It was a bittersweet moment when we were informed that our company was being positioned as being acquired in the coming weeks.
On one hand, it was very sweet to reach such a milestone with my team. Very sweet. Our success was never guaranteed, and we worked very hard together over the years for this type of successful outcome. When we hit a very aggressive growth goal in 2019 – after previous years of growth – it felt inevitable. But then there was a global pandemic, and we remembered that luck plays its part.
I had questions. We were two similar companies with two similar product and services offerings. There would be redundancies. There would be massive changes. I had been seriously considering this possibility for over a year at this point. But what about my team? How would they initially feel? And how would those feelings change over time as their daily work environment changed over time? And how would these changes impact our customers?
I felt concerned. Our long tenured team had operated very efficiently, with a high level of output for years. We were worn thin from “making do” and “reaching into our reserves” for so long. Add to that, the pandemic was creating all sorts of serious personal hardships, and now we were about to add another major stressor to our team members: uncertainty and impending massive change at work. It felt risky to pile “one more” challenge on our people without in turn creating space for everyone to mentally and emotionally adapt.
Mitigating this risk was smart for multiple reasons. First, demonstrating empathy and concern builds trust and good working relationships. Second, a business is not successful without it’s people. When you care for your people, you care for your business.
If, in general, we must strike the right balance between “focusing on execution” and “focusing on the people” (in order to create a highly effective team), then this moment felt like the right time to shift the balance more on “the people”. From a tactical standpoint, I’ve searched for new words and phrases to signal that I’m more concerned, and more available to support my team members. While we still review the status of our OKRs on a regular basis, my primary line of questioning has shifted from “how can we accomplish our goals?” to “what priorities do we need to descope so that your don’t feel overwhelmed?” When our busiest production support month was over, I scheduled a “day to work on whatever you want”, in the hopes that the opportunity to work on a passion project would reignite our smoldering fires of motivation.
In practice, very little of our quarterly commitments have “slipped” due to the current events. We still provide great software solutions to our nearly 3000 customers. We’re still growing. However, several team members have expressed genuine appreciation for the “breathing room”.
It reminds me of a favorite saying of mine: “It is not so much our friends’ help that helps as the confidence of their help in need.” – Epicurus