Latest / New Manager Conversations with Fexingo: First 90 Days, Managing Former Peers, and Leadership Basics / How New Managers Can Manage a Team During Company Reorganization
Transcript
- Lucas: So you've been a manager for maybe three months. You're finally getting the hang of one-on-ones, you've stopped solving every problem yourself, and then — bam — your VP announces a company-wide reorg. Luna: And suddenly the team you've been building is getting shuffled like a deck of cards. Lucas: Exactly. It's one of the most destabilizing things a new manager can face. And it's surprisingly common. According to a 2023 Gartner survey, about 73 percent of organizations had undergone a restructuring in the previous two years. Luna: So if you're a new manager, odds are pretty good you'll live through one. Lucas: Right. And the problem is most first-time managers make the same three mistakes when their team gets reorganized. I want to walk through them today, using a real case I saw play out at a mid-size SaaS company last year. Luna: Let's hear it. Lucas: So there's a marketing manager — let's call her Priya. She'd been promoted from senior content marketer to marketing manager about ninety days before the reorg was announced. Her team of four was just starting to trust her. Then the CEO announced the company was merging its product marketing and demand gen teams into one unit. Luna: And Priya's team was right in the middle of that. Lucas: Exactly. Two of her four direct reports were told they'd now report to a different director. Priya herself was getting a new boss. And the whole team's quarterly goals were basically thrown out. Mistake number one: Priya froze. Luna: I can see why. She's thinking, 'If I say the wrong thing, I'll look incompetent or lose the team's trust.' Lucas: Exactly. So she went silent for about a week. She cancelled her one-on-ones, saying she needed 'time to process.' And the rumour mill filled the void. By the time she scheduled a team meeting, people had already heard from Slack channels that their roles might be cut. Luna: So her silence made things worse. Lucas: Much worse. Mistake number two is the opposite — over-communicating without substance. Some managers react to uncertainty by flooding the zone with updates. They send daily emails saying 'We're still figuring things out, stay tuned!' which actually increases anxiety. Luna: Because it signals that leadership is scrambling. Lucas: Right. And mistake number three is failing to re-anchor the team to a new mission. When the old goals disappear, people need something to hold onto — even if it's provisional. Luna: So what did Priya actually do? Or what should she have done? Lucas: Well, after that first week of silence, she realized she was losing the team. So she called a fifteen-minute stand-up — not a full meeting — and said three things. First: 'I don't have all the answers yet, but I'll share what I know every Friday at 10 a.m. until we have clarity.' Second: 'Your jobs are secure for now — I've confirmed no immediate layoffs.' Third: 'Our north star for the next month is keeping our current campaigns running. That's it.' Luna: I like the specificity of the Friday at 10 a.m. check-in. It gives the team a predictable touchpoint. Lucas: Exactly. Predictability is the antidote to uncertainty. And by setting a regular update, she stopped the daily pings from people asking 'Any news?' She also created a simple document — a one-pager — called 'Reorg FAQ,' and asked her team to add questions anonymously. She'd answer them in the Friday updates. Luna: That's smart. It also forces her to find answers she might not have thought to look for. Lucas: And it builds trust. But here's where it gets tricky: what do you do when you genuinely don't know something? Luna: You say 'I don't know, but I'll find out by.' Which is what Priya did. Lucas: Right. She was transparent about the limits of her knowledge. That's better than pretending. But I want to push on one thing — there's a tension between transparency and stability. How much do you share when the reorg is still being negotiated? Luna: That's a good point. If you share that there are three different org structures being considered, that might cause unnecessary panic. Lucas: So the framework is: share what's decided, share what's being decided, and share the timeline for when decisions will be made. Don't share every option on the table. Luna: That makes sense. And Priya's Friday updates became a ritual. Over the next three weeks, she gradually revealed more — first the new org chart, then the new reporting lines, then the new goals. Lucas: By the time the reorg was fully implemented, her team actually had higher engagement scores than before. Because they felt informed and involved. Luna: That's a great outcome. But I imagine it's not always that smooth. Lucas: No, and I want to be honest — sometimes the reorg is bad news. People lose their jobs, or get moved to roles they don't want. In those cases, the new manager's job is to be the humane conduit of information. You don't soften the blow, but you don't deliver it coldly either. Luna: So what's the specific language for that conversation? Lucas: I'd say something like: 'I have some difficult news. Your role is being eliminated. I want to be upfront with you, and I'm here to support you through the transition. Here's what I know about severance and next steps.' Then you give them space to react. Luna: And you don't say 'I know how you feel' or try to fix it. Lucas: Exactly. It's a listening moment, not a problem-solving moment. Luna: Let's talk about the team that stays. After a reorg, the survivors often feel guilty, anxious, or resentful. How does a new manager handle that? Lucas: That's a great point. After Priya's reorg was done, she noticed that the two team members who stayed were quieter in meetings. They'd lost colleagues. She addressed it directly in a team meeting: 'I know this has been hard. We lost Sarah and James, and I want us to acknowledge that. Let's take five minutes to share a memory of working with them.' Luna: That's really human. It acknowledges the loss rather than just moving on. Lucas: And it builds cohesion. The team actually became closer after that. But there's another practical step: re-contract the team's purpose. The old mission is gone. You need to create a new one. Luna: Priya did that with the 'keep campaigns running' statement, but that was temporary. How do you set a longer-term mission? Lucas: Great question. Once the reorg is stable — say, after a month — you hold a team offsite or a working session. You ask: 'What are we uniquely positioned to do now that we couldn't before?' That reframes the change as an opportunity. Luna: I've seen managers skip that step and just assign new goals. The team ends up feeling like cogs. Lucas: Exactly. And that's how you lose your best people. A 2024 study by Microsoft found that employees who felt their role had clear purpose after a reorg were 40 percent less likely to consider leaving. Luna: Forty percent — that's huge. Lucas: So the playbook is: acknowledge uncertainty, create a predictable communication cadence, don't over-share options, be honest about bad news, and then rebuild the mission together. Luna: That's a solid framework. But I want to go back to the first mistake — freezing. How do you, as a new manager, avoid that paralysis? Lucas: You need a personal mantra. Priya told me she repeated to herself: 'My job is to create stability for my team, even when I feel unstable.' That shifted her focus from her own anxiety to her team's needs. Luna: It's like the airplane oxygen mask — put yours on first, but only just enough to help others. Lucas: Exactly. And there's one more thing: lean on your peer network. Priya joined a Slack group for new managers at her company and asked, 'Anyone been through a reorg? What helped?' She got advice from five other managers. Luna: That's a great resource. And speaking of resources, if this show has helped you think through a career move or a management challenge, a couple of dollars a month is genuinely what keeps these going — buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo, if you've gotten something out of it. Lucas: Yeah, honestly, listener support makes a real difference. We don't run ads, so it's just people like you chipping in small amounts that keeps us ad-free and focused on content. Luna: Right. So back to the reorg — one more thing I want to touch on is managing your own relationship with your new boss during a reorg. Lucas: Oh, that's crucial. Priya's new boss was a director she'd never worked with before. She scheduled a thirty-minute introductory meeting and asked three questions: 'What's your communication style? What does success look like for our team in the next quarter? And what's the biggest landmine I should avoid?' Luna: Those are great questions. The landmine one especially — it shows you're thinking ahead. Lucas: It also surfaces any pet peeves early. Her new boss said, 'Don't come to me with problems without solutions.' So Priya knew to always bring at least two options. Luna: That's a simple but powerful piece of intel. Lucas: And it helped her build credibility fast. Within two months, her new boss was giving her more autonomy. Luna: So to sum up: reorgs are scary, but they're also a test of your leadership. If you handle them well, your team will trust you more than before. Lucas: Exactly. And the key is to be present, be honest, and give your team a reason to stay focused. The mission doesn't have to be grand — it just has to be clear. Luna: Thanks, Lucas. And thanks to everyone listening. We'll be back next week with another episode.