As Everyone Gets Into the Holiday Spirit, Some Leaders are Sick to their Stomachs
Here is my letter to those leaders. It's what I wished someone had sent me years ago when I was grappling with heartbreaking decisions.
Note: I recognize that this post is likely not applicable to all my readers. If you are fortunate enough to not have to navigate the challenges of cost-cutting this season, I’m so happy for you. You deserve it! And perhaps you know someone who is. Please share this post with them. They will thank you. I know I would have.
The holiday season — a time for gratitude, merrymaking, and celebrations can often feel lonely and fraught for leaders of businesses that need to recalibrate.
Perhaps you need to cost cut or major initiatives that you hoped you could pursue this next year need to be put on the back burner?
Or teams that you set up to try a different structure need to be dismantled. The test was successful, yet the team was not.
Maybe you have to take more drastic decisions like headcount reductions and layoffs?
Even as these critical decisions plague you, you still need to plan for the holidays: go gift shopping, host a large family gathering, or attend the upcoming holiday party.
You feel the need to put on a happy face. And the dichotomy makes it all that much worse.
To all of you leaders who are facing these challenging decisions, this is my letter to you.
It’s the letter I wish someone had written to me years ago when I faced these challenging decisions for the first time (and then the second time, and then the third time…)
Dear thoughtful and responsible leader,
I see you.
Working late nights, crunching the numbers, and then crunching them again. Line by line crossing off items on your never-ending to-do list.
You’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing:
Setting clear goals
Holding people accountable
Creating room for tests and failures
Cheering your people on
Staying positive
Unfortunately, the latest numbers were undeniable. You have to cut costs. You have to restructure the organization.
Jobs and initiatives need to be eliminated. Functions have to change.
You wish you didn’t have to, but the business won’t be successful or possibly stay afloat if you don’t.
It’s devastating to have to make this decision and deliver the news during the holidays. It’s supposed to be a time for happiness and celebration.
Your team trusted you.
And they still do.
Making the hard decision to let people go is gut-wrenching. Even if they aren’t performing. To cut projects and initiatives that people spent hours crafting feels like such a waste.
Cutting costs feels like the antithesis of motivating your team. For the people impacted, the negative effects are significant and can be life-changing.
And yet, this is exactly what you have to do.
You have to make the difficult decision and deliver the news.
There may be people you can consult and many people with opinions, but in the end, it is your responsibility. No one else’s.
People will be angry, upset, and sad. You may be seen as the villain.
And yet you are doing the responsible thing. You know it and you need to remind yourself of it.
You have done the hard work of assessing your options. And come to the conclusion that this is the best path.
Could you have made different decisions?
Yes, but everyone is smarter in hindsight.
Perhaps this outcome could have been avoided. However, most business situations are complex, multi-faceted, and are not the result of one person or trigger. It is possible that you could have prevented this and it is possible that this was inevitable.
Don’t dwell on the past. You can’t change it.
Focus on learning from the past and use your energy to shape the future with that insight.
What matters now is how you lead well in this moment with this context.
Get clear on your decision and be guided by your principles.
If you are not 100% clear on your decision, get clear. Review the data, talk to trusted confidants, sleep on it, and then make a call.
One tip before you finalize your decision — cut more than you think you need to cut. It’s the single best piece of advice I’ve ever gotten on cost cutting and it’s the thing that most leaders do poorly.
Why?
Because the only thing worse than one cut? Two cuts. Get it done all at once.
Once you are clear on your decision, then focus on the how. Start with your guiding principles. Keep these simple.
Over my 20 years of executive leadership, I have found these to be the most useful:
Prioritize the long-term health of the business
Focus on your customers and people who are staying and their needs
Be as generous as possible to the people who have to go
Communicate as respectfully and as efficiently as possible
Collaborate with your trusted guides in HR and Legal
Acknowledge emotions but don’t dwell on them
Make your remaining team feel valued
Get help to create a simple and thoughtful communication plan.
Remember, you don’t have to do this alone. Your Chief of Staff, Head of People, and executive assistant can all be excellent collaborators.
Your communication plan can be rather simple:
Communicate clearly and authentically
Be brief. Less is always more, especially in difficult times
Support your direct reports — they are your front lines
Clear your calendar, make yourself available
There are many more details to sort out. You are team are will do it well.
After you communicate the changes, remember your team will be at a different stage of the process than you.
As a leader, you experience your company on a different time scale than your team.
While you feel tormented over a challenging decision, your team operates in ignorant bliss.
After you’ve completed the actions and are sighing in relief, your team has just started to processes the decision that you were working through the past few weeks or months.
They may feel all the difficult feelings you are currently grappling with. Give them space to process and then help them focus on what’s most important going forward.
Above all else, remember that people won’t remember what you said, they remember how you made them feel.
So take care of your needs first and foremost.
The more grounded you are, the more grounded everyone around you will be.
Help everyone by helping yourself.
Get the support you need, go for long walks, meditate, journal, get a massage — do anything that will help you make peace with your decision.
And to the extent that you can, don’t delay the tough task. The longer you wait, the worse off the company’s financial and operational situation will be.
This is challenging work because you are human.
The day that firing people and cutting costs feels easy and without emotion is the day that you have lost your humanity.
Being tormented isn’t healthy, however, feeling sadness and mourning the loss of colleagues is not only normal, it shows that you are a leader who leads with their head and their heart.
In a time when more professionals are seeking workplaces where people are valued and included (and not just cogs in the system), your ability to be a humanist while being a responsible leader who doesn’t shy away from hard decisions is what will draw people to you.
I believe in you.
You have learned so much already.
Your team, your customers, and your business will benefit from what you’ve learned as you lead with your newfound wisdom.
Take heart that the best leaders have all walked through dark periods. It is what gave them the knowledge they needed to be successful.
You, too, are simply getting the experience you need to become an even more effective leader.
You can do this.
Hang in there. This is a bumpy chapter in your leadership experience, and it will pass.
And I know you can do what is best — for your business, for your team, and for your customers.
I’m cheering for you and sending you big hugs,
❤️
Kathy
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If you know of a friend grappling with difficult decisions, please share this post with them if you think it’ll help them feel less alone. Leadership can be a lonely affair and it doesn’t have to be.
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