Hi, this is Bobbie LaPorte, back with another week of “Calling the Game,” where I share my own experience and insights while giving you valuable tools you can use to call your own game…and plan the best moves for you and your team.

I’ve been hearing from clients that change and restructuring continues in their organizations.    No surprise, as many companies are using the economic slowdown as a time to reassess their market positions and goals and consequently the effectiveness of the supporting structure in their orgs.

And for many people, this often means that “layering” is happening – moving one step lower in the hierarchy – or that is how some people see it. It can also be seen as placing people where they can best contribute and be supported.

But many people don’t see it that way. They see it as a loss of visibility to more senior people in the org, which they feel means less opportunity for development and career advancement and a discounting of their “value” in the org.

Positional authority in most companies is still seen as an indication of worth and power. All of this is real to the affected people, and you can’t dismiss it. But it’s the reality and will likely continue to be as companies seek more efficiencies.

How to Manage Being Layered

So, if you have been “layered,” here are some things to consider.

Try not to react and take this personally as a sign of your value in the org. Let your new manager know you fully support them, offer to be a resource, and consider what you can learn from them. Their success is your success. They may be in a better position to actively support you in your career development than your previous manager. Then, take time to objectively evaluate how this might affect you/your role in the future.

The key mindset shift here is to see the possibilities this change presents and not view it as a loss, defaulting to defeat and resignation, which can be the normal response.

It’s no use to sit back and lick your wounds.

Taking a more optimistic view of the possibilities this presents can create a positive path forward and set you up for opportunities in this constantly changing and shifting environment.

OK, that’s it for this week’s “Calling the Game.” Hope this helps you gear up for a great week and navigate any curveballs that may come your way!

Got a new boss after yet another re-org? You may have more control over the situation than you think. In her April 10 “It’s Race Day” video, Bobbie LaPorte shares the true story of one of her clients who used his personal agency during a time of transition to better position himself and his team to have more impact in their organization. You can do it, too! Watch now:

New Boss, New Possibilities: How to Make the Most of Reporting Change

Hi everyone, Bobbie LaPorte here again with my weekly leadership tip for 2023 called “It’s Race Day,” where I help you close the gap between thinking and doing. There’s a time to train and a time to race.

As we continue to see layoffs and reorgs, one of the more common “curveballs” to come along with all these is that you often end up reporting to someone new. Sometimes that’s a positive thing; maybe your new boss is someone you’ve admired and a talented leader who actively supports his team. In other cases, it could be a much less desirable change, a situation that could be seen as a step backward for you—possibly even a career derailer.

This was the exact situation recently with one of my clients. Like many of his peers port-reorg, he was told he had a new boss. This was not the first time (and likely won’t be the last).

Most leaders would just accept this news, resigned to a new reporting structure, almost numb to just one more change. They would probably also be happy just to have a job and think they would invest the minimum time getting to know their new boss (because, hey – there was probably another change just around the corner) instead keeping a low profile, staying under the radar.

But that’s not the approach my client took. He opted to use this as an opportunity to think about what the optimum reporting structure could be, to see if there were other possibilities that could increase the visibility and impact he and his team could have; basically, to take what others might consider a risk, and suggest an alternative to what he was presented with.

He was of the mind that he did have a choice in this matter, that he did actually have options—and he used his personal agency to influence where he and his team could land.

When I meet with leaders in this situation, I encourage them to ask these questions:

• Who else in the organization does your team support?
• Where does your work intersect with other functions?
• How could this change increase your value contribution to the organization?

Asking yourself these questions while things are in flux could mean the difference between just another stop on the reporting structure carousel and a path forward that creates real possibilities for you and your team.

And for my client? His team landed in a much more impactful, visible and highly resourced organization, with a leader who also viewed this change as an opportunity to increase his value and impact in the organization.

I hope your week is one of doing, of taking action. Remember: there is a time to train and a time to race. It’s Race Day.

Transcript of Your Next Best Move: Leadership Tips for Reorg Communication

Hi everyone, Bobbie LaPorte here again with my weekly leadership tip for your Best Next Move, where I help you see continuing curveballs as an opportunity.

I feel like reorgs and restructuring continue to be the subject of these weekly tips. And that’s because they are no longer the occasional occurrence. These reshufflings are now part of normal business operations.

Leaner, more accountable, and more efficient organizations are now a priority for leaders, more so than they have been in the past.

The boom days are waning, if not over; the almost certainty of a looming recession has created a sense of urgency for leaders to get their houses in order. And in many cases, these next changes are coming on top of pandemic-related shakeups that are still not complete.

Most leaders have been through multiple organizational changes, and understand the importance of transparent communications before, during, and after, and moving quickly and decisively.

At the same time, I have seen how some leaders can get numb to the process, and default to moving through quickly, detached, and without emotion or compassion. That can result in negative outcomes for you personally and the organization.

Here’s my tip:

1. Consider treating people the same on their way out as you did when they joined the organization.
2. Show empathy and compassion, and encouragement for their next step.
3. Appreciate and acknowledge their work and contributions, just as you promised you would when you hired them.

Regardless of the industry you are in, we live in an increasingly small world, and when things turn around, you may need these people again. Or they might be in a position to support you.

You just never know.

That’s my tip for the week, I’ll see you next Monday.

Related Posts

Leading Through the Continuous Curveballs of Corporate Reorgs

How to Turn Reorganizations Into Opportunity for My Team

Advice for Tech Executives Facing Reorganization Curveballs

Responding to Reorganization

Seize the Shake-Up

View a list of all Bobbie’s posts and podcasts on leadership facing reorganization curveballs and uncertainty.

Transcript of Your Best Next Move: Rethink How You Introduce Yourself in This Reorg Environment

Hi everyone, Bobbie LaPorte here again with my weekly leadership tip for your Best Next Move, where I help you see continuing curveballs as an opportunity. This year, I will help you actively use your personal agency to accelerate what you want to accomplish in 2022.

I think it is a fair assumption that if you are listening to this tip, you have probably experienced some kind of internal change or reorg during the last 6 months.

In the current market environment with the constant pace of change, people leaving and changing jobs in droves, and the need for companies to recalibrate their orgs to stay competitive, this is the way it is going to be.

In our last survey of more than 200 tech execs, they said that internal change was the biggest curveball they experienced. So, no surprise to any of us.

What might not be so obvious is the resulting velocity of change in your internal networks of advocates and supporters – so critical to your career advancement and success. Many companies have had more than a 50% turnover in employees and leadership over the last year. Just think about that.

You have probably heard me say before that my definition of “self-promotion” is sharing your successes with people who matter.

The lesson here is to actively curate and nurture your internal networks – from a strategic standpoint – identifying people with positional authority as well as strategic influencers who can possibly make or break your career.

In addition, many of you are now attending conferences, internal company meetings, and customer summits. So, the opportunities to be intentional about how you “introduce” yourself are growing. And that’s a good thing.

Gone are the days when you can simply refer to your title and area of responsibility. You need to be more creative, and thought-provoking. You need to create a picture in the other person’s mind of who you are and what you do; to capture their imagination (yes, their imagination) to want to know more…and most importantly, to remember you.

So, here’s my tip:

Without going into detail here about how to curate and build your leadership brand and share your value proposition, here are a couple of examples for you to consider as you rethink how you introduce yourself in this changing landscape of reorganization curveballs.

Here’s my first example:

Let’s say you lead a North American Sales org for a tech company.

Option A is: “I lead North American sales for company “x.”

Factual but very uninteresting and undifferentiated.  There are hundreds of sales execs who have this job.

Option B: “I am building a national team of top account execs who are going to transform the way we sell to the enterprise.”

If you were on the receiving end of this statement…. wouldn’t you want to know more?

Here’s a second example:

Let’s say your run a product org for a tech company.

Option A: “I am the CPO for company “x”.

Again, factual but pretty ho-hum. Sounds like lots of your peers.

Option B: “I am leading a team of super-talented professionals to build the next generation of products that will drive our growth in the next 2-3 years.”

The actual numbers are less relevant than the fact you are:

(1) talking about you and the team

(2) using words like building and leading

(3) referencing transformation, growth, scale

I know you can do this…it only takes a few minutes to try it out and see the response. I think you will be pleasantly surprised…and the ultimate payoff could be huge.

That’s my tip for this week.  For more help on using your personal agency to make uncertainty a part of your success strategy for 2022 – check out my new book – “When the Curveballs Keep Coming: A Leadership Playbook for an Uncertain World”, and my new online course – “Leading Through Uncertainty”.

]]> https://www.bobbielaporte.com/blog/rethink-how-you-introduce-yourself/feed/ 1 Reorganization Curveballs | Bobbie LaPorte & Associates nonadult https://www.bobbielaporte.com/navigating-uncertainty/leading-continuous-curveballs-corporate-reorgs/ https://www.bobbielaporte.com/navigating-uncertainty/leading-continuous-curveballs-corporate-reorgs/#comments Sun, 06 Feb 2022 18:07:51 +0000 https://www.bobbielaporte.com/?p=3026 In her February 7 “Your Best Next Move” video, Bobbie LaPorte shares a scenario that is probably all too familiar: a major company reorganization that ends up with you reporting to a new boss who was previously your peer. How do you respond when the curveballs keep coming? The key is not waiting for things to “settle down” but rather seeing the possibilities—and seizing the opportunity to showcase all that you and your team can accomplish.

Transcript of Your Best Next Move: Leading Through the Continuous Curveballs of Corporate Reorgs

Hi everyone, Bobbie LaPorte here again with my weekly leadership tip for your Best Next Move, where I help you see continuing curveballs as an opportunity. We’re done reacting to them, or pausing, waiting for a new kind of certainty to return.

This year I will help you actively use your personal agency to accelerate what you want to accomplish in 2022.
This week, I wanted to share a scenario that might feel all too familiar to many of you – to illustrate what to do when the hits keep on coming when you need to turn curveballs into opportunities.

Your company announces a major reorganization that was unexpected and significantly impacts your team. Your first reaction is one of frustration and fatigue for yet another change. You also feel unsure about what, if anything, you can do to prepare your team for how this may affect them.

And like many of your peers, you simply feel resigned to whatever happens next, waiting to see how the whole scenario plays out.

The result: you and your team end up on the defense, reacting to the change, feeling powerless. Sensing a lack of engagement and productivity from your team, you recognize that you need some response, so you address the most obvious organizational changes and do your best to rally your team to get on board with the new direction. With these moves, you at least feel a small sense of control and agency.

But the hits keep on coming. As a result of the reorganization your boss leaves, and you find yourself reporting to someone who was previously your peer. This is really a blow. You had a great relationship with your boss and were hoping she would provide the support and guidance you need to navigate the new organization. Now what?

Well, you could dig your heels in and really feel sorry for yourself and hope that the new boss just leaves you alone. At the same time, you realize that this situation is here to stay – at least for a while. So, you opt for a response that takes advantage of this opportunity to showcase what your team has accomplished and start to build a positive, generative relationship with your new boss.

With these moves, you begin to see possibilities and use your personal agency to make a more optimal move. This is progress. This is what leading through the continuous curveballs of corporate reorgs curveballs into opportunities looks like.

So, that’s my tip. I’ll see you next week. In the meantime, use your personal agency to make uncertainty a part of your success strategy for 2022.

You may be interested in more of Bobbie’s posts about leading through reorganization curveballs.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT OF “YOUR BEST NEXT MOVE: EMBRACE CHANGE WITH CONFIDENCE”

Hi, everyone. Bobbie LaPorte here again with my weekly tips for “Your Best Next Move,” where I help you have more agency in your work, acknowledge your capacity to act, and see what you can do right now.

Over the last few months, I’ve been sharing tips with you about how to use a possibilities mindset to find Your Best Next Move. And the more you intentionally approach how you respond to unexpected situations this way, the faster you’ll shorten your response time until it begins to feel more natural.

This week, I want to share an example of this from my upcoming book on this subject, which will be published later this summer. So, here’s a scenario to consider: Your company announced a major reorganization that was unexpected and significantly impacts your team. Your first reaction is one of frustration and fatigue to yet another change. You also feel unsure about what, if anything, you can do to prepare your team for how this may affect them. And like many of your peers, you simply feel resigned to whatever happens next, waiting to see how the whole scenario plays out.

As a result, you and your team end up on the defense, reacting to the change, feeling powerless and unempowered. So sensing a lack of engagement and productivity from your team, you recognize that you need some response. So you address the most obvious organizational changes that are needed, and you do your best to rally your team to get on board with the new direction. With these moves, you feel at least a small sense of control and agency, but the hits keep on coming.

As a result of the reorganization, your boss leaves, and you find yourself reporting to someone who was previously your peer. This is really a blow! You had a great relationship with your boss and were hoping she would provide the support and guidance that you need to navigate the new organization. So now what?

Well, you could dig in your heels and feel sorry for yourself and hope that the new boss just leaves you alone. But at the same time, you realize that this situation is here to stay, at least for a while. So you opt for a response that takes advantage of this opportunity to showcase what your team has accomplished and to start a positive, generative relationship with your new boss. With these moves, you begin to see possibilities and use your personal agency to make a more optimal move. This is what progress looks like as you practice finding Your Best Next Move.

So here’s my tip: 

When these unexpected situations seem to follow one after another, you can’t afford to ignore them or to respond in ways you’ve done in the past. Try to think about using each of these situations as a lab, as a way to try new things, and to become comfortable acting without knowing what the end result will be. This is how confidence is built and progress is made in uncertain times.

I want 2021 to be a year of momentum for you…one of possibility thinking, where you take advantage of the agency we sometimes forget we have.

That’s my tip for the week. Enjoy the Memorial Day holiday weekend, right? Finally, our official start of summer! And hopefully, everybody can get out and be with family and friends. So I’ll see you next week, take care of yourself.

In a certain world, we were trained to approach challenges in a methodical, disciplined way: lay out the pros and cons, gather data, create different scenarios, and consider all of our options. Then came a prolonged decision-making process that involved gathering input from all the appropriate stakeholders for input, evaluating more data, conducting a detailed risk analysis to narrow down the best options, and then and only then (hopefully!) making a decision.

However, when we are faced with an unexpected situation in today’s uncertain world, we can’t afford all of this time. Under pressure, we tend to default to our natural reaction to pause, which makes us feel “stuck” and unsure.

Here is an example of how one of my clients dealt with an unexpected situation.

As part of her company’s annual planning process, this executive would normally use the prolonged, detailed, data-driven approach we have all come to know as part of strategic planning, a process that most executive teams do not enjoy or look forward to. As part of their executive offsite where planning was featured, they would normally have completed some level of detailed analysis prior to the offsite.

But then the “unexpected” happened. A major company reorganization was announced just before their planning meeting. The easy option would be to stop, hit the virtual “pause” button, and wait for clarity on the potential impact of this change before proceeding with their planning exercise. But instead, she opted to see this unexpected change from a place of “what can be”, not a place of resignation or uncertainty.

Adopting a more positive mindset, the executive team members modified their process to include possible new scenarios, acknowledging that there might be more risk involved than they would normally tolerate. Most importantly, they used this as an opportunity to revisit their assumptions and open up the possibility of how a new organization could actually eliminate prior blockers and accelerate their progress.

We have all been taught to minimize risk and avoid the potential consequences of making mistakes. But in this environment, risk-taking is more acceptable now. And mistakes are part of this process of innovation and trying different approaches to expand what is possible.

IN THIS EPISODE we’re featuring a special In the Fire Segment with Mike Hamilton, formerly IT exec at MuleSoft and Salesforce, now Vice President of IT at Databricks. In an earlier episode of LCBB, Mike shared how he successfully navigated the Salesforce acquisition of MuleSoft as well as multiple role changes while he was at Salesforce. Mike returns today to give us an update on what he’s learned since his last guest appearance on LCBB and the latest job and organizational changes he’s navigating through.

We know from our survey of tech executives that reorgs continue to be the biggest curveball today’s facing execs. Mike is one of the most resilient, transition-hearty and self-aware executives we know. His advice will certainly have value for everyone. Be sure to also listen to Mike’s past episode on LCBB as well.

Podcast Transcript

Hi everyone, this is Bobbie LaPorte, your host of Executive Aid Stations, Leadership, Curveballs, Blind Spots, and Black Holes. Each week we help busy leaders navigate through complex and uncertain times with practical solutions for real life. In this week’s episode, we’re featuring a special in the fire segment with Mike Hamilton was formerly an IT Executive MuleSoft and Salesforce, and now vice-president of IT at Databricks.

In an earlier episode of LCB, Mike showed how he successfully navigated the Salesforce acquisition of MuleSoft as well as multiple role changes while he was at Salesforce. Mike returns today to give us an update on what he’s learned since his last guest appearance on our show. And the latest job and organizational changes he’s navigating through in his new role at Databricks.

At Executive Aid Station, we recently conducted a brief survey of tech execs and learned that reorgs and job changes are the biggest curveballs facing today’s leaders. Uncertainty is definitely a condition of employment and our current business environment.

It can put you on the defense avoiding risk instead of embracing opportunity. Mike Hamilton knows this all too well. And it’s now putting what he has learned to work in this new role at Databricks.

Mike, welcome back to in the fire. It seems like you’re in the fire quite often. We’d love to hear about your transition to Databricks and, kind of how you charted your course in the very beginning and some of the lesson.

Awesome. Happy to share. So, yes, I started the job as vice president of it over at Databricks recently. And, as with anything changed, you know, being the new norm in life, I think. It’s a, it’s a case where they hadn’t had someone at this level before, but they had had a practice there before they had actually had basic IT team, as well as the business applications team and coming in sort of gaining the landscape.

Generally speaking, my strategy has to be, you know, what’s working and what’s not, and focusing a little bit on where can we get some wins and where can we showcase the team’s talents while also looking for assessing the technical debt that we may have enhanced. We may still have going on as well as, plotting the course for where we can make an impact quickly and make a difference in the way the business runs.

And I think the most important thing to call out those kind of the psychology behind change in general. So with a new leader coming in, for example, that’s a change, it’s a change for me because I’m new and I’m coming into this company and then there’s a change for the team as well. And in my case, in this new role, there were actually two teams being brought underneath me that hadn’t worked together much before.

And so having a little bit empathy and understanding for those folks in terms of like, Hey, so where does everybody see their value coming from? And, how do we knit these two teams together so that they’re able to work together? And so that was, that’s been a really interesting transition for me. , but it’s really good too, to get in there and understand how my team perceives the change and what they’re looking to get out of it. And then lay out very clearly where I see us going.

I think people want to see the leader set a direction early on. In terms of what they can expect from them, how could they expect to see things change, even when you see it coming, it’s always a little bit shocking.

But I think the worst kind of change people can go through is when they don’t see a change coming and managing through changes that we know are going to happen is really setting expectations, making yourself available for feedback, making yourself available, to just talk through and actually seeking people out, especially key players or people who are visibly affected by something and really digging in and understanding what they think about it and how they see it.

As you know, Bobbie, a lot of my philosophy of leadership revolves around my success being derived from the success of my team and the individuals on that team. And that’s why to me, the empathy side of this is such an important facet of it because I really need to make sure that the team is understanding exactly that I care, first of all. But then also that whatever direction I am planning on setting that there’s a little bit of context for them upfront, as well as some inclusion of what they see as valuable.

So that as we’re sending this direction together, it definitely looks like something where I’m taking their input or I’m taking what I’m seeing the landscape and then bringing them along on that journey to set that kind of tone for the team going forward.

So it’s been a really interesting, journey so far. But I think it’s going really, really well. And I’m excited about it.

Well, one of the things we’ve talked about before is that, there is no you say, you know, uncertainty is a condition of employment, right. And there is no certainty.

So you can’t really give that to your team, but what you can give them is some promise of what, you know, what might like what direction you’re heading in, as you said, and talk about what you’ll share with them. So, I’m guessing that that was well received. I’m wondering, kind of, what kind of response are you seeing from them? From you. And from that approach that you just described.

In general, people are, are really positive about it. I think the thing that’s making it easier for my team is the fact that the other value that I sort of like to espouse is enthusiasm and passion for my job.

When I come into the office every day, I’m really upbeat. I’m really excited. I say hi to everybody on my team right now, because they came from two different parts of the company. And they’re merging into one and they sit in different parts of the building, for the time being, we’re growing so fast that we’re out of real estate.

And so I make sure to make the rounds and while I’m making the rounds also say hi to other departments that happened to be in the area like people operations, but I always do so with a level of enthusiasm.

And it’s like, Hey, you know, I’m psyched to be here. I’m really excited to be a part of this team. Let’s go. and I think setting that tone, really helps as well as then more on the one-on-one level and then team level, being able to set expectations. And that seems sort of sensation of like where we’re going as clear.

I had a say in where we were going, things that were important to me are important to Mike, and things that maybe are important to me that Mike says we can’t do yet, that I have a reason why. , and it is really about bringing the team along with me. Again, if my success comes from my individual contributors, then I have a responsibility to know what they think.

And with layers of management and everything else, just working the way it is, it takes some extra effort, especially initially to make those connections with people at every level and try to understand what they see and how what their view of the world is. And then really try to knit that into and stitch it into where I’m taking the group so that everybody feels like they’ve been a part of the journey.

But it does take some, some research, you know, and it takes caring about the people on my team. But, without that extra concern and that enthusiasm, I think people don’t necessarily think it’s authentic. And I think authenticity is really what people want more than anything.

Right. Totally agree that it does take time, but I think it’s a very worthwhile investment for you to be getting to know people and kind of bringing them into the conversation and connecting with them early on, which I know is challenging with being in a new, a new, new role and a new company and trying to navigate the whole landscape of the executive team and all the other people that are your internal stakeholders.

Well, that’s very, very helpful. Thank you so much for coming back to visit with us and giving us a quick update on where you’re headed, and I wish you all the best at Databricks and, in any future moves you make. We’ll definitely want to know about those as well.

And thanks to our listeners. We hope this week’s episode of Leadership Curve Balls, Blind Spots, and Black Holes provided you with some practical solutions and insights to the challenges you face. As you navigate your own leadership journey

Be sure to visit our website www.bobbielaporte.com to hear Mike’s original, episode. And don’t forget to join us next week for another episode of Leadership, Curveballs Blind Spots and Black Holes.

Chances are you’ve seen this movie before:

Your company seems to be moving along well, and the business is growing. Sure, you may not be dazzling Wall Street, but right now things feel good, people are working hard, progress is being made.

Then there is a surprise management shake-up at the top that directly affects your organization. You’re not sure what this specifically means for you and your team, but you’re pretty sure it won’t end there.

And you’re right. There is another change announced, more fallout, then another. It feels like you can’t get the ground to stop moving under you. You try to find some stability, some certainty, some foundation to plan how you regroup and respond. But you may be waiting a long time.

In situations like this, things can change in an instant, and you have little time to regroup. I’ve learned through my Ironman racing experience the importance of quickly cutting the time to respond to reduce potential derailment.

There are two ways you can respond. You can look at this as a loss: “Oh no, not another change!” and fall back on your habitual reactions that create a “Business as usual” response. Or you can take a different approach and adopt a mindset that views change as possibility, not loss.

If you try the second approach, you need to consider: How can you make this turn of events into an opportunity to increase your visibility in the company, to amplify your contribution, to show people what you are really good at? And how can you take advantage of this change as an opportunity to stand out from your peers, most of whom are feeling wounded, worried, wondering what is next—and soon find themselves on the sidelines wondering what happened.

Don’t let uncertainty put you on the defense. Instead of re-trenching and avoiding risk, go on the offensive. Re-engage and use this opportunity and put you and your team in a position to not just weather the next change (because you know there will be one) but embrace it and run like the wind with it!

In this Episode:

00:50 – Curveball of the Week: What to do when your boss gets fired or resigns unexpectedly

03:35 – Confidence Killer of the Week: How to respond when you are asked to reapply for your current job

06:50 – In the Fire special guest, Commercial Executive, Anil Jhanji, shares how he managed the transition of five CEOs in ten years.

Transcript of: “Confidence Killers and High CEO Turnover”

Hi everyone, this is Bobbie LaPorte, your host of Leadership, Curveballs Blind Spots in Black Holes. Each week we help busy leaders navigate through complex and versatile times. with practical solutions for real-life challenges. This week’s episode is about unexpectedly having a new boss and being asked to reapply for the job that you’re in and in our, “In the Fire” segment with our special guest steel industry, commercial executive, Anil Jhanji shares how he handled the transition working for five CEOs in less than a decade.

Let’s get started with this week’s curveball. It’s all about having a new boss unexpectedly. So your boss was fired or resigned without any notice. Let’s face it, with the pace of change and uncertainty this is becoming more of a common occurrence, but it’s still unsettling. And uncertainty is the new norm. And the playbooks we relied on in the past are no longer useful.

So in this particular situation where it was unexpected and expectations are unclear and uncertain. So you will need to keep your team focused and on track, especially if there’s a void until a new boss comes in, you will need to be the person that provides emotional steadiness for your team, as you are the point of continuity and reassurance for them.

And while uncertainty can put you on the defense, this is definitely the time to take the offense and put you and your team in the best possible position going forward.

Here are three suggestions I have for you in this situation:

First, get to know your new boss.

Once that person is named their immediate goals and management style, what’s important to them. How do they want to communicate? How do they lead? That way you can tailor your approach to who they are and what they need.

Secondly, offer to help them to get off to a positive start.

If they’re new to the organization, let them know that they can count on you to help identify the key people they need to know.

And these might not always be the obvious ones on the organization chart, and also the unwritten cultural norms of the company. You could be a strong guide and navigator for a new boss coming into the organization and help them get off to a fast start.

Third

And the third thing would be to consider how to apply and deploy the strengths of you and your team to your new bosses’ priorities, whether you like it or not, the game has changed.

The sooner you aligned, what you and your team can contribute to help your new boss be successful. The more you’ll be seen as a player and a critical piece of this new puzzle. And during this time of transition, you might find ways to accelerate progress on key initiatives by leveraging your team’s strengths and past successes.

One thing is certain, this will not be the last time you experienced the new boss situation. So take the offense and make it a true learning opportunity for you and your team.

Next up is our confidence killer

And so we’re back with this week’s confidence killer, which is you’ve been asked to reapply for your current job. I’m starting to see this emerging practice more and more as companies, reorg, reshuffle, talent, and reboot their organization to match the changing needs of the business within leadership talent.

No doubt, this can be very unsettling to even the most confident and competent leaders, particularly if you’ve been performing well and contributing and getting good feedback. One way to look at this is as an opportunity to honestly, and thoughtfully inventory what you really do well and what you enjoy doing so that you can find the right fit in the organization.

So if this happens to you, here are some steps I would suggest that you take, if you’ve been asked to reapply for your current job.

Number one:

Look critically at all the jobs that are posted for application. And this is often the case where a department will post all the jobs at a certain level and open them up to everyone.

So look at those to see what else out there might appeal to you, but don’t overextend and oversubscribed yourself by applying to too many. This is an indication that you’re not sure of your value proposition and that maybe you feel desperate.

Number two:

Really take the time to assess your strengths and talents.

Look at your previous performance feedback, take some online assessments, if they’re available, even ask a trusted colleague or two for their assessment of your strengths, with tangible examples.

Number three:

Consider what kind of work you really like to do and the environment in which you thrive. So, do you like managing a big team? Would you rather experience the intimacy of a smaller team? Are you ready to be an individual contributor? All those environments, organizational settings are important to consider.

Number four:

Take the longer-term view. So how can you use this turn of events to revisit your current role and how it fits into your overall career plan?

So maybe a job in another area, will give you a different, fresh perspective and create a platform for what’s next.

Number five:

Consider how you can make this turn of events an opportunity to increase your visibility in the company, to amplify your contribution, and to show people what you’re really good at.

And, how can you take advantage of this change as an opportunity to stand out from your peers? This is a very unsettling situation, and most of them are probably feeling wounded and worried and wondering what’s next, and will soon find themselves on the sidelines, wondering what happened.

You can’t control what’s already happened, but you can control your attitude and approach to this potential confidence killer.

That’s it for our confidence killer of the week. And the fire is up next and starts in a few seconds. Featuring steel industry, commercial executive Anil Jhanji who successfully transitioned reporting to five different CEOs in less than 10 years.

Interview with Anil Jhanji

We’re back again with, in the fire. And today we’re joined by our special guests and Anil Jhanji, who is director of markets, customer, and shared services for Tata steel Europe, which includes markets in the Americas, Europe, and Asia, and Anil has been with Tata steel for 28 years. And in addition to his current directorship, he also holds a number of other executive roles in the organization.

I am very excited to have Anil join us for this week in the fire segment to share how he managed the challenge of working for five different CEOs in the last decade. ,

Anil, welcome. That sounds like quite a challenge. Please tell us about it.

Thank you, Bobbie. I’m really excited to be on the recording and thank you for the opportunity as well.

If you look at the last 10 years in my view, be happy. Amazingly gifted because every CEO was coming joined our organization has come with unique talents and unique skillset, which is a stem to form a point of view on what they would want to achieve in the organization. And the course they would like to take and the kind of core team required to do so.

Similarly, all of us as individuals and leaders of our own identity and the skill set we have developed are blessed. And if there’s a perfect match in demand and supply, then one enjoys the adrenaline leading the objectives. And at the maximum, not as strong as I’ve seen, men should just accept developments gracefully and continue to deliver in areas where our strengths can valuate without compromising on the beliefs.

I found, one thing I’ve found that as a leader, one is more effective by not going against one’s grain every so often once in a while to do so. To test if our preferences have changed in life is always good. You never know unless you give it a try.

Yes, absolutely. I mean, you never know, and I’m sure that working with that many different CEO styles over that period of time presented its own challenges to share a little bit about, because you said they all have very different styles.

What did you learn about your own leadership style when you were working with these very, these executives who had very different styles?

Yeah. So if I reflect back on the last 10 years, we have had some amazing leaders. The first gentleman I worked with, he had amazing amount of charisma and he would tell them all the stakeholders alike and, subsequently, the next gentleman who came in he was, he was quite a visionary in terms of being able to direct the organizations towards keeping the customers in the center of all decision-making and between the operating model and a lot of learning involved there as well and thereafter, there was a strong disciplinarian who walked into the organization, very dynamic and then centralized the whole organization towards one common goal.

So off and on you pick up all these other, attributes from each of these leaders and, love to see you at a very forward-focused. And he actually spent a lot of time turning the organization towards not be spending too much time on post-mortem but also spending the time on how to look forward and plan for the future.

And the current CEO over just stepped in and with whom I’ve had the pleasure to work with for the last five, six years is higher and empathy. Belief in empowering leaders were trustworthy and selects the design team in a very meticulous manner. So, finally, it’s amazing to have worked with all of them.

Obviously, it’s quite scary. Imagine if. one single individual would have all these talents, which is not obviously possible, but in a nutshell, I think I’ve gained a lot in spite of the challenges of having to shift gear and accommodate and find ways of adjusting of different ways of working.

Right. I like the way that you described it as a gift of having so many different CEO. , of course, it is disruptive and it is challenging for everyone. But I think the opportunity as you’ve laid it out is that you get to see so many different styles and the trade-offs between them and what’s effective and what isn’t. And you’re able to adapt from that and add to your own style.

Maybe there’s something that you would like to be doing more of. And so you see that in a CEO and you watch them and you see how they role model that. And then you’re able to adapt it and try it and incorporate it into your own styles. I think that’s a really healthy way to look at those kinds of executive changes is what can I take from this experience?

What can I learn from it? Because as you said, I mean, it’s the major change. Every new CEO brings their own style and their own philosophy to the organization.

And so my last question would be, so with all these changes, share with us a little bit about how you guided your team through these.

Yeah. That can be quite a difficult task, because sometimes if you have an observant style, you can understand what is happening around you in the organization, and why different behaviors of why different leaders sort of conduct themselves in a different manner and lead the organization in a different manner.

But if you’re not observant and if you just follow, if you’re following what the advice is coming your way, it can be quite challenging to make course corrections. Fortunately, for us. , we were going through different business cycles whenever the new CEO came in and we could benefit from the talent of the gifts with the CEO brought with themselves.

But my message to my team has been very uniform, continue to work on one individual strengths and all of us will continue to have a role to play an important role to play. And if there are course corrections led by the CEO, which don’t allow opportunity for us as a leader, for an individual as a leader to contribute directly, use the valuable time to upscale yourself with some, with some talent or something you’ve always wanted to do, learn a language or a musical instrument or develop some new skillset relish the time to be able to hibernate for a while before the next cycle of opportunities and challenges flow in.

One of the other options, but we have also tried, and which has worked sometimes is to silently find ways of delivering in your own style and prove that a different approach is also an option to the one advocated by the CEO. It’s a big, it’s a high-risk strategy, but it’s worth giving it a try if you’re really strong in your conviction that it has worked in the past.

So, Yeah, that does in nutshell, that is what my advice to my team has been. And that is what I keep myself motivated as well, when all these changes happen.

Right. Excellent advice. And it’s obviously been successful for you because you’ve continued to advance in the organization and I’m sure you’ll continue to enjoy success at Tata steel.

So thank you very much, Anil, for your valuable insights and advice. And thanks to our listeners, we hope that this week’s episode of Leadership, Curveballs, Blind Spots and Black Holes provided with some practical solutions and insights to the challenges you face as you. Your own leadership journey.

So join us next week for another episode of Leadership, Curveballs, Blind Spots and Black Holes.