Khadr's lawyer taken to hospital after collapsing in court
Omar Khadr's trial got underway in dramatic fashion Thursday, with lawyers painting starkly different portraits of the accused. It ended with Khadr's lawyer collapsing in court, raising the spectre of a lengthy delay in proceedings.
Clearly one of the most difficult tasks of a leader is to communicate to followers before and during a layoff process. The more successful the leader has been in establishing trust and loyalty amongst her followers, the more difficult it may be to make the kinds of decisions that are forced by today's economic situations. At the same time, eventually the changes are made and the new organization reorganized or at least with resources aligned in different ways is expected to not only manage at the status quo but perform at as high if not higher levels as it did before losing people.
This is a difficult challenge because not only are there people in the organization now being asked to do more with less, but there are people in the organization that are still recovering from the losses of the personnel reductions. Yes, they still have their jobs. But the culture that they have come to know and the friends on whom they have come to rely may no longer be there.
Communicating to these "survivors" is both crucial and often overlooked. Intuitively it seems like the tough stuff is over once the layoffs have been completed. But the success of the new organization is dependent on the culture's ability to recover quickly from the trauma of reorganization and focus on the needs of the future. To do this, leaders have to attend to the injured...the employees left behind. Yes, they may be grateful to have work at all, but being grateful and being engaged are two different things. Here are some tips for acknowledging the employee issues and getting back to work as humanely and efficiently as possible:
1. Put energy into your post-reorganization communication. Have as serious a communication strategy with those that are still part of the organization as you did when layoffs were looming. Even if the message is that there are no changes, a lack of communication promotes suspicion and lack of trust.
2. Don't forget what your employees have been through emotionally. Sincere appreciation from top management to all employees, recognizing the challenges of the current situation and without reference to the "dire" needs of the company, can be a step towards recovery. A note saying that management understands the emotional challenge of losing good co-workers can go a long way to communicating empathy.
3. No BS about future changes. If there is a possibility of future layoffs it is not necessary to trumpet that there will be more people losing their jobs, but it is important to let people know that there may be additional organizational challenges and that they will be kept abreast of these changes as they come into play. Worse is to make claims that there will be no more change. There will always be more change so don't promise more than you can deliver.
4. Make an effort to connect with your staff. Schedule get-togethers both formal and informal between leadership and staff to discuss upcoming decision schedules and to get input from employees, not about what the decisions should be, but about how they should be handled.
5. Stay in front of your people. Senior management should take responsibility for much of this communication and not depend on front line supervisors to trickle down the information. They are as disturbed by the changes as anybody and it is a senior leadership responsibility to be accountable for organization-wide changes. That means it is a senior leadership responsibility to communicate to employees.
6. Develop your leaders in the moment. At the same time, senior leadership should take the opportunity as a coaching moment with their management and supervisors. Let the middle and lower level managers know the thought process and let them in on the communication plan. Let them feel like leaders, even if they are not the ones doing the communicating. Ensure that employees and supervisors alike understand that senior leaders are doing the talking, not because they don't trust line management, but because they may have more answers and a bigger picture.
Managing organizations that have had major personnel challenges can be a challenge because, regardless of what you tell your folks, they will be suspicious and they will be hurt. They have already suffered from losing long-term relationships and assuming that they can just "let it go" and "get back to work" is short sighted, reflecting a lack of understanding as to what motivates people. Even with ridiculously busy schedules, senior leadership has to take the time to reach out to employees. It is not just a nice thing; it is a way to get the organization back on track as quickly and effectively as possible.
Dr. Todd Thomas is an author, speaker, leadership coach and an associate professor at the DeVos Graduate School of Management at Northwood University in Midland, Michigan. You can find more free resources at his website http://www.drtoddthomas.com or follow his blog at http://www.leadershipmattersnow.com
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