Maintain team performance during unexpected change

Lead teams through turbulent times by shifting your focus from managing change to fostering positive engagement.

The tech industry and economic environment are in a constant state of flux. Whether it is unexpected acquisitions, organizational changes, or a significant shift in the roadmap, engineering leaders must consistently guide their teams through change management scenarios. 

Poorly managed change can result in disruption and uncertainty, adversely affecting team morale and overall performance. Changes in personnel, working hours, strategy, roles, and working conditions can place a considerable mental and emotional burden on employees, leading to decreased engagement. With a team destabilized in this way, productivity takes a hit. Therefore, it is crucial for leaders to shift their focus from merely managing change to strengthening team engagement and maintaining high performance. 

To help teams progress through challenging periods, it’s helpful to follow these three tenets:

1. Being transparent and available

Leaders who are transparent and approachable ensure that their actions resonate with the values and concerns of those they lead. 

Rumors and gossip tend to proliferate amongst teams when there is a large and disruptive change. Therefore, leaders must communicate with empathy and transparency from the get-go to prevent unfounded rumors and fear from spreading. This involves explaining why the change occurred, its consequences, how the company plans to move forward, and frequently updating employees about what is known and what is unknown. Studies have demonstrated that transparency reduces uncertainty and fosters a team’s commitment and acceptance of change.

A critical element of effective, transparent communication is ensuring everything shared is pertinent and meaningful. Avoid overwhelming employees with valueless information, frequent meetings, redundant emails, and excessive documentation. Not only can this obscure important messages, but it can lead to mental fatigue. 

Conversely, sporadic and vague communication about pertinent information can incite further negativity toward the company. This can lead to distraction, which takes a more prolonged toll on team productivity. 

Here are some ways leaders can communicate effectively and support reports:

1. Be empathetic. Recognize that employees may be dealing with grief, guilt, and anger. Provide space for them to process their emotions and be available to hear their concerns. Meet and check in with employees more frequently, especially right after the change was announced. 
2. Don’t skip on skip levels. Senior leaders need to make more time to engage, be vulnerable, and genuinely listen to their organization across all levels during times of change. This strengthens confidence in leadership and the organization, helping the team move forward faster.
3. Proactively collect and act on feedback. Gathering feedback is a critical component. It helps leaders understand what information employees need and where potential issues may arise. Leaders can gather feedback via 1:1 conversations, anonymous surveys, and team meetings. Finally, responding promptly to the feedback received reinforces this respect and shows a commitment to taking action.

2. Reconnect the team with purpose and positive momentum

During challenging times, aim to reconnect team members back to the bigger picture – the organization’s mission and vision. This will help reinstall feelings of purpose and aspiration. 

Use 1:1s and team meetings to reinforce how each engineer’s role fits into the wider organizational mission, reinforcing the message consistently. Leaders can ease employee resistance to change by framing it as essential to the company’s mission. When employees feel aligned with that mission, they’re more likely to see the change as a positive, or at least necessary, step forward.

Creating positive business momentum and competitive spirit can also be helpful against negative distractions. Some ways that leaders can achieve this is to:

1. Share business success and strategy often. Engineering leaders sometimes forget to connect what their teams do back to business success and the user. Share business wins and be transparent on business strategy and financials as much as it makes sense to. Leverage team meetings and 1:1s to keep the team looped in consistently and focused on the bigger picture. 
2. Connect teams with users. Encourage engineers to actively engage with and shadow users if they aren’t already doing so. Widely sharing positive user feedback and stories often helps team members shift focus onto the bigger purpose of helping users rather than other distractions. 
3. Hackathons. Hackathons, or similar friendly organization-wide team-based competition, create energy to help move the business forward. Make space for events like this and for getting the winning hackathon ideas into production. 

3. Invest in employee growth 

Investing in employee growth via learning and development is another powerful tactic. When people feel like they are growing, they become more engaged. 

When leaders are busy, employee learning and development can be deprioritized. This should not be the case, as employee learning amplifies connection and purpose in their work, which builds engagement and commitment to the organization’s success. It also encourages a culture where continuous learning and improvement are valued.

Here are some practical ways leaders can enhance learning and development to improve employee engagement:

1. Do a team skill gap analysis. After major company changes, stepping back and doing an organizational state analysis is helpful. Audit the current strengths, weaknesses, skills, and lack of skills. From there, revisit your organization’s short and long-term goals and note what skill gaps need to be closed for the team to be successful across both timeframes. To close skill gaps, develop a strategy that includes targeted learning opportunities like workshops, training sessions, and resources. Equally, think about adjusting your hiring strategy. 
2. Provide growth opportunities. In addition to doing a skill gap analysis, find out what skills employees would like to learn. Then pave ways for them to do so. 
   Companies often focus on training that they believe employees need, like security and compliance training; however, it is also impactful to invest in training that employees want. When employees feel supported to grow in skills they want to grow in, it energizes them and keeps them motivated. For example, many software engineers are increasingly energized about learning new tech, such as machine learning (ML) or AI skills. If there is a project on the roadmap that allows them to use those skills, make space, and find a creative way for folks to learn it. 
   Offering clear paths for skill development and career advancement gives employees reasons to stay and grow with the company rather than look elsewhere. When people feel like they are growing, they are more engaged. 
3. Create a system for regular career development. Investing in employee’s career development creates a strong pipeline of leaders ready to fill key positions. This is essential for an organization’s growth and succession planning. Proactively set up regular career development check-ins if they don’t exist already. Make sure these meetings are different from normal 1:1s. Revisit structured career development plans and goals with employees; create and start maintaining one if it does not exist. 

By providing your teams with learning experiences that help them embrace shifts in strategy or revised work processes, the organization can leverage change to grow.

Don’t forget to focus on you 

Managing teams through challenging situations can place a significant emotional burden on engineering leaders, making it essential for them to prioritize self-care. Above all else, leaders must remember that they cannot pour from an empty glass; their effectiveness depends on regularly investing in their own well-being and mental state. 

Often, leaders feel too busy to prioritize their own self-care, which is a lose-lose situation for their teams and themselves. Team engagement starts from the top. To maintain resilience and clarity, leaders need to seek support from peers, mentors, or coaches, habitually invest in mental wellness through practices like meditation or therapy, and take meaningful breaks. 

By ensuring their own well-being, leaders can continue to guide their teams with the strength and compassion needed to navigate any challenge.