Right now, a lot of people managers are leading through some kind of change. A restructure, a merger, a new way of working. The plan is rarely the hard part. The hard part is not having all the answers while everyone is still looking to you for one.
That was the honest starting point for this week’s Leading Through Change Skills Booster, hosted by Grace Marshall and Jess Scott.
We asked everyone who joined to tell us one thing they’d do differently as a result of joining the session and here’s what came back.
You don’t have to have all the answers
“My takeaway from the session is not to be afraid of saying ‘I don’t know’ and to be more authentic in my responses to my team. Trying to answer questions without having all the information, or speculating, can make it look like I know things I don’t, and that creates more confusion and mistrust. I also loved the description of emotional wifi.”
University of Birmingham
“I’ve been okay with saying I don’t know. Adding ‘what questions do we have’ will help me feel less helpless with it.” University of Exeter
“My actions are to share what I’ve learned with the other managers in my team, and to embrace saying ‘I don’t know’ rather than feeling I need to provide an answer.”
RSPB
Curiosity is the antidote to fear
“I particularly connected with the idea that curiosity is the antidote to fear, and the questions that encourage a team to be curious. Demonstrating your own lack of answers is a vital part of casting a leadership shadow that lets your team be vulnerable too. I’ll be adopting those questions in our team meetings next week.”
Premier Foods
“I don’t manage anyone, but I’m the technical lead on a piece of work that needs a group of people I don’t manage to work together. We have our first face to face meeting tomorrow, so I’m going to try the squirrel scale and make sure everyone feels it’s a safe space where people can be themselves without being judged. I also want to move from being judgmental, my default, to being more open and curious.”
Environment Agency
Small changes that actually stick
“I’ve already added the post-it note that says ‘Respond, don’t React’ to the bottom of my screen. I’m also starting to save the AI prompts that work well for me, so I don’t have to do that extra thinking each time.”
NatureScot
“I’m definitely a perkier squirrel now. Two takeaways: ‘I don’t know, but let’s find out together,’ and my Friday to-do list is morphing into a ta-da list.”
Intellect Books
“Focus on what you can control, influence, and accept. You can’t control what you can’t control.”
AT&T
One thing to try this week
Next time change comes up in a team meeting, ask two questions: what can we hold on to, and what can we bring with us? It turns a tricky conversation into a planning one, not a loss one.
One team took them straight into their weekly huddle, in the middle of an NHS trust merger:
“We currently have weekly team huddles, so I’ll take from today the questions to ask the team: what can we hold on to, and what can we bring with us.”
Where next?
If change is happening within your team or organisation right now, Thriving Teams is a practical, interactive session on the psychological safety and trust that stop teams getting stuck: hiding mistakes, avoiding honest conversations, disengaging without ever saying why. 90% of participants rate it 4 or 5 out of 5.
Looking for something for a bigger room, or a different angle? Struggle is our keynote on unlocking creativity and resilience in the face of adversity and uncertainty. And a core skill for everyone who works with people: Our Emotional Intelligence at Work workshop looks at the self-awareness that makes all of this possible.