The Unexpected Exit: Managing Business Without Key Players

Maartje van Krieken: Hey, thanks for tuning in today. A somewhat heavy subject, maybe, but I want to talk about the loss of key personnel. And unfortunately, considering you're tuning into a podcast that's called the Business emergency room, I'm not talking about the very happy loss of key personnel, if you are losing somebody amazing in your organization, who's done lots for your team and your business, and whom you really appreciate it. And they are, you care about them, and they're moving on to something bigger and better for them. It might be sad to see them go, but you also understand it, and there is probably been a Healthy Transition, and you know, all is gone as well as it could be, so you might still miss them and have some hiccups. But I'm not assuming in those situations, this is where you end up in chaos or in a business emergency. So the situations I'm talking about are the ones that can be very derailing, which is losing a key member in your organization in either a pivotal position or in seniority because they died or because they have a terminal illness or are very sick otherwise and suddenly need to undergo treatment, and hence, you know, are not available to work in their minds otherwise, or they might have left your organization and be physically totally fine, but left because of sudden disagreements or decision changes by the board. Also seen this in international organizations, where people transition suddenly and then it's an international move. And hence access is hard, or maybe somebody has been poached by a competitor. And hence it's a situation in the background for the lawyers to sort to see if this was actually within their within their contract to do. But nevertheless, In all these situations, you're having limited to no access to these people the minute they leave, and hence there's a true gap and there is disruption in operations. So that's the examples I want to talk to you about. And unfortunately, I have some quite sad examples.

One of the one that's closest to my heart was when I was working on a project that was extremely under resourced, so I had way too much work, a very small team, lots of pressure. My husband was working on the same project. We were without kids, so we were kind of the last to get leave, because people had to be on rotations and go home, or people were there with their family and had to go. So we first of all had to make it work with both our teams, and then we were last in the lineup, and we were finally gonna go on a break. But there was no backfill. It was hard to get people in country. It was hard to get people there. And so yeah, this is it, right. There was a guy who was not in my function, but who'd worked in an adjacent function who I worked with very well, and he said, Okay, I'll, I'll cover for you. I'll do, I'll do the bare basics that need to happen, though, but I'll do the stuff that needs to happen to keep moving. And I was in contract management, so there was definitely stuff that needed to happen. So we worked out a bit of a plan. We negotiated with a boss, and kind of made it happen. Unfortunately, there was a history there of conditions. But in the period that I was away, he had a heart attack, and so he was medevacked. He was brought somewhere else. Yes, he was totally alive, and he fortunately, is still alive. However, he was not available or accessible right once we came back, and yes, in terms of my role and the scope that I'd handed off to him, that was more or less Okay. What was much harder was that he was working in Project controls, and also there, the team was understaffed, and so there was nobody who was intimately familiar with all his stuff, and there wasn't anybody who could simply take that on. And it was an absolute scramble, because we were in there with a lot of partners, and so project reporting and project controls were a huge subject. And of course, nobody, or very few people who love working in the project space love that level of minute detail and working that level of admin, and so nobody had really delved into it. But then you see how sorely or miss it when nobody is there. And yeah, that was very painful. I've had plenty of other situations where people passed away, where due to mental health issues people faced out, where due to disagreements at a level that had not much to do with the people in the organization, but at a more senior level, or disagreements about packages and remunerations after mergers, for instance, and then contract negotiations having. Gone on and on with one other C senior people involved, and then suddenly, after three or six months into the merger, of them saying, I've had enough, we're not coming to agreement. And, you know, packing their bags and going and you can't, you know, I think in most scenario scenarios, people need to choose what's right for them. But did nevertheless, then pretty suddenly leaves a major hole and major disruption.

So that's the examples I want to talk to you about. And I hope you you don't need this, but the fact that you're tuning in today suggests that you recognize the situation and could use maybe some tips and tricks to navigate through it, through it. I think the biggest challenge in all these is that in some environments, I've seen that the biggest gap, or the biggest challenges around actually addressing the emotions. So to me, that's point number one, when this happens and when you're in case, because you lost somebody who's critical to your operation, for whatever reason, you need to put people first. So you need to address the team. You need to talk openly about this. If this is, you know, a non voluntarily departure. So if there's sickness or death or whatever, then you need to address the emotions in the team. People care for their colleague of whereas spend significant time with that person regardless, and has seen them day in and out, or even if they didn't care necessarily for the individual, it may trigger something else, because they have stuff going on in their family. Unfortunately, these days, we know almost everyone knows somebody who's got terminal illnesses or has lost a loved one at our age, and so the situation could also be triggering from a completely different perspective. So acknowledge that people may be emotional. Look at what support the team may need engage with your HR. What support is available, whether that's in house or outsourced, what can be done for people, or create also the space for them to find it themselves. So create some space and flexibility to do, for them to do what they need to do, in terms of going to talk to somebody, or take suddenly an extra day off, despite your being in a pickle with your operation, to be with their family, or go hug this special loath one, if that's what they need in the moment, right? Because if you don't, I don't think you can actually get out of the situation. So it's people first. If people have nothing to give, you're going to get nothing. And so that's the first thing you need to address. Create a safe space to talk about it. Have some flexibility around your expectations and speak that out loud, right? So saying yes, of course, I would love you all to do your jobs in the best of your ability, but if that's simply not possible at the moment, you know, take what you need, what's within the realm of what's available, and if you need something beyond that, then let's have a conversation. I don't need all the ins and outs, right? But yeah, you need to understand a little bit to to understand what somebody needs and what you can maybe give.

Which brings me to the second point, which is privacy, particularly if you're based in the US. This is even more more important than in in Europe, for instance, but you need to find out what the privacy rules are, what it is that you can and cannot share if you are the direct leader or a direct peer of the person who left, chances are you've maybe been contacted directly by others or by family, and so you have some idea on what they're comfortable with. But even then, within the roles of employment, there are things that, with or without express consent, cannot be shared, and so you need to be careful with that. There's nothing worse than if you despite all the best intentions of shared stuff that shouldn't have been shared, or if that leads to awkward situations, and you might, because of point A, feel that it's totally right to share tidbit A or B, but because of challenge issue B, that is actually not a wise thing to do, especially with rules around disabilities and stuff, you could actually close some doors for the people affected unwindingly. So really, you need to take your guidance from an HR rep, and if your HR rep doesn't have the answers, they should be able to tap into somebody who deals with this on a regular basis, and so really take the time as soon as possible to figure out what some of the big boundaries or go no go rules are once you've taken your steering guidance, I think it's important that you lead with that. So lead with guidance to your team as to what can be talked about, which questions can be asked, to what extent somebody's account, for instance, can be accessed, to what extent and what the timeline may be to get into somebody's mailbox, to get into critical stuff that would, you know, enable operations, all of these things. Some of them may have answers. Some of them may not have answers. So laying laying out the land, and explaining to people what you do know in the moment and what might need a few days to clarify and why right is also helpful. So if the answer is yes, I get it. We all want access to the email box. But from a legal perspective, I've been, you know, advise that we that something else needs fixing first, and they're telling me 48 hours is a timeline. Then share that right. Share what you know, share what you can do. If you have a manual of authority in some way, shape or form in your organization, then that should alleviate some of the pressure, because there should be some critical stuff, for instance, in invoice payment systems or in salary payment systems or in approval systems that automatically then defer to the next level, up and down, which may not immediately be practical, but at least there is clarity on who would be able to sign for things or approve things, etc. So you might have some stuff on paper that is helpful in there, there is perpetually some stuff there that nobody's thought of because you've been fortunate enough to never need it before, right? And so you're going to run into some stuff that simply needs fixing, and it takes a little bit of time.

So be transparent. Be clear on what you know our definite knows, or what are definite dues. If there is somebody who's at home and ill, maybe that also includes some kind of agreement or protocol on how you're going to engage with that person. Is there somebody, a team who's really close to them, who's kind of going to take the lead in, in sussing out from that person and their family what they want and don't want, and kind of communicate that with the rest of the team, so that people are not all individually reaching out, or you might want to include in that something around how you deal with the situation. Specifically, if there is memorial service or a sick bit bed involved, then that can be really helpful. But it's not just internal. I would say that at this stage you also want to engage external with a few critical stakeholders, not everybody, but there will be definitely external parties that the individual involved was dealing with. So if this person is working in finance or accounts payable or whatever, something that's got to do with you paying your paying in your supply chain on time, right? And you really think that this might disrupt the payment cycle, I would be proactive and actually issue a message that could be very short and concise, but saying that you've had with a major dealt with a major staffing disruption that you are trying to figure out what the extent of the impact is, that you're going to do all your best to pay everybody within the term set forth, but that you may that people may see a little disruption for a few days, and that you will keep them posted if it evolves beyond that, because worst case scenario, they get that message from you. They're thinking, Oh, that's actually good, because I haven't noticed anything yet, and they're letting me know. So they're giving me a warning. Two, it tends to create goodwill, right? It's like, Oh, okay. They're dealing with some stuff. I get it normally. They treat me well. Now they're dealing with some stuff. I can be a little lenient. And three, you know, worst case scenario or and, if not worst case now, it may be that you send a message like that and there isn't actually any notable disruption toward them. It shows a level of care, right? It says, Okay, we realize that stuff that's happening on war, alright, that we don't have control over, but that may impact you on your end, and we're trying to address the situation. And because I then didn't see anything down the line, it means you actually managed to do that. And I'll just find you all the more impressive. If you do have some disruption, I will also think, okay, yeah, you warned me. I can imagine, especially those you are close with, at some point will will get clarity on what might have happened, right? It's hard to hide these things. Yeah, they'll find out anyway, right? So, yeah, if you're a huge organization, this may not be your whole vendor base, right? It might be your key vendors that have such major invoices or transactions that they go up the chain. And so then this person might have played a role in what happens to them. The normal bread and butter stuff should still be moving right? I'm not saying send out blanket messages and tell the world, but it's really helpful to bring people into the fold early, particularly where it's what they call these kind of force majeure events.

So these events were where you could not have realistically planned for all aspects of the situation in advance. Yeah, it builds some leniency for you to deal with the situation, and creates some time and takes a bit of pressure off for your team. And you'll be surprised, pleasantly surprised, by how under. Standing people can be also in business to business situations. There may also be reason then to celebrate the individual involved, and that also may involve stakeholders. I used to work in contracting and procurement, and we'd lost some people over the years whilst I was in that role. That's an outward facing role. And yeah, so if there is a sudden death of a key individual. There's definitely people from the supplier teams and the vendor teams that they dealt with on a weekly basis who will want to know, right? Who will want to be in the loop, but also internally, I think it's important that you celebrate these individuals, because they don't come back and acknowledge their contributions to the organization. And I think it shows if, if it's not for the individual themselves because they're no longer around, it's for their family, but it's also very much for the people in your organization to see that every contribution is appreciated and it's not just lip service, so that when they're not around, it's still the respect is still shown and addressed. And then that brings us to the very practical stuff, because now you're stuck with an operation that's disrupted. You address the people challenges to an extent, or are addressing them. You are addressing the stakeholders, you're addressing the emotions, and you're addressing the guidance on what can be talked about or can be accessed. But now the activities of this individual need to be covered, and the gap needs to be closed. I think it's very important that you make it clear immediately that you'll have to go to some kind of 80/20, solution for a while, right? That you know that there is no way you immediately can cover everything this individual had on their plate, but with the same efficiency. So it's time to make it really clear what the priorities are there in what is the most disruptive in the activities that they had under their responsibility that need fixing and go after those right?

Consider hiring an interim manager. To me, an interim manager is somebody who's typically a little overqualified for the role, meaning that they've seen this role in many different situations, or have at least maybe more general management experience or conflict management or management experience in high emotional situations then the job would normally require. So if you would hire a direct replacement, you might not be looking for these skills, but because you're hiring an interim person, you would want somebody who's maybe seen more variation in that role and is maybe dealt with more difficult situations for in their career, because a person like that will be able to read themselves into the situation so much quicker. If somebody offers themselves up and as an interim management, they're typically good at making themselves useful in positions quickly. They also tend to not bring a very strong self preferential style, right? So they will be able to do the job, make the job work in your team, as your team needs it doing in the moment, rather than say, okay, like, I'm in this role now. So we're going to do it this way and that way, because that's not what you need in the situation, right? So interim management can really alleviate some pressure if the boots are too big to fill and if and so hence replace, sourcing a replacement is going to take some time. The alternative is to take a chance on somebody, and I've seen it happen quite successfully in these situations. I think we've all, at times, have individuals in our organization who we think eventually would be good for roles, or would be capable of doing these roles. Simply, their experience level is a little light, and so that's where the concerns, or that's where the decision has been so far to kind of say, well, not yet, or maybe five years down the line, or in the succession plans like, oh yeah. Well, this individual is maybe not supposed to leave for five years, and then they would have been ready or three years, or whatever it was, but we didn't think about now, well, have a think again. Because if you have somebody internally who actually knows the job and knows the systems, etc, right, they can be up to speed much quicker than anybody else. Also, the gravity of the situation does something to people dynamics.

So first of all, the people around it are more forgiving, internally and externally. So if part of the reason for not promoting somebody has been well because they're leading a team where everybody's kind of a similar rank or age, and would they work well with somebody who's closer to them and not a senior. Or would they, you know, would people have the patience, considering this individual has a bit of a gap to close on topic X, Y or Z, because of the situation that created the vacuum that forgiveness is more there? Care, or that willingness to take a bit of time and let it happen, and it's also likely that the individual with even more gusto will step up to the plate and actually deliver. So taking a chance on individuals you already have in your team tends to work much better in these situations than at other times. So it's definitely a solution worth considering. Just make sure you back them up with some temporarily extra leadership coaching and check in with them, right? That if you throw them in the deep end, and that there is some support. And you can also do it on an interim basis, right? You can also say, Well, let's take a chance on you. You take the job. It's going to take us six months to source somebody, and you will be entered into the same competition right for the job. So It's you versus whatever external candidates we can find. If you then find somebody externally who simply, truly is a much better choice for your business, because whatever complementary skill set they have and is really going to help you propel your business forward, that individual has had the opportunity a stretch opportunity right which people always enjoy and appreciate, and if it's truly fair, that the external source Individual is more senior, more skills, and is willing to do the job for the same, you know, under the same conditions, not for like, suddenly double the pay or whatever that the other person would have gotten. People can accept that. People can accept that they've been because they've had that chance. They probably had lots of growth if they use their opportunity well, they've been able to show what they're made of, and they know that they've just moved up in the ranking.

Next time an opportunity comes around, they can go and if your businesses such as these opportunities don't exist, then they have a lot more stuff to add to their resume, right? So it sell them a lost opportunity. So take a chance with somebody, maybe, and then involve the team there is, particularly in the early days, just more work than one person can take on. So yeah, I would have a look around and see who has capacity. This comes back to what I always say, make sure that you truly look, truly look who has energy, who's not floored by whatever happened, or who was already overwhelmed. There must be some individuals in your organization who have some little extra to give, or who can deprioritize some of their own activities to step into some gaps, right? And here I'm talking about some of the simple things where people might be the logical face. So for instance, again, if we go back to the example of key parties in your supply chain. If whoever the person was who left had a more junior person who always was with them, or usually was with them, 60, 70% of the time when they interacted with that client, then just, you know, let them take over, or say to them, Well, you take the lead if you need a board members or somebody in the meetings. One of us will come with you, but can you then make sure that you brief us and talk us through the individuals there and take charge a little more until we have a replacement there? Because, yeah, you can guide us, because you know simply much more about the situation. Again, people appreciate this. People love being called upon. It works very empowering. So transparency in that, and working with the team a little bit through how you can smartest troubleshoot the loose ends that needs setting up, creates, usually, a lot of goodwill, yeah, and a lot of trust by having such an open conversation, which then leads me to the last, but not the least point.

Even if you've had succession planning in place before this happened, these events typically surface things that weren't in any plans, right? That's why you're here. That's why you're listening there is and you can't cater for every situation. It will be the case that once these things happen, that there are also some very obvious things that simply never made it into the processes or procedures, because the last time it had an iteration was 10 years ago, or you've organizations drastically changed and things weren't updated. So have a look at the obvious that should be addressed. At the obvious that should be part of how you run your business and should be sorted out. Yeah, is there more you can do in terms of system setup or automatic delegations in the system that if somebody's not there or not responding to messages within a time frame that they relate to somebody else, etc? Is there little simple fixes that will not only just help you in these kind of situations, but in running of the business and when people you know might be working on other things or maybe on leave, etc, and it could also come in handy right to see a little bit more what what's going on in each other's roles. So yeah, reflect and learn. Build some of the stuff back in what you have. Yeah. And I hope that you all have very few situations that you need this. But life is life, and so it happens. Don't beat yourself up. You can't plan for all of it. As I said, Start people. Start with people. First, allow yourself and everybody else to go through the emotions for a bit. And for some of that, that may take longer than for others, realize that sometimes it can hit you months down the line, right when you are doing stuff that's annual, and suddenly you're like, Oh, and this person was always there, and he was always doing this. You're gonna find stuff later on. Yeah. Give it a moment, acknowledge it, and then move on. You have the agility. Don't forget to engage externally. It's not just internally. Create some transparency. Be a bit forgiving with yourself and your team, and say, okay, nobody planned for this. This has been upsetting. We can get we can give ourselves some leeway. We can get from others some leeway, and then we're just gonna cobble it together as best as we can. Take a chance on somebody internally, consider an interim manager. Yeah, get somebody back in that role as soon as practically possible. Don't rush it. You still want the right person in the role. There is nothing worse than losing somebody who's a key component of your organization, and then filling that role too quickly, getting a whole new level of upheaval, disagreement, dysfunction, and then needing to go through that again. Don't do that to yourself. So take as much time as it takes. Yeah, and you can do this. So thanks for tuning in, and I look forward to seeing you here next time bye.