Managing Leadership Transitions

One of the hallmarks of strong company cultures is leadership stability. With a consistent leadership team at the helm, employees can more easily trust in the vision of executives and feel a sense of safety in the direction of the company. These qualities are nurtured over time through effective communication, psychological safety, and a feeling that employees’ needs are cared for by those in leadership positions. Turnover at the highest levels of the organization can sometimes create unease and uncertainty in your organization, and handling these types of changes well is crucial in maintaining trust throughout your organization.

We know that change is inevitable, and when high visibility change occurs, it’s important to have a clear plan in place to share the appropriate details about what is happening, why, and what it means for your people. Leadership change can be particularly sensitive, especially if the person transitioning has a strong reputation in the company or if it comes along with other changes happening concurrently. 

To help you navigate through leadership changes, find out some important tips below.

Establish a Strategy for Communicating Change

As with effort, your outcomes will only be as good as your planning. Even before a leadership transition is on the horizon, you should work with your Communications and Human Resources teams to establish a standard strategy for how you will handle changes of this nature. This strategy should include a general timeline for communicating about the change, including specific audiences and tactics for messaging so you can effectively cascade the important details to those who need it. 

Those in leadership roles will likely need more detailed information and context, but those in individual contributor roles who are less impacted by the transition will likely need fewer specifics. If there is any sensitive information, identify a trusted group of people who can access and communicate it to those who need to know. 

The key part of your strategy should be to reassure your organization that this transition is for the best and outline how it fits in with larger succession planning activities, if applicable. Messaging should come from the top of the organization for very high visibility roles, like those transitions happening in the C-suite or within the executive leadership team. Conveying a sense of stability and calm from the highest levels is always critical to ensuring people don’t feel nervous about the transition.

In your communications plan, you should also include next steps related to the transition. If you have a new leader already identified, make sure to share that. If you’re searching for someone to fill the role, outline what the plan is for coverage in the interim and a timeline for when you expect the role to be filled. 

Make sure your leaders have access to messaging, talking points, and FAQs they can use with their teams and meet with them in advance to prepare them for the communications activities. Solicit their feedback on your strategy and incorporate their input as appropriate, since they are closer to the folks on the ground and can share any potential risks and issues that should be either proactively addressed or reactively planned for. 

Clearly Articulate What is Happening and Why

Sharing the context of the transition will help ease any potential concerns. As leaders, you will always need to balance confidentiality with transparency, but it’s best to err on the side of sharing as much information as possible with your people. Treat them with trust and respect, and communicate about the change accordingly. 

There are times when leadership transitions are planned, which makes communicating the cause much easier. For leaders who are retiring and for whom a successor is identified, communicating the context will tend to be straightforward. For changes that are unplanned or happen unexpectedly, communicating the what and the why might be more challenging. Work with your Communications and Human Resources teams closely on how to position transitions that might be seen negatively or have sensitive causes precipitating them. For those instances, it’s most important to have a go-forward plan that creates a sense of calm and stability. Make sure a trusted leader steps in to take on the vacant role in an interim capacity and have them share information directly with your organization in a town hall or all-hands meeting. Take as many questions as possible, and prepare answers for particularly tricky queries. 

Share the Vision for the Future

Along with articulating what’s happening and why, provide a clear picture of next steps and how this transition aligns with your organization’s plans for the future. Again, if it’s a long-planned leadership change, this will be more straightforward to articulate. If it comes as a surprise or is unexpected, sharing the details of how this will impact your future might be more complex. 

In those cases, always lean on what is not changing. Your business strategy will likely not change as a result of this. Your long-term vision will not change. The mission, vision, and culture of your company should remain a constant backdrop for your communications to help ground your people in things that will remain the same despite the temporary shifts in your leadership team.

Create Space for Questions and Feedback

One of the most important things you can do when managing leadership transitions is creating space for your people to share their thoughts and questions. Whether this is in a large-scale all-hands, a confidential form, or in 1:1 meetings with people leaders, providing space for two-way dialogue will help you in a variety of ways. Not only will it help employees feel heard, it will also help you understand what’s on their minds so you can effectively address their concerns moving forward. This type of feedback loop is always helpful in strengthening trust–as long as you act on the input you’ve received. Letting folks know you heard them and will take steps to address what you can will go a long way in helping you manage your leadership change effectively.

For more insights on managing change in the workplace, check out Make Work Healthy and my coaching solutions, or schedule a consulting call with me.