Leading through layoffs

Leading through layoffs

Despite the difficulties, leaders can still take action to support their team members. Here are some suggestions.

Joseph Grenny

March 3, 2025 6:21 pm

6 min read

     

While the immediate suffering from layoffs lands on the people left without a job, research shows that survivors and organizational performance are typically hammered as well. Remaining employees are often left with survivors’ guilt, weakened trust in leaders, and less commitment to the organization. Often, how the layoff is handled is perceived as evidence that purported organizational values are forever suspect.

In addition to the economic peril people feel during layoffs, they also feel psychologically traumatized. Painful events can undermine people’s sense of efficacy and leave them feeling powerless. Leaders can ameliorate these psychological effects to some degree in typical layoffs by helping remaining staff understand both the rationale and the limits for the action. For example, if a program was being eliminated, those not associated with that program could be helped to feel more certainty about their future. If a certain budget reduction was required, leaders could reassure people once the process was complete that no further layoffs were envisioned.

The current federal government layoffs are unique, however. First, they are being driven largely by actors outside affected agencies — in most corporate and organizational layoffs, leaders with ties to the organization and personal connection with employees are in charge.

Second, agency leaders in the current layoffs are not driving a process to achieve strategic internal goals and thus have a limited ability to give solace to “safe” team members. In the current climate, no one within the organization knows who is “safe” long term.

Given these novel and painful realities, what can a leader like you do when you’re not driving the bus? Or perhaps when you don’t even know the bus driver? Despite the difficulties, leaders can still take action to support their team members. Here are some suggestions:

1. Be clear. First, take the time to sort out your own feelings, needs and decisions around staying or leaving. You’re of no use to others if your own head isn’t clear. If you’re willing to ride out the current uncertainty for any number of reasons (i.e. “I love the mission,” “I’ve got too much invested,” “I’m here for my team,” etc.) then own that — and all the temporary turmoil it entails. If you are a maybe, own that. And if you’re looking for the first lifeboat you can get, admit it to yourself. Others won’t look to you for clarity and help if you haven’t done the work for yourself.
2. Be human. Even when you can’t fix something, you can still be human. Avoid the tendency to avoid others because you feel there is little you can do. There is a lot you can do. You can be human. You can care. You can validate what people are feeling. Doing so gives others a sense that they are not alone. A past University of Virginia study asked subjects to stand at the bottom of a hill they would climb and estimate its steepness. They rated the hill significantly less steep when standing next to a trusted friend. Be that friend and even a daunting hill will seem a little more doable.
3. Be loyal (to the mission). As long as you’re employed, integrity demands that you serve the mission you signed up for. There are clients, beneficiaries, citizens or other agencies who depend on you for what you do. Your job as a leader is to continue to lead. In times when everything seems out of control, it’s therapeutic to have something you can control — the work you have been highly trained to do. Ask your team to separate the legitimate pain they feel from the loyalty they owe to those who depend on them — within or without the organization. If you’ve been human with them, they’ll trust you when you assure them that work can mitigate feelings of helplessness.
4. Be loyal (to your team). Let your team know that you have two loyalties: first, to faithfully serve the mission as long as you’re employed, and second, to faithfully serve your people as long as you’re employed. Give them your unqualified commitment to assist them with whatever decision they make. If they choose to stay, you will vigilantly work alongside them to regroup once the smoke clears and determine how to best achieve your mission. You will be there for them. Likewise, if they choose to leave, you will help them with that decision in any way you can. When everything seems uncertain, an assurance of personal loyalty matters more than ever. People will learn more about your core values through this experience than through any other time. Show them. You’ll be intrinsically rewarded for the loyalty you demonstrate.
5. Be helpful. Think of five ways you are willing to be of help and advertise them. For example:

• “I will connect you with possible employers.”
• “I will write letters of recommendation.”
• “I will meet with you to brainstorm options.”
• “I will cover a shift if you have a job interview.”
• “I will meet with the team daily to tell you everything I know.”

When people are going through crises, it’s never helpful to say, “Let me know how I can help.” When you do, you’re basically giving them an assignment. Instead, invest the mental energy to think about the host of problems they now need to solve, and come up with ways you can specifically volunteer to help them solve them.

6. Be ready. If your plan is to stick around, be ready for when the layoffs end. That day will come. Create a plan and a calendar to begin to build the new normal. Within the first 30 days, people will need clarity, especially concerning the who, what and how. Who is still here? What are our revised priorities given fewer resources? And how we will organize ourselves to achieve it? Start strong. Gather the team. Grieve the past but then face forward and project a determination to continue the work that led you to your agency to begin with.

You are leading at one of the most challenging times any leader faces. People want clarity and no clarity is to be found. They want certainty when certainty is lacking. Give them what you can give them: the certainty of humanity, loyalty, help and future focus.

Joseph Grenny is a New York Times bestselling author, including the communication classic, Crucial Conversations. His work has been used by nearly half of the Forbes Global 2000 and has helped millions of people achieve better relationships and results. He cofounded Crucial Learning, one of the world’s most respected learning and organization development firms, offering courses in communication, performance and leadership.

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