Make changes fast
A major move such as a corporate merger obviously can create a lot of anxiety. Employees need to know as soon as possible what their role will be in the new company or if they’re not going to be part of the future.
“The faster you do the integration and communicate to employees what their future is, whether it’s a good future or one where they are not going to be involved in the company, the fairer and better it is for everyone involved,” Leer says. “You really have to focus on how you bring the two companies together. What are the social issues of bringing the various personnel together? How would all the minds be organizationally structured? Those tend to be very intense conversations.”
In almost every merger or consolidation, there is that point of wondering who is going to stay and who is going to leave. That uncertainty can be poison to an organization and it’s why time is of the essence in making decisions.
“You try to get those communication points out as fast and as quickly as you can,” Leer says. “An old boss of mine told me, he says, ‘What you have to understand is the first word in merger is me. Even if their future is we’re going to go through the transition and there is going to be a severance for you, people may not like that answer, but they can respect it and deal with it.’ What the human can’t deal with is the uncertainty. Our view is to try to communicate everybody’s future as fast and as quickly as we can.”
You’re better off making the moves quickly and making a few mistakes.
“If you get 90 percent correct, go back and correct the last 10 percent if you realize you made a mistake,” Leer says. “That’s a much better approach than trying to get 100 percent of every move decided and then saying, ‘We need more time to decide what we’re going to do here,’ and then letting things drift on for six months.”
Sell the plan
You spent a lot of time figuring out whether to merge with another company and analyzing figures and charts and making projections. That same approach to making the move is the one you need to take in selling it to your people as things start to happen.
“You have to go through the rationale and be convincing,” Leer says. “You have to be prepared to explain your strategy. You don’t have to get into all the numbers, and often, the numbers might be confidential. But you have to get into why we are doing this and why we are moving forward with the transaction and what it means to the overall health of the organization. And it’s not just the employees.”
You need to take the position that you are looking to earn the trust of the people you’re speaking to.
“You need to listen as much as you talk,” Leer says. “Take questions afterwards. If you don’t know the answer, say you don’t know the answer. Say, ‘We don’t know that,’ or, ‘We’ll get back to you.’ Don’t try to dodge things or buffalo somebody. It’s kind of like the voting populace. I think the voters are much smarter than the politicians give us credit for. An open, honest dialogue is what you are striving for.”
Sometimes, it doesn’t even hurt to have an employee ready to ask a question to help break the seal.
“Sometimes people are reticent to ask the CEO a difficult question in a large group like that,” Leer says. “See if you can’t use other techniques to get it going.”
Think about your audience and plan accordingly in terms of how you present yourself. But focus primarily on the message you are looking to deliver.
“My personal style is I like to be out in front and not behind a podium,” Leer says. “But some people like a formal, written speech.”
By being out in front with his people, Leer has led Arch Coal to continued revenue growth, reaching $1.9 billion in 2004 and $2.9 billion in 2008.
The key is to always be clear in laying out your expectations of what you want to see happen. It’s also important to know when to rest.
“Everybody is going to feel stress and tempers are going to get a little short,” Leer says. “You just keep pressing to move through it, and once you’re done, you pull back a little bit and say, ‘The last three months have been darn intense.’ So you try not to load another acquisition two months later.”
How to reach: Arch Coal Inc., (314) 994-2700 or www.archcoal.com