tell you.

What does it mean to be strategic?  In my experience, executives want their directors to:

1.Understand the company’s main goals.

2.Give constructive suggestions how their group can help the company meet those objectives.

As Scott Eblin writes in “The Next Level”, you need to spend time with your senior executives up front to ensure that you understand what success means to them.  Remember, though, that at this level, you aren’t likely to get specific goals and metrics.Your goal is to listen to discover organization-wide priorities and constraints.Be a sponge in these conversations.Take the information to your managers to talk over some more.  Then come back to your executive with specific plans about what your group or function will do and how you will do it.  Be prepared to make adjustments based on input from your executive team at this point.

Executive support for a project you feel strongly about may seem as though it is out of your reach, but if you are patient you will be able to build a case that senior management will understand.The objective is to always keep in mind the overall goals of the organization and communicate clearly how your project will help to achieve those goals.  Before you know it, your project could become a key factor in the success of the entire company!

Wendy Mack is a professional advisor, trainer, and author with a focus in leading and communicating change. Contact Wendy at, or Download her free e-book, Transforming Anxiety into Energy at www.WendyMack.com