John McEwan did not have months, weeks or even days to prepare for the role of leading Deloitte LLP in Columbus. He only had hours as he learned he would be taking the job the same day his predecessor was leaving it.
“We had virtually no transition plan,” says McEwan, managing partner of the accounting firm’s Central Ohio practice. “Very shortly after that, the economy began its freefall. The timing was not ideal from a perspective of me coming in and setting some strategy and my own style and plan of how we were going to do things. It was immediately overcome by the changes in the economy and how we were going to react and deal with that.”
So you could forgive McEwan for feeling a little rattled when he first took over. But he knew there was no time for pity. Ready or not, he had 230 employees expecting him to hit the ground running as their leader.
They wanted to know his plan for the company and the type of leader he was going to be. These concerns weren’t about John McEwan the person as much as they were about John McEwan the leader.
“People aren’t for you or against you,” McEwan says. “They are thinking about their self interests. What is this going to mean for me? How do I deal with what that means to me? You need to put together a message that resonates with them, that will move them forward.”
McEwan needed to rally employees together and take their mind off any fear or uncertainty they themselves might be feeling. Here’s how he did it.
