30 Days to a Positive Outlook...Day 13

Fri Jun 27th 2008. Writing retrospectively...but hitting the highlights.

"It’s the people that matter"

The whole day was about waiting to hear the CEO in his webcast after the prior day announcement. He did a Q&A session with questions from anyone that wanted to submit a question….and there were A LOT. It was the type of questions you’d expect to hear after something like this…but what struck me more was the emotions people had in their questions – even though the questions were typed in and read. You could still sense the sadness, the anger, the disbelief in the questions. It made for a sad day overall.

The names of the people were not announced and it was told that they get to decide how and when to let others know. So of course, everyone is looking around to see others, catch their eye, see if they are not even in the office…

I got my first email from someone “impacted” and it was just the shock again. What do I say…do I try and be positive…do I rant and empathize…over email?!
And I’m not even the one “impacted”…

I also had a couple more 1-1s with the team. Lesson learned: don’t try and have a feedback session in this environment. Not good! One of the discussions was really hard, had to be made, but the hardest thing because I see what they don’t see and can’t make them change. I learnt that lesson the very hard way with a prior employee. All I can do is help them be aware of their actions and the impact it has now and in their future opportunities. I tossed and turned about this for 2 nights…

The theme of the day was about people…business runs and does wonderful things…but it’s all down to the people. And every little action and decision that I make and showcase to others is important. That’s being a leader.