ElevateCX London - thanks for joining!
It was amazing to see so many friendly faces at ElevateCX London in November 2024. If you’re here, it’s likely to see the notes for the session (scroll down!). Want more in the future? Sign up to my newsletter!
Other things you might like:
Sarah Caminiti’s Epochal Growth episode 2: The Parent Whisperer
Change is the only Constant (in CX)
Sugababes; 2Pac; Bowie; Taylor Swift; Kelly and Ozzy Osbourne. What’s the link? No, not just my Spotify regular rotation. They all have songs about change!
Particularly as CX leaders, it can seem like we’re continually being fed changes from other teams, from our customers, and from our senior leadership.
Your product is always updating, sometimes without anyone bothering to tell you. Your company’s leaders are revising the overall strategy and shifting their focus. Your customers’ needs and expectations are shifting. And everyone needs it yesterday.
Through the medium of song, I’ll talk you through how to lead your team through three of the bigger changes that you might encounter.
Becoming a Leader
The first transition point we’re going to talk about is the move to being a leader. Getting recognised as a manager, or a team leader, or whatever your title, is exciting.
So now you’re a leader, and you’re managing a bunch of people who were already your peers. Ooof, that’s awkward
You’re going to need to navigate this change, and handle it compassionately with your team
You’re probably feeling excited, and nervous. Consider what your peers may be feeling - will they feel anxious that your relationships will now change? That you’ll no longer be able to have fun, or that you’ll be more distant? Are there people who might feel like they deserved that role more than you?
Strategy:
First: set the framing. There are reasons you’ve been promoted - and that probably means that you’ve already been leading within the team. So this is formalising something that was already happening. You probably won’t really need to change what you’re doing all that much
If this is your first time in a leadership role, you’re soon going to be balancing your team’s interests and needs, with those of the company overall. Sometimes, that is going to suck. You may not have the full context on decisions, but will still need to follow through on them.
Tactics:
As Bowie would say, you have to “turn and face the strange” - accept that things are going to be challenging, and act anyway
You can be friends with people, and also be their boss. You can also call that out explicitly. When I went through this move, my external mentor at the time was Bill Bounds. He suggested that I have different “hats”, and that in 1:1s I do my informal catch up first, and then explicitly call out the switching of the hats to the other person and myself. That allowed me to change gears and move to the more formal parts of your conversation.
Create the time to do the work
Get feedback! This may sound obvious, but ask your boss, your peers and your team where you’re doing well, and where you have opportunities to grow. Don’t wait for formal review cycles like 360s or annual performance reviews - ask now, and ask often!
In particular, find out what the risks were with your move to leader. Who was concerned, and why?
Major Company Changes
Everything changes - all the time. Particularly in CX teams, it can seem like we’re continually being fed changes from other teams, from our customers, and from our company leaders.
Your product is always updating, sometimes without anyone bothering to tell you. Your company’s leaders are revising the overall strategy and shifting their focus. Your customers’ needs and expectations are shifting. A HR policy changes without warning. An internal tool changes overnight. And everyone needs everything yesterday.
I remember a whole host of product and process changes made by one team, where each had a significant impact on other teams and our customers. Every time, it felt like we were on the back foot.
Strategy:
If this is causing immediate problems, assume good intent, and poor execution. If the impact on your team is significantly negative, then assume that this wasn’t deliberate, and was the result of the lack of context that they have
Sometimes, there’s limited time to communicate the changes. Maybe there was security risk that needed to be patched, or a legal or compliance issue, or a looming deadline
If there’s no immediate impact, assume that you might not have the full context on the change. Sometimes, we have to choose between multiple bad decisions, rather than one good decision and one bad decision.
Tactics:
Sense-check the impact. You may not like it or agree with it - what does the change actually mean for your team and customers?
Even if people are not expressing concern, have one on ones with make sure they have all of the information they need, and you can answer any questions that come up
If it’s not already clear, summarise in writing the impact that the change would have for particular team. Get feedback from your team on what is actually going to change, and then check that against the intention
Consider how you can reduce the impact of unplanned changes again in the future. If there was a product release that you weren’t notified of until it was already live with customers, ask the team who delivered it “Where in the process do you talk about documentation, communication and internal training? How do we find out the timing of releases so that we can learn how to support our customers when they get started with this feature?”.
If it’s an unexpected HR policy change, get familiar with your HR team! Buy someone a coffee, do social calls with them, and just generally keep yourself on their mind - and offer to sense-check changes that they’ll be making for feedback and suggestions.
Team Transitions
These can be very tough to work through
In my decade at Expensify, my core team was overhauled four different times. Each of those was challenging, and how I handled it ranged wildly from “BURN IT ALL DOWN” to “Let’s do this”
Strategy:
Be compassionate, and support your team
Tactics:
Prioritise having your 1:1s with your team. Ask them what they need, and then deliver that where you can
Set out an escalation path, so that you know who you can speak to if you need additional support. You don’t have to go it alone. Pick out any patterns of discussion and concern, and bring those up
When you are missing information and context, get that! Ask for it
If there are layoffs, be kind to the people who you no longer work with. If you lead them, or knew them, then don’t treat them like a social pariah - keep in contact with them, and use your networks to help them find a job. Also, be kind about them to your remaining colleagues. If people see you shitting on past employees, then their next thought will be “If I leave, is that how Conor will speak about me?”
Where you can, calm nerves by pointing out that typically, layoffs aim to prevent future financial problems. If you’re still employed, and the company has a solid path forward, then it’s probably going to be ok
So there you go - I hope that helps you get an idea of some ways to support your teams through their major transitions. If you liked this, you might enjoy the episode of Sarah Caminiti’s podcast we did on supporting people through becoming a parent.
Sarah named the episode “The Parent Whisperer”, and it’s episode 2 of the Epochal Growth podcast. You’ll find a link to that, and the slides for this, at CustomerSuccess.cx and you can get my newsletter at CustomerSuccess.cx/newsletter