INSIGHTS FOR GROWTH

Most leaders in a reorg are focused on getting information. The best ones are focused on having conversations. Two conversations specifically — one with their team as a whole, one with the individuals they can’t afford to lose. Both require intentionality. Neither happens by accident.

I’ve coached dozens of leaders through reorganizations. The ones who come through strongest share one thing: they stop spending energy on what they can’t change and start leading what’s actually theirs to lead. Two tools make the difference.

There are three circles in any reorg. The innermost is what you actually control: your behavior, your communication, your team. The middle circle is what you can influence. The outer circle is what you have to accept. Most leaders spend their energy in the outer circle. That’s where the suffering lives.

The reorg is not about you. It’s about the organization trying to solve a problem. The leaders who survive them well are the ones who stop personalizing the structure and start navigating it. Reorgs are structural. The suffering is optional.

Most leaders think about executive presence during a conversation. The leaders who are best at it think about it before and after. Your presence doesn’t start when you open your mouth — and it doesn’t end when you stop talking. It’s what you do in the first two minutes and the last two minutes.

She’d been told she came across as defensive for years. She wasn’t being defensive — she was being rigorous. But the room wasn’t reading rigor. It was reading threat. Executive presence is the gap — or the absence of a gap — between what you intend and what you transmit.

Right now, somewhere in your organization, there’s a conversation happening about your future. You’re not in the room. The question is: who’s saying your name?

She’d built the analytics practice from scratch. Exceeded every number. And her boss barely knew she existed. Not because he didn’t care — because she’d never given him the narrative.

There’s a difference between being a spotlight and being a lighthouse. One swings for attention. The other shines steadily so others can navigate.

At some point you stopped being evaluated on your work and started being evaluated on how people talk about your work. Nobody announces when the rules change.