We’ve just made a member of our sales team redundant. What do I tell the others?

We’ve just had to make a member of our sales team redundant. What do I tell the other members of the team, and how do I keep them focused and upbeat?

The loss of a team member through redundancy can often be a difficult time for those who remain.

Remaining team members may experience feelings of guilt due to still having their jobs, they can feel the loss of friendship of the person or people who have been made redundant, and they may be worried about their own security and future. Who will take on the duties of that person? What will be expected of the team? Is their job safe? Is the company financially stable?

First, as their manager it’s important to check in with how you are feeling, become aware of your emotions, how has this affected you? Are you able to contain your emotions so that you are able to understand and support where the team are at emotionally? What support do you need? Ensure that you get support, as this will help you to be able to support others. 

When talking to your team, look through the lens of “others” and not through the lens of “self” – how this affects you. Talk about how it affects the business and you initially may have a negative impact. Spend time asking them how they are, what do they want/need to know.

Be honest about the reasons behind the decision to make the person redundant, and what is going on in the company. If there is information that you cannot share, be honest about that too.

People will get that there is something you are not telling them, so rather than say nothing and leaving it to the team to make up what is going on, tell them. Even if that means you have to say that you cannot share all the information you are privy to. The biggest mistake people make is to put a bandaid over what is really going on, the result of which is usually not productive. 

Take time to listen to how the remaining team members are feeling, otherwise you will be making stuff up and possibly acting on this. It’s much more productive to be responding to what is true rather than what is made up.

Invite the remaining team members to be part of the solution to help the team and company to be a success.  Empower them to be an active part of the solution.

Find out what support the team need and communicate what you can provide.

Normalise what they may be going through. Often people are relieved when they understand that their feelings are perfectly normal for the situation and are shared by others.

Work on maintaining your own motivation. If you want to motivate your team, keep yourself motivated. This will have a positive impact. Remind yourself why your team is important and communicate this. Help your team to see the value in their roles and what they are doing.

Pollyanna Lenkic is the founder of Perspectives Coaching, an Australian based coaching and training company. She is an experienced facilitator, certified coach and a certified practitioner of NLP. In 1990 she co-founded a specialist IT recruitment consultancy in London, which grew to employ 18 people and turnover £11 million ($27 million). This blog is about the mistakes she made and the lessons she learned building a business the first time round and how to do it better second time round. For more information go to www.perspectivescoaching.com.au

For more Teams advice, click here.