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.