Uncategorized - Executive Springboard

The New Reality After a Workforce Reduction

Congratulations! Your scope of responsibilities just expanded! An adjacent product line is now under your control, along with 3 additional direct reports and 50 people in total. Sorry, you don’t get a raise or a change in title. Just a portfolio to run with 20 less people than were working on this last week.

That’s the reality faced by survivors of a downsizing. And it’s happening even in a time of robust national job growth. Despite over 900K jobs being added from January to March of 2024, employment is lumpy. SAP announced 8K layoffs in January. Dell and Microsoft cut 6K and 1900 respectively. Apple, IBM, Fisker and Bumble all have announced reductions.

The Human Cost of Downsizing

Losing Colleagues and Processing the Impact

It’s hard to lose colleagues. We immediately mourn their loss. We worry about their future, though most of them will do just fine. Taking the extra step of offering to be a networking connection for them in their job search will pay dividends. As things sink in, we turn our attention to ourselves.

The Survivor Experience

Productivity, Guilt, and Uncertainty

LeadershipIQ’s survey of downsizing survivors shows that 74% say their own productivity has declined and that 87% are less likely to recommend their company as a great place to work. Sixty-one percent of remaining employees believe their company’s prospects are worse than before the downsizing. Survivor’s guilt is a real thing. The good thing is that it doesn’t last long. The bad thing is that it is replaced with the realization that you are doing more than one person’s old job.

Taking Control of the New Workload

Prioritization and Alignment With Your Manager

It’s unlikely that anybody has figured out how you and your remaining colleagues will get the work done. It’s on you to figure this out and then to talk to your manager to get alignment. Don’t bring your manager the problem; give them your solution and get their buy-in. This is the time to use your prioritization and delegation skills. Consider the higher order responsibilities you’ve assumed. How much time will they take? What things of lesser importance need to go to somebody else, need to be checked on less frequently or can be eliminated entirely?

Letting Go of Low-Value Work

Why Stopping Work Is So Hard and So Necessary

Companies are notoriously bad at endings. Deciding to stop doing a task is an indication that it wasn’t important in the past, something that might be hard to admit. But your world has changed. Some things just are not as important as others. And there are few things more liberating than to stop doing a low-priority item.

Supporting Your Team Through the Transition

Helping Others Prioritize and Delegate

Now, think about the people who work for you. Some of your old responsibilities may cascade down to them. They should go through the same prioritization and delegation process as you, but they might not be as adept at it as you. This might be a good time to familiarize your reports with an Eisenhower matrix, as follows: image 57

Remember, it is likely that no task is completely unnecessary. But there are some things that are not mission critical that just might have to be deleted. As a manager, you can help those who report to you by keeping those items in “Delete” out of update discussions.

Navigating Without Organizational Support

Finding Your Own Sounding Board

Your colleagues whose jobs were eliminated might get outplacement help. You are expected to navigate the issues you face without organizational help. If you have a coach, a mentor or a group you lean on for support, now is the time to reach out.

Creating Your Own Exit Plan

Preparing for What Comes Next

Finally, create your own exit plan. Maybe your company will get it right, find a new level of efficiency and start on a new strategy of growth. Maybe you will find deep satisfaction in your new, broader responsibilities and see a path for career development. Maybe not. If your fears about the company’s and your own prospects persist, consider a new career opportunity while maintaining your current work. If you’ve been helping colleagues who were let go, they can reciprocate, having connected with companies that you’re likely to target. Reach out to headhunters to let them know you’re looking at options. Have your goals straight; a job search should focus on finding an opportunity outside of your current employer, not to leverage for better pay or a more senior title. Over half of managers who accept a counteroffer are gone within a year.

Moving Forward After Downsizing

Planning Your Path Through Uncertainty

When companies make workforce cuts, those left behind face trauma, guilt and uncertainty. They don’t get the equivalent help of an outplacement consultant, and they find themselves on their own to figure out a path through a newly laid minefield. Having a plan in place and a sounding board to confide in can be critical to your continued success.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Q1. What typically happens to employees who remain after a downsizing?

Employees who remain often see their responsibilities increase significantly without a corresponding change in title or compensation. They may experience survivor’s guilt, reduced productivity, and uncertainty about the company’s future while being expected to manage a larger workload with fewer resources.

Q2. Why does productivity often decline among downsizing survivors?

Productivity declines because remaining employees are asked to do more than one person’s previous role while also coping with emotional stress and uncertainty. Many organizations do not immediately redefine priorities, leaving individuals to figure out how to manage expanded responsibilities on their own.

Q3. What is the most effective way to approach your manager after a downsizing?

Rather than presenting the problem, employees should propose solutions. This includes clarifying new priorities, identifying work that can be delegated or eliminated, and gaining alignment on expectations. Bringing a thoughtful plan helps create clarity and trust.

Q4. Why is it important for survivors to create their own exit plan?

Creating an exit plan provides optionality and peace of mind. While the organization may stabilize and offer growth opportunities, it may not. Preparing alternatives allows employees to protect their careers without reacting emotionally or relying on counteroffers, which often fail in the long term.

My friend Alpetkin Aksan is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Minnesota. Al and I worked together when I became a board member and CEO of Minnepura Technologies, a green tech startup he cofounded. Al made a distinction between two groups involved in the venture. He referred to his colleagues on the technical side, all professors or postdocs, as “the eggheads.” Those of us with business backgrounds were “the grown-ups.” I am not sure that we deserved to be called grown-ups, but there was a big difference between the two parties, on how we looked at our world and the language that we used.

The eggheads employed the scientific method. They created theoretical models, and they sought empirical evidence to support or refute predicted outcomes. They were trying to figure out why things work. They would offer their hypotheses for peer review, to see if others could poke holes in their theory.

The rest of us embraced capitalism. We looked to exploit resources (capital, materials, knowledge, people) to address a need we observed. We weren’t concerned with why something worked; we wanted to know how to use it to our advantage. We would ask three questions: Does somebody want it? Can we make it? Can we make money on it?

At Executive Springboard, we’ve recently run into some situations where people have been hired into leadership positions because they were subject matter experts. Once in the role, they question whether their expertise is valued. One executive recently described his situation:

“I’m the VP of Clinical Research at a startup company building a software medical device. People rely on my work product, but they do not entirely understand the complexity, which has led to underfunding of my department. The dynamics are complicated, but I feel my work is under-appreciated, and I don’t feel set up for success. It is my first executive role and the first startup I’ve worked at.”

Our advice to this new VP: Trying to explain the complexity of your work is not a winning strategy. The people you seek to influence may not understand; and if they do understand, they probably view this as getting in the weeds. Instead, simplify your explanations. Provide solutions with costs. Your CEO is a serial entrepreneur in healthcare, pharma, eCommerce and SaaS, with several things on his plate besides your piece of this business. He wants efficiency, or in egghead parlance, elegance.

Another mentee cut her teeth as a marketer with P&G, so she is what you would call “classically trained.” That was a big change for the founder-owned company that hired her as its Chief Marketing Officer. She was used to working in a certain buttoned-up fashion. The entrepreneurial employer knew they could use her talents, but its culture rebelled against the over-produced. While she strove to be flawless, her organization took pride in its “Keystone Cops out of a clown car” persona.

The CMO did not change the standard of her work to fit the culture. But she learned to share only the headlines, and she kept the details in her back pocket, ready to pull out in case of a challenge.

I’ve worked with engineering executives who brought the processes that worked well for them in large companies into their new, much smaller, businesses. Those processes might be needed to get their new employer to scale up or become more efficient. Invariably, they faced resistance, not just because people feared change, but because they resented the new boss’s implication that they had not been effective before their arrival. Explaining the intended “improvements” was a lesson in condescension.

The problem of experts trying to deliver actionable advice has been evident in the COVID-19 response. As the New York Times put it, government health officials “speak the language of academia, without recognizing how it confuses people. Rather than clearly explaining the big picture, they emphasize small amounts of uncertainty that are important to scientific research but can be counterproductive during a global emergency. They are cautious to the point of hampering public health.” The experts bemoan the public’s lack of understanding, wondering if they should just repeat themselves louder or slower. They don’t recognize that their own communication may require a translation to make it comprehensible to its intended audience.

Many of us have our self-worth wrapped up in a perception of our competence. We may try proving we are good at something to reinforce our value. We use the language of a functional expert, educating an audience on the “why,” That audience only really wants to know how you propose to exploit the thing we’re good at, how will that work here. We don’t get extra credit for showing our work. In fact, we show arrogance or insecurity in the process.

You may take a role in a company that needs the technical expertise you provide. Your ability to have an impact requires you to learn a new language, not the language spoken by an egghead but that spoken by the business.

Let me reflect on why people become senior executives and how their station makes them think about themselves. My opinion… senior executives have a few things going for them that colleagues with less seniority haven’t:

They get opportunities that others don’t.
They say “yes” to opportunities that others turn down.
They show up well when people who determine their worth are noticing, or they don’t make mistakes that draw attention.

Some equally capable people make different career choices. For their personal wellbeing or for family reasons, they might not commit to the time and the rigors of a more senior position.

Other potential standouts don’t impress in the limited windows they have to be evaluated. It might be a luxury to assume that my presentation to the CFO will determine my future. The impressions that she has about me may have already been made during an elevator ride, an offsite or while passing each other in the hallway. Those impressions can be impossible to dislodge.

Other people are just overlooked.

OK, so you’ve been in the right place at the right time with the right motivation, and you did the right things. You end up in the C-suite. And this becomes part of how you see yourself, how you gauge your self-worth. After all, you’ve earned what you’ve achieved.

With the senior position comes benefits that need unpacking. In a position of authority, you have the opportunity to overrule the decisions of your people. You choose what the priorities should be. You evaluate the performance of your direct reports. In short, you have power. What do you do with it? How does it make you feel about yourself?

There are some dangerous conclusions that you can draw from your senior role. As a bundle, I think of them as executive privilege. No, not the legal doctrine that allows the President to withhold information from the public. Instead, the assumptions I might make about myself as a corporate leader have a parallel with white privilege.

White privilege encompasses the built-in advantages that a white person has in terms of access to power and resources, advantages that a person of color may lack. White privilege is invisible to white people, because they are not facing the short end of an inequity. I have a legitimate claim that I earned what I have. I don’t see the world that I live and work in as anything but normal. The playing field looks level to me, but if I were from an underrepresented community, I would be looking uphill. Because this privilege is invisible to white people, it often goes unrecognized and unaccepted by them.

There is a parallel privilege that comes with a senior station in an organization. This is what I am calling “executive privilege.” Executives view their position and power as evidence of qualities that others don’t have. They believe their own press clippings. And these claims of competency go unchallenged by their organizations. That’s the privilege. Robert Bruce Shaw’s book Leadership Blindspots: How Successful Leaders Identify and Overcome the Weaknesses That Matter pointed out four misconceptions leaders often have. These are at the heart of executive privilege:

I am a strong strategic thinker. Likely, I got to a senior level by managing tactical operational issues. Hopefully, I can make the jump to a more strategic role. But the organization and I take my strategic skills as a given, with my EVP title as evidence. Worse still, I might continue to play to my operational steps while thinking I am doing what I should strategically.

I know more about my part of the business than anybody else. I have an area of responsibility that I am expected to be the expert on. The CEO comes to me to ask about things within my purview. Being on top of my game means having more expertise than any of my people. Because I know more, I may ignore advice and spend more time proving I am right than being effective.

My people are like me, just not as successful or as experienced. They are driven by the same things I am, they would make the same decisions as I do, if they had the perspective I have. They echo my own way of thinking, but I can’t expect quite as much from them as I do from myself.

What’s worked for me in the past will get me through in the future. Yes, I might be facing a very different situation, but I have tried and true ways of doing things. Focusing on what worked well in the past may close out the possibility of trying effective new approaches. But my previous actions got me where I am today.

To Shaw’s list I would add one more:

I have the moral high ground. I am successful. I am a good person. I have values that have served me well. They can serve other people well, too.

The message I’d like to leave with you is, while you may be rightly proud of your achievements, act with humility. There are people on your team who are as capable as you are. You do not have a monopoly on expertise. You will go far by having other team members who are the smartest in the room. Be curious and continue to learn from others. Understand that new situations might require new solutions. Recognize that the people who work for you have reasons for where they are in their careers, and they may be as successful in their chosen sphere as you are. Be self-aware. Remember that your position does not grant you any moral authority.

White privilege doesn’t mean a white person didn’t earn their success. But they might have run on a faster track or had a wind-aided time. Executive privilege is less about how you got there and more about how you are allowed to think about yourself compared to your colleagues at a lower level in the hierarchy. Colleagues who may not have had the chances you did. Colleagues who chose a different path. Colleagues who learned a lot from missteps you didn’t make.

It might be worthwhile to give this a second thought.

Congratulations on being named to the leadership team! This reflects well on your accomplishments and on the organization’s assessment of your ability to excel at the next level.

There is a ton of information available on how to manage upper team of former peers. But there is another set of relationships that is as critical to your success in the new role – those with your new team of peers. Funny thing, you will find next to nothing written about how to relate to them.

It’s a mistake to think that these new relationships won’t require a lot of your attention and action. Yes, you come into your role with goodwill. Your colleagues are pulling for you… as long as it doesn’t interfere with what they are hoping to accomplish themselves. Safe to say, they feel some ambivalent towards you. You are no longer the cute, junior up-and-comer whom they made time to help. You’ve made it to The Show. You can help them in ways that were impossible before. And, for the first time, you’ve become a threat.

The early months following a promotion are a time to recast a relationship from the previous power disequilibrium to one of mutuality. Here are seven steps to accelerate the process:

Use your ignorance to your advantage. You are in learning mode, while your colleagues are in activation mode. They are exhibiting patience while you play catch-up. Your ignorance allows you to be forgiven for early mistakes. And it allows you to leverage the equity that you’ve earned to ask questions about the scope, scale and complexity of your new responsibilities.

Sort out the micro-culture. You’ll become aware of norms, values and dynamics that were not obvious before your promotion. A veil is lifted in how you see the leadership team. Your colleagues don’t all get along as well as you thought. You now see them less as paragons than you imagined. They are people just like you, with their own foibles, conflicts and insecurities.

Accept becoming a peer. Remember when your parents were no longer “Mommy” and “Daddy”? Maybe it happened when you went off to college. Maybe it was when they stumbled in their own lives. Or maybe it took having kids of your own. It’s not just that you started to view them differently. They viewed you differently, too. Your old relationship of dependency limits a sense of mutual respect. A promotion can be the professional equivalent. Your new peers immediately sense this change, but you have to catch on to this new reality, as well.

Watch out for the politics. You are not the Alpha in this pack. Impinge upon a colleague’s sphere of influence at the risk of being swatted down. You can apologize for making a beginner’s mistake, but that might undercut your attempt to create an equitable new relationship. Look before you leap.

Make your credibility personal. Your peers already have a sense of your ability to get things done. That is why they were probably supportive of your promotion. But in building alliances, consider their WIIFM. Ask what can you commit to that will make a positive difference in a peer’s job? Then do it better or quicker than expected. Do not put yourself in a position of overpromising.

Resistance is not futile. Is a colleague requesting something that you can’t deliver, or feel is not in the organization’s best interest? Say “no” and give an explanation. Is another leader overly critical of members of your team, in a public forum? Defend them. Provide evidence to support your team. Very early on, you may strike an objective position and ask for evidence that supports their assertion for your evaluation. After a short honeymoon, realize that nobody will stand up for your team, if you don’t. Privately, determine what was the motivation behind the criticism.

Question colleagues through one-on-ones. Ask your peers their opinions, on the issues the business faces, on their personal hot-buttons and on their assessment of your team and your agenda. What should you know about their job? What can you work together to accomplish? How are your team members and your processes supportive or obstructive to what they need to get done? Who do they see as the high potentials or the problem managers within your group? Are there relationships between your teams that need to be addressed? Are there people on their team that you can help mentor (as the peer once did for you)? Hopefully, these discussions can create tangible steps to building relationships with each of your peers, or at least with the ones whom you will work most closely with.

There are few “how to” guides to building relationships with your new set of leadership peers. Much of this might seem like uncharted territory. If you accept your position as an equal, learn how your stakeholders think and feel, hold your ground when warranted and deliver on meaningful promises, you turn goodwill into lasting respect.

Left Behind- A Survivor’s Guide to Downsizing