Difficult time is such a vague term, it could be a market downturn, layoffs, loss of a large customer an acquistion or some national tragedy/health emergency. Whatever the reason for these bad times, it’s impactful to your teams. Depending on how bad it gets, you have to really understand the impact of the words and the tone you use. Be as transparent as possible without getting yourself or your company in trouble.
If things go really bad and there is a layoff, make sure you understand that no one at the individual contributor level trusts the company. That trust can be rebuilt, but their trust level is back to 0 because, so your actions, words and tone need to align to that fact. The teams are going to slow down, the morale is going to be more negative and it won’t turn around quickly. The best way to handle this is show empathy and understanding of the situation and give them space to go through the grief of losing teammates and overall trust…it takes time, but the snapback of the team when they realize that you are who you were as a leader before the layoff and that you just lived what you said through the worst of times…they will come back stronger and your relationship will be bolstered in the long run.
Thanks for being here, I hope you are finding good information here! If you are looking for more, let me know!
