Paro’s Post

Layoffs are the elephant in the room right now. Questions around what will be next are top of mind for almost every leader I talk to. The unease is palpable: - Is my job safe? - How do I make myself valuable? - Are we all jockeying for positions? - How do I deal with survivors guilt? - What if I'm the one who has to make a decision to let to someone go? If you are a leader, the most crucial thing you can do for your team is connect. Regardless of the circumstances, people want to be heard, valued, and acknowledged. When this happens it creates psychological safety in the midst of the storm. According to Daniel Goleman, a leader's ability to respond with authenticity and empathy is the greatest factor in building trust. If there's an elephant in the room, here's three ways you can create connection: 1️⃣ Ask, "How are you doing in regards to ___________________?" 2️⃣ Acknowledge the emotions being expressed. 3️⃣ Explore what is most important to them. A leader's ability to have conversations that value people sets the tone of the organization. What do you think helps people feel safe in times of uncertainty?

If you want to know how to: 🔷 Maximize the value of your exit 🔷 Strengthen transitional cash flow 🔷 Posture for a strong next role Download our eBook below 👇🏼 https://lnkd.in/e7pFhcaQ Our team of advisors compiled their most frequent questions and best answers from years of guiding clients through layoffs. We hope you’ll find these helpful too.

1,000x yes to this advice and some other things I would add: - Train the personnel who you are putting in front of people. A practice run-through wouldn't even be the worst idea. During my layoff, we were given the wrong information about health insurance among some other things. The people doing the layoff were shaky and not confident in their responses to questions. Since you are pulling the rug out from underneath so many people and you have no idea how hard each of them will fall, giving the correct information is paramount in that moment. I promise the people finding out they are losing their jobs are way more emotional and nervous than you. - Telling the remaining staff not to reach out to their coworkers who have just been let go is callous. Advising to wait until they reach out to you is the wrong avenue. It should be up to the remaining employees to decide what's the best route for the relationship they may have had with anyone let go. Being laid off is already embarrassing and hurtful enough; it only hurts more when the people you thought you made connections with are radio silent.

Layoffs and restructuring can be a difficult time for everyone involved. But with careful planning and execution, they can be managed effectively. That's where our latest blog post comes in. We walk you through the entire process, from planning to communication to implementation, and offer tips on how to minimise the impact on employees and the organisation as a whole. Click the link below to read the full post and learn how to manage layoffs and restructuring effectively. https://bit.ly/3Gv3tS1

📢📢📢 People leaders: there’s a better way to do layoffs that prioritizes empathy and respect.️ Too often, we hear about employees attending a mass meeting to receive life-altering news, only to find their access to company resources cut off immediately after the call. Here’s what we recommend to do instead: 
 📎 Conduct layoffs with a face-to-face conversation. Instead of a mass meeting or (gulp) an email, have a compassionate conversation. It gives people the opportunity to process emotions, ask questions and feel heard and respected. 
 📎 Provide employees with all the information they need to move forward. This includes how to file for unemployment, final paycheck details, clarity on benefits, and contact information for any follow-up questions. 
 📎 Address the concerns of remaining employees. Roles and reporting structures may change. Some employees may have increased responsibility. Keep lines of communication open to provide remaining employees with clarity and reassurance. 📎 Provide mental health benefits. After layoffs, there may be feelings of frustration, anxiety, or grief. Working with a therapist or coach can help employees process their feelings and heal. Remember: layoffs are part of adapting to shifting economic conditions and business realities—but handling these tough situations with humanity and respect is possible.

One way to make the right decision when you are confused. And be at peace with it. I’m referring to the kinds of decisions we have to make occasionally, with significant—although unclear—consequences. Decisions we have to make in uncertain environments, when little information is available, and the situation's complexity makes it difficult to anticipate what may happen as a result. The COVID-19 pandemic is a textbook example of that type of environment. For example, one of the most difficult decisions that founders and small business owners had to make was regarding layoffs. In situations like these, it is easy to get buried by calculations, projections, and endless meetings, which can lead to analysis paralysis and no clear answers. If clear data or experience is unavailable, knowing and understanding our core values can be an extremely useful guide to help us decide. When we are clear about our values -what we believe is important above everything else- and act in alignment with them, we can make choices that appear unsound to those around us. Regardless of the consequences, we will feel at peace with our decision. Clarity about our core values is a critical aspect of self-knowledge, and acting accordingly provides reliability, consistency, and satisfaction in what we do and how we do it. It also generates trust, enhances presence, and informs how we partner and collaborate with others. Although there are several ways to identify core values, one way to begin is by reviewing past experiences, actions, projects, or relationships that made you proud. Common characteristics and behaviors will emerge, providing insights into your core values. Pick the five that resonate the most and use them to look at other moments in your life, both highlights and lowlights. See how alignment and misalignment with these values affected how you felt at the time. You may be in for a surprise.

Check out my latest Human Capital Leadership article, "The Devastating Toll of Layoffs: Measuring Human and Organizational Costs." From the conclusion: "Layoffs are devastating events that exact immense costs on impacted employees as well as the organizations that implement them. Beyond short-term savings, the personal tolls of stress, depression, poor health, and financial hardship, as well as long-term organizational costs including talent and knowledge loss, damaged culture, and diminished competitive advantage, outweigh any benefits. Leaders must carefully weigh these impacts and explore ethical alternatives to layoffs that support workers' wellbeing and prevent long-term damage. With proactive strategies like retraining investments, flexible scheduling, retention incentives, and career transition assistance, companies can weather downturns while avoiding unnecessary personal and economic devastation. A compassionate approach centered on workforce preservation is not just morally right - it also proves to be the wisest solution for organizations wanting to emerge from lean times ready to quickly regain strength and market dominance." Take a look at the full article and leave your comments below!

I'm having a hard time comprehending we are already halfway through the year. I have met with so many fantastic companies, many of which described themselves as "rapid-growth" or "growth-focused" in our interviews, yet they didn't have a sound growth strategy in mind that touched all areas of the business. Typically the awareness they shared was only about their own division even as an organizational leader. Hot take: Making more money isn't a strategy, it's simply a goal. A constant theme came from many of the leaders I spoke with- if your employees aren't even on the same page, how do you expect your clients to be? This isn't a "shame on you" post- quite the opposite really. You (and your business) have an incredible opportunity to be intentional in how you grow. You've seen the mass layoffs and bankruptcy news. You know the risks of making a wrong move, but has anyone really told you what you CAN do instead? 2025 is just around the corner and if you don't have a learning and development program in place by the quarter quell, at least have a strategy for one. Make a plan today so that next year your teams are marching in lockstep. Create an opportunity for all your staff from sales to production to be able to know the ins and outs of your brand messaging, how to engage with clients, and how to support one another as teammates. All it takes is one individual to make or break your organization's appearance of brand image or sense of culture. That impact is seen and felt both internally and externally. Financially, there really is a lot at stake here. So.. here is what you CAN do: - make a list of what you expect all employees to know (is this your motto, safety information, who to connect with and how when something goes awry) - review that list with leaders AND colleagues to get their input. - if you don't have an internal stakeholder to help develop and disseminate that content, connect with a 3rd party who can work with you to help craft what makes sense for your needs. - make a plan to check in after some time to measure the success or identify where changes need to be made - AND FOLLOW THROUGH :) Just my 2 cents.... spend em wisely.

Check out my latest Human Capital Leadership article, "The Devastating Toll of Layoffs: Measuring Human and Organizational Costs." From the conclusion: "Layoffs are devastating events that exact immense costs on impacted employees as well as the organizations that implement them. Beyond short-term savings, the personal tolls of stress, depression, poor health, and financial hardship, as well as long-term organizational costs including talent and knowledge loss, damaged culture, and diminished competitive advantage, outweigh any benefits. Leaders must carefully weigh these impacts and explore ethical alternatives to layoffs that support workers' wellbeing and prevent long-term damage. With proactive strategies like retraining investments, flexible scheduling, retention incentives, and career transition assistance, companies can weather downturns while avoiding unnecessary personal and economic devastation. A compassionate approach centered on workforce preservation is not just morally right - it also proves to be the wisest solution for organizations wanting to emerge from lean times ready to quickly regain strength and market dominance." Take a look at the full article and leave your comments below! https://lnkd.in/g85dgvPe

Our latest episode of #OurAgileTales dropped today. Come listen to the last chapter on Money Matters with Graham "The Throughput Guy" Scott. We discussed things like how to transition to a better budgeting process that's more adaptable and realistic or how companies asking more or less of things (think hiring and layoffs) can be catalysts for better solutions when coupled with the #TheoryofConstraints and #Budgeting. Thanks for speaking with me and Mun-Wai Chung, Graham - we had a blast learning better ways of budgeting.