What's your projection for the completion of your turnaround - three months, three years? Turnarounds can be short and swift or long and consuming, but whatever it is, it's important for you to take notice of the challenges faced by those you have chosen to lead along side you, and acknowledge where they are. Empathy can go a long way when keeping your team motivated to continue to move forward.
During my first turnaround experience I remember being about six months into the engagement when my leader put his arm around my shoulder and said, “you are in a valley of despair right now but keep pushing, you’ll come out of it soon." My immediate reaction, was, "how did he know?" But of course he knew, he had been in my shoes several times before. I immediately shared what he said with my colleague, who was also facing his own set of challenges, and he said, "wow, he said something similar to me last week." The fact that our leader had been so intuitive about where we were was encouraging, and gave us the strength we needed to come back and fight through the problems one more day.
Understanding that because everything in your organization requires fixing - the people, processes and equipment - the turnaround will be an arduous journey, be it three months or three years. One of the best things you can do to help turn your organization around then is to know who labors among you and show some empathy from time to time, by telling your leadership team, "you're in a hard place right now but keep up the good work."
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