Leaders play a critical role during organizational change, beginning to end. During the unstable period, employees are emotional, grieving for what is lost and what is to come. They are confused and afraid, hindering productivity. During this period, effective leaders need to focus on two areas. First, the feelings and confusion of employees must be acknowledged and validated. Second, the leader must work with employees to begin creating a new vision of the altered workplace and helping employees to understand the direction of the future. Focusing only on feelings may result in wallowing so it is imperative to implement the organizational change as soon as possible. However, focusing only on the new vision may result in the perception that the leader is out of touch, cold, and uncaring. A key part of leadership in this phase is knowing when to focus on the pain and when to focus on moving into the future. This is an ideal time for leaders to introduce positive new change and for the manager to choose which role he will undertake. …
