Communication is on my mind today, Reader.

Yesterday, a leadership change was announced in my company, and I had a lot of feelings about it. But less than 24 hours later, I'm feeling good. In fact, within about 2 hours of the announcement, I was feeling ok about it. I'd like to share my process in case it's helpful. This is what I did, and this is the pattern I always follow when changes happen.

1. Process my own feelings about it. Privately.
2. Discuss with my key leaders.
3. Share my thoughts with my whole team and invite questions.

That first step is so important. Now to be honest, "privately" includes two or three close friends and colleagues that I can be completely unfiltered with. But I don't share my initial emotions in a larger group until I've had a little time.

Sometimes there's a step in between 1 and 2 where I reach out to my connections for any clarification or to share concerns. In this case, because of past relationships and interactions with all the involved parties, I didn't need that step.

Fairly quickly, I move into step 2. I say fairly quickly because an information vacuum breeds fear. There are about 15 key leaders who are the pillars of my 8000-person team. Free and open dialogue with that group is a key part of the stability of my organization. They've come to trust that we're going to talk about how we're feeling, because emotional momentum predicts future action. I shared with them the processing I'd done, including my initial reaction then how my thoughts had evolved, and invited their questions and feelings.

Once we'd had some back and forth discussion, I was ready to go live for my whole team to make sure everyone had gotten the update, to share my reflection and perspective, and to invite them to ask questions, either publicly or privately with me directly. For perspective, this step happened about 90 minutes after I initially heard the news.

How do you process change as a leader? Are you fairly confident doing so? Or is that an area where you'd like to improve your skills?

Hope you're having a great Thursday, more soon!
​Louisa

P.S. If you missed past updates, you can go back and find them here.

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