CONVERTING A BUSINESS TRAUMA INTO A BOOK WITH PAT IYER
Some of the most helpful books develop from the author’s painful experiences. Three traumatic mergers and acquisitions (M&A) drove Jennifer Fondrevay to embrace the opportunity to help others successfully handle such crises. She has received very rewarding feedback from her readers and ended up with a career as a consultant. In this episode of Writing to Get Business, you will learn how becoming an author can be a life-changing experience.
Jennifer and Rex New, of Managing Editor’s Magazine, discuss how mergers and acquisitions often create crises of trust at businesses, and so do difficult economic periods — our present one included. The pandemic has shown the importance of a few critical actions that help maintain trust in a crisis. First is the importance of demonstrating empathy and humility. The most effective leaders Jennifer has seen over the past few months were leaders that relied on outside experts to persuade people to change their behaviors.
But the second action is even more important. If leaders want to maintain trust, they’ve got to do more than speak. Their actions must match their words. In other words, talk the talk — but make sure you’re walking the walk. “Demonstrate through your actions what you expect others to do,” Jennifer explains. “The leaders who haven’t been successful said one thing, but they didn’t apply that to themselves.”
On Humanizing Mergers & Acquisitions WITH O’BRIEN MCMAHON
Jennifer and O’Brien McMahon discuss how forward-thinking business leaders, owners, and executives can prepare for the human capital challenges of M&A transactions.
A Few highlights of my conversation with O’Brien:
19:05 “How should leaders be thinking about the people side of business transitions or mergers or acquisitions” 20:25 How to be prepared for your organization to go through stages of grief? What are the stages? 25:35 Why is preparation for the “stages of grief” so often overlooked by executives/leaders?” 28:40 Why the fact that grief isn’t typically discussed in business can be harmful. 30:40 Why getting to Acceptance is important to your career and your health (mental AND physical) 31:30 Is there a way to speed up the grieving process?
Around the world, we are collectively grieving. No matter what stage we are at in our fight against this pandemic, we are all grieving virtually together and yet in isolation, with our neighbors, within our communities, as a nation — as a world. You don’t need face-to-face contact to appreciate that people are coming to the realization that our way of life and business will never go back to the way it was.
What if, during this, you also lost a loved one? How do you grieve your loss when you are in the middle of a pandemic? Especially when the future of your business seems to be tottering on the brink?
This is not a theoretical question for the two of us. Diana lost both of her parents this past February, and Jennifer lost her mother in March. Grief is already complex, but how do you mourn when the world around you is falling apart, and your business seems to be dissolving right along with it? How long can you entertain pulling back, when the business you worked so hard to create will remain at a standstill until you do something to move it forward? When you are not even sure what that way forward is?
The joy and the heartache of being a sole proprietor is that everything rests on you. Your product, your intellectual capital, is trapped in your brain. Delegation is not as easy (read: impossible). Extended time off is a luxury you have rarely been able to afford if you wanted your business to grow. Even time off for grief seems like something you can’t or shouldn’t consider.
There is nothing like a global pandemic to level the playing field. The reality — everyone is figuring this out all at the same time. NO ONE has gone through a pandemic like this, and knows what to do. The other thing to keep in mind: You are not alone. Consider the hundreds of thousands of people we have lost worldwide during this pandemic. There is a mass grieving right now for a way of life and people lost. Thousands of people feel the way you do and are struggling.
As we both stair-step our way back into the real world (at least what real looks like today), we wanted to share five steps we have taken, and continue to take, to give us the space and time to heal, while keeping our business moving forward.
Step One:Give yourself permission to grieve. Tame the guilt beast — the guilt you feel every time you are doing one thing and feel like you should be doing another thing. You will always feel like you should and could be doing more for your business. Do the things that will help your business but will allow you to stay in your pajamas for the times you can’t get out of bed. Find actions that won’t require you to engage too much with the outside world. Because you may need to social distance from the world right now.
Be open about the fact that you are grieving. As solopreneurs, we feel the need to exude confidence and strength with every engagement. The new normal sees people sharing of themselves, their fears and anxieties, more openly. Grief — a subject that might have been considered taboo in the workplace earlier — is now being shared openly because we are experiencing a mass, worldwide grief. Jennifer, for example, posted a tribute to her mom on LinkedIn, a very business-oriented platform. By tying it to the values she learned that helped her succeed, she honored her mom and could also signal what she was going through.
Step Two:Pause and assess your business objectives and strategies. What do you want your business to look like moving forward or once we get on the “other side of this”? Perhaps you decide you want the business to stay the same yet readjust certain offerings given the expected shift in people’s perspective. Or you may determine that you need to create additional revenue streams, like an online course, and decide to proactively make that happen. The key is to take this time to think about your business and where you want to take it. Often as solopreneurs we are running, running, running. Take the time now to pause and consider your business’s mission and purpose and how the external environment changes how you can deliver on your promise to your clients. Fellow solopreneur Jenny Blake, author of Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One, shared this thought: “You don’t want to pivot just to pivot. Whatever you do should align with what the purpose of your business has always been.” Take the time now to think and hear your own voice.
Step Three:Focus on your business fundamentals. As solopreneurs, we are so focused on business development and securing the next big customer or project that we don’t carve out time to focus on our fundamentals. We fail to make time to reflect on simplifying processes or fixing the part of our business that has bothered us forever. That task could range from reviewing our marketing materials or website to the mundane, like our database. How often have you thought to yourself “I should really scrub my data”? Likely a number of times. And yet this can be a time-consuming effort best done with no distractions.
This is a perfect activity to do now. Organize your data. Who are your first- and second-tier clients and prospects? How can you serve them now? As sole proprietors, we have a tendency to want to keep casting a wider net to catch more fish for our business. Work with the fish you’ve got and organize how you will engage with them when the time is right. This focused effort will make you smarter about your current clients and prospects. It’s productive isolated time.
Step Four: Mine your existing relationships, both client and community. Once you have done that data scrubbing, you may be surprised at how many clients you have served who could be interested in working with you again. Right now, people are craving certainty. You are a known commodity. Consider how you might work with them again. Maybe the Part II to your workshop, enhanced with new takeaways based on what we are experiencing now? Or a project that you could tailor to another group within their company? There are likely many possibilities to work with people who know and like you. Consider what those opportunities could be so you can act on them when you are ready to reach out.
Think about the people in your network. As entrepreneurs, you likely have many people you turn to for advice and guidance–your community of trusted advisers or virtual board. This article is a perfect example of what can result when you reach out within your community. Diana and I know each other from a recognized expert community and had been sharing advice on how to balance our grief and business needs. We determined we should share the advice we gave each other more broadly. Et voilà.
Step Five: Double down on the skills you have gotten good at as an entrepreneur. “There is nothing quite so daunting as the steep learning curve that comes with life’s most critical times … that leave us feeling profoundly ill-equipped and incompetent,” say grief experts Dr. Kelsey Crowe and Emily McDowell in their book There is No Good Card for This:What to Say and Do When Life Is Scary, Awful, and Unfair to People You Love.
Though you may feel out of your depth because of recent circumstances, have faith that the skills you have developed as an entrepreneur are exactly what you need right now. Prioritize ruthlessly to eliminate unproductive activities. Now is the time to eliminate aspects of your business that deliver lower value (remember the 80/20 rule?) or are no longer viable in the pandemic. Diana had workshops and speaking engagements booked throughout the year that have been cancelled because of Covid-19. She pivoted to calling people one-to-one for her coaching and courses, and has found out that she likely did too many engagements versus the value and revenue they delivered. Dust off your project management skills.
Solopreneurs can juggle multiple tasks better than most. Chunk your work to make sure you can write articles in the morning, switch to funeral arrangements over lunch, and then go back to cleaning up the database. This will minimize the overwhelm of the vastly different tasks you now have on your plate. Finally, be honest and authentic. Many of us got into being our own boss to bring our whole selves to work. Frank conversations with your clients and team about your plans to deal with the loss and continue your business can clear the air and let people step in to help if you need them to.
We know what it’s like to wake up in the morning after a death in the family. We have felt that sinking feeling when your business continuity plan requires you to get out of bed at a time when that feels impossible. But waiting to engage is like jumping on the treadmill while it’s moving. Your grief will dissipate over time. Following these steps to move your business forward can help you “return to work” in a way that is less overwhelming and will make your business stronger than ever.
WHAT COVID-19’S UNCERTAINTY CAN TEACH US ABOUT M&A INTEGRATIONS WITH TRICIA FORBES
A fair amount of attention has been devoted to what will happen with M&A deal-making once we are on the other side of this pandemic. Fairly consistently, the theories on what’s next end with something to the effect of, “This is unprecedented, and no one truly knows how it will all play out.” Despite the unknowns, there is a lot that we can learn from this crisis to better prepare us for M&A deals moving forward, as Jennifer discusses with Tricia Forbes.
A fair amount of attention has been devoted to what will happen with M&A deal-making once we are on the other side of this pandemic. Fairly consistently, the theories on what’s next end with something to the effect of, “This is unprecedented, and no one truly knows how it will all play out.” Despite the unknowns, there is a lot that we can learn from this crisis to better prepare us for M&A deals moving forward.
The common theme between COVID-19 and an M&A integration is the influence uncertainty has over people—and more importantly—how it affects their actions.
Even when an investment thesis is well supported, we only learn if things will actually work at the execution phase of a deal—when we uncover the challenges we hadn’t anticipated. In the current environment, we face a similar dilemma. We’re developing response strategies for the pandemic without a clear sense of what will be most effective. Similar to M&A integration, success is uncertain until we see what people do.
A successful outcome is contingent upon how quickly people will accept the reality of the situation, embrace the roadmap and implement it. This crisis can provide enormous insight into how we approach M&A deals and most valuably, how we execute them.
Traditional Leadership Methods Must Evolve When Navigating Uncertainty
Throughout the crisis, we have seen leaders stumble when they attempt to play by the more traditional rules of leadership—leading with vision, decisiveness and bold confidence. These leaders previously succeeded because they understood the metrics for success and excelled at them. They knew the rules of the game and repeatedly won.
This same type of leader can falter in a crisis because the metrics for success change rapidly, and the game’s rules are continuously being defined. They have a difficult time pivoting in reaction to new metrics and an equally difficult time accepting they might not know all of the answers. More traditional leaders often take longer to act and develop a response plan, which compounds a crisis and prolongs the pain.
When assessing the viability of leadership styles for post-deal integration, we often apply the traditional leadership criteria to evaluate the management team. This crisis is teaching us that those are not always the right metrics.
Over the course of this pandemic, people have been most motivated into action by leaders who demonstrate empathy and humility, are transparent with what they know and don’t know, actively tap others’ expertise to make decisions and role model the behavior they wish to see.
Learn from the People Closest to the Work
Before COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, many political leaders were sharing incomplete or contradictory information because it was being gathered in real-time and was outside of their scope of expertise. This heightened fear and anxiety (resulting in the hoarding of toilet paper).
When those closest to the work began to share their expertise, we began to get a true sense of what was happening, what needed to be done and how we all needed to behave. When frontline experts shared their knowledge, people had greater confidence in the plan of action, which motivated businesses and community leaders, as well as individuals. We developed a more complete picture of what was required of us and snapped out of denial.
When I consult on the human capital challenges of M&A, I consistently advise my clients to talk with the people who do the work in order to truly understand what it takes to get the job done. Not theoretically—not what it takes based on a sample budget or planned resources. You need to appreciate what the people who actually complete the tasks are up against.
Only then can you get a sense of what the roadmap looks like and what the implications are if some elements of the product or process are missing (say, ventilators or testing). You won’t have a complete picture of a successful post-close integration in your due diligence discussions until you engage your frontline leaders.
How, Not Just What, You Communicate is Vital to Comprehension and Buy-In
When your statements as a leader contradict what people are experiencing, you lose them. We saw this happen when leaders painted a picture of the virus’ spread and impact that didn’t match what people were seeing in their homes, communities and workplaces. People doubted their leadership, which heightened their stress.
For communications to be effective, your stakeholders need to feel that you know what they are going through and that you are being honest with them. You can’t claim that nothing has changed or that there will be little impact. When people are given incomplete or misleading information, they don’t feel invested in the outcome or comfortable about the decisions they must make—and they no longer trust your leadership.
Beyond that, information needs to be brought down to an individual, granular level. “What does this all mean for me and what do I need to do?” is what people want to know.
The leaders commended throughout this crisis have explained the good and the bad of what we face in basic terms, and they boil the situation down to personal action. People are more willing to believe in the way forward and feel invested in it if you are upfront with the challenges faced. Give them as much information as possible to help them understand their role and the specific actions they need to take.
Finally, we are seeing on a global scale that the acceptance of change comes at different rates. I noted in an earlier Fast Company article, “There are people who have accepted the reality of the pandemic and have begun to take action, and there are those who have resisted and delayed their change in behavior. People react to change differently. You can’t predict it or control it.”
Interestingly, that is a lesson M&A has already taught us. When I interviewed executives for my M&A survivor’s handbook, “NOW WHAT?”, each of them shared one common realization they wished they’d appreciated going into the deal: reactions to change vary widely, and you need to be prepared for that.
What Can the Worldwide Pandemic Teach Us About Managing the Uncertainty of M&A?
We have seen the type of leadership that people react to positively. We’ve also seen the leadership that falls flat when people are afraid. We have recognized that the ones closest to the work are those who need to be tapped at the beginning. We have also learned that not all communication is received equally. How it is presented is vitally important to people’s comprehension and what is shared is critical to their buy-in. Ultimately, we have seen that people get to acceptance at different rates. Sweeping change can only begin when a common level of acceptance is reached.
The coronavirus crisis is a time for calm, confident leaders to really step up. Steady hands can build the confidence needed to ride out the storm.
Right now, there are more people who are afraid than not. It’s a fear driven by uncertainty magnified by the fact that our authority figures—the ones we look to in times like this—don’t seem to have all the answers and consistently contradict one another. That doesn’t lend itself to a calm.
I’ve experienced numerous business situations where fear was the operative emotion. Mergers, acquisitions, and business transformations bring with them a lot of uncertainty. Even when the strategy or business case seems well supported at the outset, it’s hard to know if it’ll work until it actually happens. In the current environment, we are facing a similar dilemma: We have a response strategy for the pandemic but no clear sense of what the future holds.
I would never equate the uncertainty that can ensue post-M&A deal to what we are facing now, yet there are lessons learned from those experiences that do apply. In researching my book, Now What? A Survivor’s Guide for Thriving Through Mergers & Acquisitions, I interviewed 60 executives who lead through M&A deal uncertainty. They shared one common realization: everyone reacts to change differently. You need to be prepared for that.
As a manager, maybe you have team members who are fraught with anxiety. Or maybe you’ve even witnessed other leaders melting down, which is having an impact on your team. Based on interviews with executives who’ve repeatedly dealt with uncertainty, here’s how to lead during uncertain times:
Acceptance comes at different rates
Everyone reacts to change differently. How quickly people accept that change will vary. You can’t predict it or control it. The same can be said of what we are facing now. There were people who quickly accepted the pandemic news and took precautions. But we all saw some who at first said, “This is minor, go about your business.” It’s the equivalent of “nothing has changed.” And then there was a big percentage of people in the middle left wondering what to believe.
Now that we’re weeks into the coronavirus crisis, people, thankfully, have largely accepted that we need to change our behavior for this situation to play out positively. As a leader, we need to emphasize the importance of taking the guidance seriously and helping our teams accept the new reality.
Fear elicits “survivor” mode
When things are going great, people get along. When things start to go south and people are afraid for their jobs, or in this case their lives, you will see a different version of them—and it’s rarely positive. People go into survival mode. Why do you think the TV show Survivor has endured and remains popular? People are fascinated to watch how someone goes from being a friend and ally to everyone for themselves.
Be prepared for this reality. People who you assumed would be your rock can completely lose it and abandon you. When someone you trusted adopts a self-preservation attitude, it can be hard not to judge that person harshly. Try not to. People’s reactions to fearful situations are informed by their past, and you may not completely appreciate their current family situation. Our present environment, where so much is uncertain, can trigger people’s innermost fears. Recognize this may be the case. That said, don’t dwell on it either. Move on quickly and discover the people who can lead through times of uncertainty.
Look for levelheaded leaders
Once you realize that some previous leaders may not be capable when they don’t have all the answers, be open to the possibility that others who you’d not previously considered as a leader can surprise you. Don’t waste time trying to bring along those you previously counted on if they are losing it—you don’t have time for that. Look to those people who are calm and levelheaded. They may not be the person you thought you’d turn to, but don’t discount the possibility that they may be who can lead now. In times of high uncertainty, people who are afraid are willing to follow those who appear grounded in the face of so many unknowns.
To keep fear at bay for everyone, two final pieces of advice: make daily communication a priority, and focus on the things you can control, not the things you can’t.
People fill in a lack of information with worst-case scenarios, which ratchets up fear. We’re seeing the fallout of that since the initial COVID-19 communication was limited and contradictory. Be honest with what you know and transparent about what is still being figured out (emphasizing that it is being figured out). Pretending to know it all is not leadership, nor is waiting until you have all of the answers before you communicate. Use technology, frequently derided for isolating us, to connect and communicate. If you help to allay people’s fears, not with uninformed platitudes but with an educated view of what is known and what that could mean for the team, people who are afraid will have more confidence in you.
The more a team feels in control of what it is doing, the better chance you have of minimizing fear. Don’t waste energy on things you can’t control. This doesn’t mean you don’t develop a plan B. Having those plans can calm fears, showing you’re prepared for potential challenges. But don’t drive yourself crazy with those. Focus on the work and short-term risks to feel prepared, especially since changes seem to come daily.
Remember: In all of this uncertainty, there is an opportunity to be found. Everyone is figuring out what the new normal is. There’s nothing like a global crisis to level the playing field. While we don’t know today what the long-term effects of this crisis will be, we can rest assured some good things will come if we stay calm, keep our teams focused, and look for the opportunities.
Jennifer connects with Expert Mitchell Levy, a TEDx speaker and international bestselling author of over 60 books.
Here are a few highlights from this episode:
Having been through three multi-billion dollar acquisition experiences, I saw how the integration of cultures affects the org on how they perceive their mission and vision.
Orgs and companies that are doing #MergersAndAcquisitions have to deal with people challenges and the integration of cultures. How do you overcome those challenges?
Mid-market or Fortune 500 companies should think smart when it comes to #MergersAndAcquisitions in order to survive or prevent possible problems.
The people aspect when doing #MergersAndAcquisitions must be considered, as well as how to communicate the vision, mission and values in a way that galvanizes your workforce to really get behind them.
As featured on Lisa Nirell’s blog – the original can be found here.
As a new year approaches, I frequently see a litany of growth projections for the coming year. I’m always amused when these forecasts and undermining practices contradict one another.
Take, for instance, the world of mergers and acquisitions (M&A), an area where I specialize. Even in the face of geopolitical and global recession fears, companies are expected to continue pursuing M&A as a growth strategy. Why? Because regardless of whether you are a global, Fortune 500 company or a small to medium size business, it is becoming increasingly difficult to go it alone and succeed in business.
I’m seeing a trend that M&A can undermine—and marketers often ignore at their peril. Glassdoor’s recent job and hiring trends for 2020 study predicts that 2020 will “usher in a culture-first decade for employers…. as growing numbers of companies come to rely on the individual knowledge and creativity of their people as their core business asset.”
During my research for my M&A handbook, NOW WHAT? A Survivor’s Guide for Thriving through Mergers & Acquisitions, “poor cultural fit” was the most consistent challenge I heard from executives as the reason for M&A failure. In my experience, both sides usually believe their culture is best and stay stuck in their old way of doing things. And today’s ongoing frenzy of M&A deals only make this impasse worse!
As marketing leaders, you know that a strong company culture cultivates a workforce of powerful brand advocates who enhance marketing efforts. What can marketing do to navigate the culture war that ensues in the face of increased M&A activity?
Here are three rules of thumb to consider as you evaluate an M&A deal on the horizon, and when you are in the throes of a post-deal journey:
Come to the union with respect for the other side. There is a reason an M&A deal happens – both companies need each other to survive. To find success post-deal, both sides need to come together looking for what the other side is good at– not fixated on what you are good at. You can’t create a stronger marketing plan if you are stuck in how you have always done things.
To appreciate another culture, learn their language. In my first acquisition experience, my company, NAVTEQ, was a B2B player while Nokia, who acquired us, was B2C. We had different marketing approaches and consequently, a different culture and language. At the beginning, we spent too much time trying to convince each other our respective language was best. Had we each spent time learning each other’s language rather than trying to force people to “speak our language,” we might have achieved success sooner.
Check your ego at the door and work back from what serves your customer best. Staying stuck in your old way of doing things blinds you to the opportunity to create something new and stronger together, something that best serves your customer. When we worked back from what best served our B2B customer, we recognized that it was a combination of Nokia’s consumer research coupled with our expertise on what delivered an exceptional B2B navigation experience.
Checking your ego will likely be the hardest for you to do. As marketers, we tend to be exceptionally proud of what we have achieved. And we should be. We’ve typically put our blood, sweat and tears into making our marketing efforts a success. But you need to always remember, your success in the marketplace post-M&A deal hinges on how well you can work together. Check your ego, bring the best of your strengths to the union, and find common ground.
About the Author:
Jennifer J. Fondrevay is the Founder of Day1 Ready, a consultancy that advises forward- thinking business leaders, owners and C-Suite executives on how to prepare for the human capital challenges of M&A and business transformation. She shares her expertise as a contributor to Forbes, Harvard Business Review, Thrive Global, American Marketing Association, and Middle Market Growth. She is also a frequent podcast guest and keynote speaker.
