As a leader in any job function and at any organization, what advice do you have for addressing your team's concerns about changes to the geopolitical environment, all the US executive orders and tariffs, etc.? What do you focus on in order to maintain morale and job performance?
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Constant and honest communication, correlating the work that we do to the mission of the school and support of our students.
I remind my team members that the only constant in life is change.
I also encourage them to use the 80:20 rule and see if additional scenarios for planning are necessary.
Please discuss with the stakeholders what they think of the impacts and how their and the business's emergent strategy is shaping. You will then have to develop your strategy, which you will build with your team. It is very important to take the team with you. The objective is to overcome these waves and avoid rips.
I’d suggest treating the external news with an honest human touch.
Yes, we are facing new and unusual risks from the current administration, as well as reactions from other governments. As a company, we are taking a position of protecting our employees and their families first.
We will continue to exemplify the goals of DEI, because they are good for the business.
We will continue to follow all FDA and EPA regulations as they were before Jan 20th 2025.
If someone is abducted or held outside the country we will fund legal efforts to effect their safe return. This includes your immediate family members.
We will create a function within the HR org that is only responsible to the employee to help with questions concerning personal risk or financial hardships, etc. that could be caused by current executive orders and policies.
If social security is cut we will work on ways to help employees create retirement protection.
The above and more should be the primary focus and then you can focus on sourcing changes, market adjustments, reducing margins, etc., etc.
Create communication pathways for your team. Often it comes down to trust within your org and with your teams. Finding the modality where people are comfortable sharing their concerns is critical, if it's in a meeting or anonymously, providing an outlet for your employees is critical. Make sure you as a leader; listen - there are times when people are in the feelings stage or in the solutions stage - it's critical to understand the difference. As engineers we often try to solve a problem when someone just wants to vent and/or be heard.