Ep 430: The Right (and Wrong) Way to Address Issues with your Team

change a little bit. This email was sent out because the the CEO was trying to address some uncertainty or lack of confidence being felt by the team because of issues the company has dealt with over the past year.

And you know, sometimes when that happens, when when employees are facing uncertainty or they're feeling it or you know, you you look at engagement survey results and you know there are common themes or threads that people are saying around you know, lack of confidence in the future, or you know, questioning specific moves that the organization has made overall that you a lot of times you do need to address those things, and it's a good thing when

an organization decides to do that. But I'm calling this one out because it seems like the organization decided that the right thing to do was address these issues, but they didn't go far enough in actually addressing them. They just decided to, you know, kind of they tried to. I think they tried to placate people by saying something to them without actually addressing what was going on in their minds, and sometimes that can cause more problems than

just not saying anything at all. So I want to go through some of these things that I'm seeing in this email and maybe how they could have been better.

Because if you're a leader and you're thinking about what you're going to say to your teams on something, even an individual person one on one or your entire team, whether it's through email or in person or on a video call or a Slack channel, whatever, it is, the intentionality of the things that you say matters, and the words matter, and how you decide to address the issues that are that you are trying to solve it matters, and you don't want to cause more damage, You want

to kind of move things in the right direction.

the business itself or customer traffic and demand. I think the first thing that you have to do if you're going to communicate the team, which you absolutely should, is actually say the thing and like discuss what's going on and put that out there, because I think that that sharing what's happening and you know, making sure that people understand that you understand exactly what we're talking about or exactly how the team is feeling or what you're hearing,

or exactly that this decision potentially that was made has been a really tough decision and it's something that you know, maybe we're learning from and now we're feeling the impacts of and it doesn't mean that the decision will change, but we need to talk about the impact the decision

is having. And I think that that's such a critical part of communicating, especially in those times in the times when there is uncertainty in the times when there is maybe massive change going on in the times where there is you know, potentially restructuring or a pivot on the business, or sometimes you know, companies sell parts of the business or they sell the business to another larger company. Like, all these types of things that can happen can cause

a lot of uncertain because things are now different. And I think that when you're going to communicate that again, whether it's large scale or smaller scale, individually or with a smaller team, I'm talking about the actual issues, the actual things, and the actual decisions, I think is absolutely critical to have any type of you know, maybe trust or equity with the team to say like, yeah, I'm talking about exactly what we're living through, or I'm talking

about exactly what you're sharing and I'm not kind of being general about it, or I'm not trying to like say things like yep, you know, change is hard and there will be a brighter and better day and like there's a time for that. But I think if you get a sense that your team is struggling to understand or they're having a large reaction to it, that time

is not that time. That time is a different time right now, it's about talking about the actual issue, being clear about where you stand and maybe why the decision was made, and allowing space to discuss, you know, uh, the process that people are feeling through the change curve.

we own this. That they the email makes it seem like the company or the leadership team is almost a victim in this also, or that they're you know, a passenger in the car as opposed to driving the car.

And if you're working for an organization and you're a passenger in the car, and then you look over and you realize, oh, wait a minute, the person who is at at the podium every day saying we've got this, we're going forward. You look over and you realize that that they're steering wheel and their pedals are fake, and they're just sitting next to you.

creating uncertainty, So great, address it. That's that's good. But in the next paragraph they create more uncertainty by not kind of articulating what a solution to the problem is instead they go right on to you know, vague reassurances and you know, quoting the company values, and it's it's this kind of nothing burger email that says, you know, that tries to lean heavily on things that that are vague and values driven, but it's in the face of

decisions that actually fly in the face of what those values are. And and by calling out those those values, you know, it kind of allows employees to see them in the context of those decisions, and it gives less credibility to those values to begin with.

real issues here. But I think if we all work together, we can get this furniture rebuilt and we can get this, you know, the.

blamed for the elephant, and you can't get both. You either need to say nothing or you need to address it with with candor and with transparency and with taking responsibility and knowing let the chips fall where they may, and some people may blame you short term for the for the decisions that you made, but the longer term fallout will be far less if people believe that the that those at the company leadership team, they're the actual ones driving the vehicle.

the impact that we thought it would have. Maybe trying to admit that a mistake was made, maybe having to own the fact of saying, like you were struggling with what do you say and what do you want to share with the team like that, you know that part of explaining requires also why in this scenario, why it took so long to say something? And it's okay to say I made this decision. This is a decision that is not changing. There are a lot of factors into why this decision had to be made, and here are

a couple of them. Right, And and while at the core of a decision like this it might not even align with what I think or what I believe is the right thing to do or the thing that we should have done, it is something that we have to do, you know what I mean? Like, like, it's as a leaders, it's okay to also do that. I think that's a major part of it. I was having a conversation a couple of weeks ago around that, around change and uncertainty,

and you know, somebody asked me a question. They're like, well, what happens if the leader is uncertain? What happens if leaders like, well, I don't know what's going to happen to me in this scenario. And I was like, then you say that out loud, right. I think it's important for a team to see their leader also say I also understand how you feel because I feel the same way. I have a responsibility as your leader to make sure that we could do our best to work through this

and figure this out. I have responsibility as your leader to have to lead in times when it is tough and when I'm uncertain, but I also understand, and I you know, I'm going to share with you as much as I can, and there may be times when I'm going to tell you I can't share anything right now because a part of me being a leader means I also have a larger responsibility to the organization to make sure that we are doing the things that we need

to do. But I will tell you that to your face, and I won't say something like I don't know or I'm not sure, when in fact I do know or I am sure. And I think that those are the things that if you're going to send out any type of communication or have any conversation in those times, you've got to really be clear about where you stand, what's going on and why maybe in this scenario, why was there enough time to feel like your team is saying, well,

nobody is saying anything. You have to address that as well, right.

That's essentially the same thing. It's saying that, yes, I made many decisions in leading up to this that would put this blame on me, but now in these final moments, something that was truly out of my control is happening, which might be true.

almost patronizing to the person you're talking to. And I think that's one of the reasons why this email you know lands incorrectly is because the lack of you know, kind of saying that these things are happening to us, that these are the issues we're dealing with to people without saying these are the decisions that we've made that may have exacerbated the issue or contributed to the problem or started this out down the wrong path, but why we thought they were the right decisions at the moment,

you know, like this is why why we did it, and and it turned out to be the wrong the wrong move or whatever that is. But addressing that openly is what leads people to, you know, not feel patronized, because if you don't address it outright and you just say this kind of like we're trying to, you know, let you know that there's there's a lot going on here that we have no control over and that we

just have to kind of get through this together. The people reading that who know the organization and who know that these things are happening and going on, they are

telling their own story in their mind. They're creating their own narrative about why these decisions were made to begin with, and and that hums off as as feeling patronized, Like if a company, if a leader said that to me, I would think, a they don't trust me enough to tell me what's really going on, or they think that I am that I'm that I won't react in a way that is appropriate for if I have all the information, almost like I'm not mature enough to be able to

handle all the information. So they're going to dial it back and give me the the the kid version of

it as opposed to the adult version of it. And if you if you think about it, you know, most of the employees at this organization are adults, or most of the employees that most organizations are adults, and you need to speak to them that way because it will hurt your relationship with them more if you try to, you know, dumb it down in the you know, if the goal is to try to you know, make them go to bed happy that night by telling them a

bedtime story. You know, sometimes if they can see right through the bedtime story, you're going to cause more damage than you would buy. By the by the by the sending the email to begin.

Be transparent about the reasons why you had to delay the communication or why you weren't able to speak to that person or that team right away, and be honest about it. You can't say, you know, there were things going on that we had to deal with, the wa had to get through. That's vague, that's that's ambiguous. Be very specific and clear and transparent about the reasons why

there was a delay in that communication. Don't don't try to alleviate blame on yourself by by framing the verbiage in a way that says that things were happening to you that you had no control over. Frame it in

a way that takes ownership of the process. Frame it a way that says, I made the decision to delay this communication because I didn't have this information yet, or because this had to happen first, or because I had to write it and I was trying to write it and I couldn't figure out a way to write it in a way that did a service to the hard work that you as a team are doing while also

being transparent and truthful with you. And I didn't want to say anything to you that that was not true or not transparent, like there are ways to do this that will allow people to know that they're not being kind of spoon fed something in order to placate them, but rather than being treated like adults, and they're being given the correct information and then you're asking them to

kind of work through this with you. Do this in this way, even if it means again taking longer, and you will find more effective communication when you talk to your team. Have other people read it, right, write something, have a peer read it, Have you know a coworker read it. Has somebody go over it and look at it with you through the lens of if this were being given to you, how would this make you feel? It's not just about the information. Feeling is important here

and emotional reaction is important here. So asking a person how receiving this email would make them feel, even if they can't, you know, kind of articulate it in a way that that gives specific examples.

behind this communication. And at you know, higher levels of larger organizations, you're always going to have people that are going to either help to to help to write something like that, or approve something like that, or make sure like that's gonna happen. Right, But I believe that the same person that was behind an email like this, if given the chance to go in front of a team in like a town hall or talk about it, I

think the message could be very very different. Yeah, because I think it would be less protected is in regards to like what is shared and how you want to share things in writing, and I think it would be more authentic to how that person feels about the moment in what's going on. And I think that to your point, and it has a big part of it when it comes across as authentic and connected and relevant and real

to what's actually going on. So again, I think that there's always times like this where you're gonna have to address a team about something that's happening. But your confidence and being clear about why you're sharing and what we're all talking about into you know earlier, like addressing the actual elephant in the room, I think is absolutely critical if you want something like this from a message and standpoint to land and be taken seriously.

more people than it was that it was sent to. Clearly, all it takes is copying and pasting and sending like it's going to be seen by the world, right, And so if you're writing this email knowing that, then you're writing it from a standpoint of believing that the world is your audience, not just the people who work for

your organization. And that changes the way that you're going to say something because people who are not within the organization may take things differently, like they there's there's a larger impact to consider, and so at the end of the day, knowing that information, it might mean that email is the wrong way to communicate these things to begin with, it might need to be a a town hall type thing where you you take time to visit different different

places in different locations, or you call the leadership teams in all together that represent all the different areas and you tell them this in person and and and hopefully instill in them the confidence to be able to disseminate that information to their teams. Because at the end of the day, my confidence in my organization comes from my relationship with my direct leader, not my relationship with my CEO,

who I don't even have a relationship with. So the there's a there's a big difference in that, and so trying trying to have a relationship with people who you don't actually have a relationship with it can be problematic to begin with. Instead, put trust in your people to disseminate that information and give the message in a way that allows you to be more transparent and more truthful and more open because you're not addressing the world at large, you're addressing actually the people.