Manager Monday: Creating Stability in Unstable Times

Welcome to the next installment of Manager Monday, where we help you gain new tools, skills, and techniques to help you become a better manager.

Because life is too short for bad managers.

There is a lot of instability and uncertainty across multiple industries right now. Layoffs have occurred - and are occurring- in both the public and private sector, and this has resonant impacts for both that are laid off and those that remain.

Wherever folks fall out against these lines, there are undoubtedly lots of complex feelings, and maybe even contradictory feelings, both on a personal level and from a business perspective.

Why me? Why not me? Why them? What do I do with this new team structure? How are we going to do all this work? What does my future look like? Should I be more worried about my job? Am I going to have a job next week?

As a manager, you may or may not have the direct control over some of those elements: upcoming layoffs, large scale restructuring, who gets selected or doesn’t, compensation or severance packages, etc. However, you are on the front lines of creating grounding and stability for the your team— in unstable times where it feels like we’re subject to forces beyond our control, and your folks that remain need good leadership and support now more than ever. It is too easy to spiral into freeze modes, demotivation, or outright toxicity, which doesn’t serve the folks on your team or the business.

So what can you do?

Start with Empathy

• Give folks the space to feel how they’re feeling, especially in the immediate aftermath of big changes. Some people will want to talk about it. Some people will need space. They are processing. You can reach out to each person and let them know that you’re there if they want to talk— do this via an asynchronous process (email, chat) so if they want space, you don’t intrude into that. Understand that folks will probably need a few days to sort through their emotions around big changes.

• Name the feelings, and acknowledge that two opposite things can be true at once. This can be a hard thing for folks to internalize. By naming some emotions they may be feeling, and letting them know that opposite things can be true at once, you can give folks permission to feel how they’re feeling. This might look something like, “It’s totally normal to feel maybe a bit glad you weren’t laid off but also sad that some of your friends were, or guilty about the fact that they were laid off and you weren’t.”

• Just show up. Remember you don’t have to be perfect. You probably have your own big feelings too, and acknowledging those to the team (and even your outgoing folks) can validate their own experience. Reaching out and even acknowledging the hard time, and offering your support- that you’re there- goes a long way to make folks feel supported.

Plot the immediate course

• Give them a sense of where they’re going. You might not have all the answers. Your team doesn’t need to know what they’re going to do three months from now- they have immediate needs for their own stability. Tell them what is ahead, to the best of your knowledge, just for the near term. Give them a direction and a sense of what the priorities are they should be focusing on immediately- this gives them a space to pour their energy into, instead of spiraling in uncertainty.

• Reach out to your internal network. You see one piece of the puzzle, other managers may see others, and together you can get a better picture— or you can create one. If there is big change at high levels, it might take some time for the new structure and leadership to shake out and cascade new guidance. You have the opportunity to not only potentially influence that guidance, but create stability across teams.

Focus on what you can control

• Redirect energy to where it can be useful. Changes, uncertainty, and layoffs can be troubling and make you and your folks feel powerless. We can rarely affect large scale machinations, but we can often have small impacts in areas we can control— maybe that looks like downloading performance reviews, offering resume feedback, or providing LinkedIn recommendations for folks that were laid off. Maybe that looks like conducting prioritization assessments of leftover work to identify operational risks. Maybe it’s a bit of both, but stressing over things you can’t control isn’t going to change anything— focusing on what can be influenced or affected can give a sense of control in times that feel uncontrollable.

Take care of yourself too

• Don’t forget about you. It can be really tempting, particularly if you remain at your job and folks are laid off around you, to focus all your energy to check in on other folks and take care of them, and this is important— but so are you. Don’t forget to give yourself space to feel your feelings too, and process through your own emotions. Call a friend. Talk to a therapist. Take some time to disconnect and do something that fills you up. You can show up best for your team when you also show up for yourself. A full cup has more to give.