When my boss got fired.

Leaders can't be successful if they can't manage change.

You know how you are sitting in the office and you can tell that something is going on? There is a buzz in the air, and people are acting a little off --- something is up.

I've had this feeling many times over my career. Sometimes there was a major company announcement afoot like an acquisition or closing of an office. Sometimes, there were bad audit results and heads were rolling behind closed doors. Sometimes people were resigning and the higher ups were trying to decide what to do - offer a counter deal or just let the employee walk?

One time in particular, I can remember feeling this when I saw many leaders from another location in a meeting as I arrived at work. I remember thinking, I didn't know they were going to be in town this week....what's going on? They were there to fire my boss and realign the leadership teams. I would find out soon enough when I got a call at the top of the hour to go upstairs to the executive conference room. My boss had been let go, he was already out of the building and I had a new boss effective immediately.

But what struck me most that day was how the information was delivered and managed like a military operation. When a senior leader is terminated, you never want people to hear it from the grapevine, but through carefully worded comms that are delivered at just the right time. I saw the timeline for the day, and it was impressive. It went something like this:

8:30 am Meet with Senior leader (let's call him Frank) and conduct termination.

Have security on stand-by.

8:45 am Security walks Frank out of the building.

8:45 am Tell Frank's admin to cancel his appointments for the day and tell IT to cancel access to systems and buildings.

8:50 am Call Frank's next-level leaders to meet in the executive conference room for the news.

9:00 am Meet with the next-level and hand out FAQs.

9:15 am Next-level leaders tell their leadership team the news.

9:30 am Email from the President goes out to the organization.

4:00 pm New Boss calls Frank's directs to see how the day went and to set goals for the next day.

To manage change effectively, you have to have a thoughtful plan and in this case, I thought they did a very good job in rolling out distressing news in a way that everyone felt included. One thing that wasn't on the timeline was that mid afternoon call from me to Frank where we both cried. Corporate life can be too much sometimes.

In order to be a leader, you have to develop your skill set in managing change. This takes time and a knowledge of the business. You have to pull out your leadership crystal ball to anticipate the people who will be upset, processes that will get messed up and team members who need clear communication so they can focus on the work and not the change.

The top three qualities that I think are so important to managing change are:

1. You must be organized about it. Whether it is a change in leadership, a major corporate announcement or even a law change or regulation change --- you must take the time to fully understand the change and then build a timeline of the roll out to make it seamless to the organization.

2. Emotional Intelligence is on the front burner!!!! Think about how the news is going to impact everyone and get in front of it. For example, if you are about to announce someone's job promotion, who is likely to be upset about this news? can you pull them aside and give them a heads-up so they have time to process the news? You have to play the long game with employees --- be thoughtful about how they are going to feel when change happens.

3. Clean up the Comms! Have you ever gotten an email with a major announcement in it that was so confusing and drawn out that you aren't even sure what they are saying??? Comms need to be crisp, and transparent and to the point. What do leaders need to carry the message back to their group? Get ahead of the communication that employees are expecting.

   
   

   And lastly, be sure and do a post mortem on any big announcements to the company - what went well? what didn't? how can we be better next time? Effectively managing change is a skill and leaders need lots of practice to get good at it. Just know that you'll never be at the end of this race, but continual improvement will save the day.

   
   

   I think about Frank every now and then and how life can turn on a dime like that. I hope Frank is doing well.