These days, many employees feel like they’re constantly receiving a stream of bad or confusing news that affects their work in unpredictable ways. When they only hear simple summaries from their leaders about issues they know aren’t so simple, teams can feel frustrated and even angry. Next time you feel you need to say something, but you’re not sure what to say, try these three strategies: 1) Recognize the power of “and” — it allows you to align two seemingly separate thoughts, such as “things are difficult and things will be okay.” 2) Teach the past to arm the future. Unpacking the past and connecting it to the present can help you create more certainty. 3) Adopt a more experimental mindset. This can help change feel less risky.
“The chaos right now in our organization is overwhelming,” Lara revealed during our executive coaching session. At the time, her company had just hired a new CEO, and the ripple effects of change were traveling throughout the organization. “I need to keep my team focused and encouraged, but anything I say feels fake and distracting. Should I just stay quiet until things calm down?”
When I speak with other managers like Lara, I know she’s not alone in wondering what to say to her team. We’re taught that our people require more communication during tough times, and yet we worry that sharing our honest observations will backfire.
Staying silent might seem like a safer approach. However, it only generates what INSEAD professor Nathan Furr calls “unproductive uncertainty,” where nothing moves forward. While we wish we could hit pause and wait for the confusion to clear, we know that moment may never arrive. Instead, here are three ways to think differently about what you say, so you can speak confidently to your team no matter what.
Recognize the power of “and.”
One verbal tool leaders can deploy is to use the word “and” more intentionally. That allows us to align two seemingly separate thoughts — things are difficult, and things will be okay. For example:
- “We’re making fantastic progress on our main project, and the new COO is considering changing the direction of that work. We’ll continue to focus on our progress and trust in our experience that we’ll adapt if we need to.”
- “Our team’s been struggling while Mara’s out on maternity leave, and this gives us a chance to rethink those processes and requirements.”
- “The supplier is a month behind schedule, so we can shift our attention to project Y.”
Using “and” more frequently ensures you’re not over-indexing on the good out of fear of making your team worry about the bad. Your people are smart — they know nothing can be perfect, and they’ll welcome the truth.
Teach the past to arm the future.
In most businesses, we aspire to move forward quickly and not dwell on the past. But reminding your team about times when they — and the company — thrived unleashes evidence that you can succeed again. You can use your company and team’s history, whether you lived it personally or not. Here are examples my clients have used:
- “Many of you are new here, and may not remember when we went through the last recession. Here are a few things that happened then and how we worked through them.”
- “Angela, I’m betting you recall our challenges before, during, and after the last acquisition like the one we’re managing now. Would you share a few stories with us?”
- “While I’m still new to the company, I’m not new in our field, and if it’s helpful, here’s what I learned during the last time I experienced this kind of change.”
Even if your team is comprised of new hires, there’s history behind why the work exists and the pain or problem it solves. Unpacking the past and connecting it to the present helps you create more certainty in the future.
Adopt an experimental mindset.
When things are going wrong and work feels chaotic, it’s obvious that the team or the company needs to try something new. But committing to a new direction during times of change can be overwhelming and risky.
That’s why actively encouraging small experiments, test runs, or pilot programs may be a fruitful way to surface fresh ideas while alleviating employee anxiety about the future. In fact, Lindsay McGregor and Neel Doshi found in their research of 9,700 U.S. workers that employees who are empowered to experiment are more motivated.
My client Shona was leading her team through an unpredictable time at work. Conversations with her team uncovered that they simply needed more space in their day to adapt to all the changes coming their way. They brainstormed a number of experiments to try to add hours and energy back to all of their schedules:
- Cancelling a weekly status meeting
- Using countdown timers in all scheduled meetings to keep the time remaining visible
- Pausing efforts on a weekly report to test if it’s missed or can be executed less frequently
Experiments – especially ones that are small, specific, and time-bound — work during times of unproductive uncertainty because they disrupt the brain’s current pattern of thinking, giving your team encouragement to be curious and examine different perspectives. Shona’s team surprised themselves when they found that tiny changes could make a huge difference.
These days, many employees feel like they’re constantly receiving a stream of bad or confusing news that affects their work in unpredictable ways. When they only hear simple summaries from their leaders about issues they know aren’t so simple, teams can feel frustrated and even angry. In fact, Stanford’s Chelsea R. Lide and Francis J. Flynn found that leaders are nine times more likely to be criticized for undercommunicating than overcommunicating.
However, when we communicate thoughtfully using the principles above, they’re far more likely to be able to interpret their concerns and feel in more control of their work, even amid the changes, setbacks, and stressors that continue to arrive.
