By: Jennifer Lahoda
CEO
PACIFIC RESOURCE RECOVERY
Leading an organization through change is one of the most challenging tasks a leader can undertake. It is a process that tests the resilience, adaptability and foresight of leaders and their teams alike.
Change calls upon us as leaders to be extraordinary; to remain grounded through uncertainty, resistance and unexpected obstacles. Of course, leading during times of change requires basic elements like having a strong vision, building an aligned team and mastering the art of communication. It also requires more nuanced elements, like self-awareness, empathy and the courage to ask hard questions. I have found that learning these nuances comes from the experience of being on the front lines of change.
Leading through change lesson #1: Self-awareness among top leadership in an organization creates a feedback rich environment which allows teams to thrive through change.
We all know that effective communication sits at the heart of change management. This includes being transparent about the reasons for change, the anticipated impact, and the strategy for its execution. A key element of effective communication from a leader that is often overlooked is selfawareness. As the leader of an organization, if I am not actively aware of my personal internal state and how it impacts the organization, then I will not be an effective communicator. Leaders are humans too and change is hard for everyone. Before embarking on a change initiative, organizations need to have leaders who are willing to understand how the proposed change will impact them and do the work necessary to remain grounded throughout the change process. This commitment to self-awareness is not a one-time event, rather it requires on going practice. Some of the practices I have used throughout my career as a change leader include having a non-negotiable self-care routine, working with a coach to set intentions and identify my personal self-limiting thought patterns and triggers. Each of these practices helps me remain grounded and self-aware, which in turn allows me to communicate effectively.
It’s important also to remember that communication is not a oneway street. Leaders need to listen to their team’s feedback and understand their concerns. By remaining grounded and self-aware, leaders can more openly receive feedback without defensiveness and adjust as necessary. Transparency in communication builds trust, reduces uncertainty and fosters an environment where employees are valued and heard. This helps in creating a sense of stability in the face of change and makes transitions smoother.
Leading through change lesson #2: Step out of your worldview as a leader of the organization and into the worldview of the team that you are leading.
In 2018 I participated in the post-acquisition transition of a company that my family owned for 55 years. We had 80 employees, the majority of whom had worked for us for decades. The transition would last 12-18 months and when finished, the company’s operation in CA would be closed. As the HR Director of the company, I was tasked with leading the employee retention efforts – it was imperative that we kept our team as whole as possible because we needed to maintain our sales and production during the transition. It was also very important to us that we were upfront with the employees about the fact that the facility would close and that they would need to find new jobs. There were retention bonus’ for those who stayed, but I knew that would not be enough – I also needed to solve for the eventual job loss. With this in mind, I created a plan which included job skills training, resume writing, interview prep and financial planning. I presented the plan in detail to our employees, offering regular office hours and various methods of assistance. Much to my surprise, very few people opted-in to participate.
What I did not consider is that our employees were experiencing an enormous amount of fear and uncertainty. They worried about health insurance, providing for their families and what might come next. Before we could discuss the logistics of “finding a job” they needed tools to process the gravity of this change.
I pivoted my plan and we hired a bilingual life coach who offered group workshops and individual sessions in both English and Spanish. We talked about change management, communicating with family members through uncertainty, grieving the loss of a beloved job and emotionally preparing for new opportunities. Providing this kind of environment to process feelings gave our team the chance to support each other and be supported. They found the gifts that existed in this uncertain situation and they celebrated the many years of service each person had given to the company and to each other.
We eventually implemented logistics plan, but had I started there and not held space for the emotional component, we would have missed out on a very important part of the process. By the time we closed the facility, we had retained 98% of our employees through the entire 18-month transition. Every person who was looking for a new opportunity had one before their time with the company ended. And those who took some time after the closure were offered outplacement resources to use when they were ready.
Stepping out of my worldview as the leader and into the worldview of the team I was leading, allowed me to create the pathway to achieving our goals while supporting the team in a way that had a lasting positive impact.
Author and speaker, Daniel Pink, once noted, “Empathy is about standing in someone else’s shoes, feeling with their heart and seeing with their eyes.” Extraordinary leaders make this an ongoing practice rather than a destination.
Leading through change lesson #3: Ask the hard questions and be willing to take meaningful action based on the answers that you receive.
The current role I am in has been full of opportunities to lead through change – the most obvious among them being the pandemic. As part of our 2020 annual review, our executive leadership team conducted an equity study to ensure that no employee was more adversely affected than another due to the changes we made to the business in order to navigate the pandemic. In reviewing the data, we were pleased to see that we had maintained equity across all levels of the company and in all categories.
However, there was one trend that surfaced from the data that was not pandemic related: there was a difference in starting salaries for entry level office/desk positions vs warehouse/processing positions – this difference had led to a wage gap trend that was not in alignment with our values. Modern business practice has a widely accepted explanation for this gap: candidates who are college educated have a higher value from a compensation standpoint than candidates without secondary education. For generations this notion has informed hiring practices in companies across many industries.
That said, when we look at what makes our business successful, we need quality candidates to fill both positions. We cannot operate and grow without filling our entry level positions in the office and we certainly cannot operate and grow without filling our entry level positions in the warehouse – these are the folks who process and handle the material that comes through our facility, it is not an easy job. This begs several questions: Why does it make sense for the starting salary of an entry level position in our organization to vary across these departments when the positions are equally valuable to the business? What does the difference in starting pay communicate to our employees about what we value as an organization? Are our hiring practices re-enforcing an outdated status quo?
When the answers to hard questions present themselves, the actions we take as leaders are the most telling to the folks in our organizations. When we recognized this trend in the data, we could have easily justified not taking any action because it is “best practice” across many industries or because our numbers were down due to the pandemic. We also could have decided that the finding was irrelevant or should be addressed at another time because it was not within the scope of the question we initially asked.
Instead, we leaned into the hard questions – our leadership team dialogued and strategized. We ran more numbers and debated the actions we could take that would be in alignment with our company values and goals. When it came time to make decisions the team was in full alignment: we instituted a new minimum wage that is the same for every entry-level position in our company. We also made adjustments to the legacy employees whose positions were impacted by this change. With a two-phase approach, we took meaningful action based on the questions we asked and the answers we received. We communicated to all of our employees our findings and the reasoning behind the new policies. We demonstrated what it looks like to know better and do better as an organization and in the process, we showed our team that they can trust us even in the midst of uncertain times.
Two change-filled years later, the average turnover rate for entry level positions in our industry is nearly 50%, meanwhile our team is thriving, managing big changes and growing with a turnover rate of less than 5%.
Change is full of hard questions – the quality and depth of the questions we ask, the honestly in which we answer them and the actions we are willing to take based on those answers will directly impact the results we achieve in our organizations – it will also inform the legacy that we create through our leadership.
Some of my most impactful lessons have come to me while leading teams through change. I have found that the three lessons shared here hold many universal truths and applications for all areas of life. Leading through change is not a linear process, but an iterative one that requires intentional monitoring, self-awareness and course correction. Even the most seasoned leader with meticulously designed plans will encounter unexpected challenges. Extraordinary leaders see these challenges as opportunities to rise to the occasion. Leaders who can guide their teams through change with this approach will not just survive but thrive in an ever-changing world.
