Letting Go
March 2010
Remembering What Matters
Volume 6, Issue 3
Letting Go
Recently we've seen one client lose a team member to a stroke, another client lose a dear brother, and a third one face the imminent necessity of new leadership at the top. Organizational sustainability occasionally calls for a skill we are not well practiced at - letting go.
As author William Bridges so aptly clarified for us, change is moving from one external reality to a new external reality. Transition is the emotional process that occurs effectively, or not so effectively, while this change is happening.
The owner of the company who lost a key team member made a point of allowing her employees to go through a grieving process. We shifted a planned training session to provide people an opportunity to express their sadness, appreciation, and apprehension. There were many tears and much laughter. Expressing emotion is often taboo in business, but this wise leader knew it was of paramount importance - for herself and her team. They needed time to honor the huge role their departed colleague had played in the development of the company's success. They needed to say goodbye to their past before they could look toward their future.
The power of your organization is in your people. You already know that. What we need to remember is that people are emotional beings with hearts that need to be honored, especially during turbulent times of change. Our new normal seems to be nothing but turbulent. When someone needs to let go of their old reality, they need an opportunity to examine what their loss means to them. They need time to reconnect to their values. They need to be reassured their hearts are cared for.
This is not common practice in many business environments. It is however, the practice in extraordinary businesses that live up to the principle we all believe in: the power of your organization is in your people.
Almost certainly, big changes are happening or about to happen in your business. Look around and see how people are doing with these changes. Are they coping or are they growing closer to one another? People who cope generally do so alone. People who embrace change with their values in tact and come together during turbulent times become more unified. If the power of your organization is in your people, we recommend you do the work to strengthen their spirit of unity. As you go through the changes required to thrive, or are thrust upon you by external circumstances, be sure to allow time for the human element.
Trust and mutual respect impact performance and are a matter of the heart. Your role as the leader is to ensure your people's hearts grow bigger during times of loss. And a heart can only grow bigger after it lets go of what's already gone. And ironically, the people who do this work well begin to realize that what they feel they've lost, in some mysterious way has not been lost at all.