how to engage in change management, take over a business

The buyer must establish his identity within the company’s environment as soon as he takes office. Ideally, accompanied by the transferor, the buyer must visit all the stakeholders of his company to introduce himself, to reassure, explain and implement the corrective measures necessary for the development of the activity, provided for in the reprise.

The company’s employees will be worried: a new leader is synonymous with a new style of management and new objectives. Moreover, rumors of all kinds tend to pollute the working atmosphere during the audit phases. Employees more often imagine a bleak future than a bright future. Managing change will require active participation on your part with your team.

(…) Whatever the situation, you will be led to understand how the company’s employees evolve in order to reassure them. Ideally, eliminate as soon as possible the interactions between the transferor and the employees in the company: you must take the leadership alone and impose with your force of conviction your vision of the resumption of activity on the employees.

Prepare the main principles of your management

To carry out your project, and involve employees, you will have to carry out in-depth work on your human resources.

First of all, prepare a meeting when you arrive to present your takeover project, to talk about your background, your professional experience and to affirm your desire to lead this team towards new successes. Involve employees in some of these projects right now. Go around the table so that everyone can express themselves, on their wishes, on the common weaknesses to be resorbed. Let the fears speak out, take note. If you can respond to unfounded fears, do so. If indeed fears are well-founded, offer to respond to them during individual interviews. Announce to the team that you will receive each of them the coming week to discuss the working conditions.

To prepare for your next individual meetings with employees, ask yourself about the corporate culture: who are the key personalities of yesterday and today who have marked the life and organization of the company? Are they respected? What were the influences of these people on the team? What values ​​do employees share? Are there beliefs that influence employee decision-making? What are the taboos and prohibitions? (…)

Meet every employee

Create an appointment schedule with each employee and receive them. It is above all a psychological measure: the employees work in the company and are actors in its operation, they will therefore be valued and curious to know you. If you create a personal relationship with each of them, you will prevent the isolation of an employee from your management and your decisions.

During this interview, take advantage of it so that each employee can write their job description as they see it and as they think it should be. Over time, employees think that there is a gap between what he must do and what he should do, and he measures this difference by the lack of valuation of his employer. If the difference is justified, and if you need to surround yourself with one or more key people in the company, the whole point is to retain and value the right employees in the right place as soon as you arrive. Offer to employees whose skills are essential to evolve. At the same time, the interview allows you to identify ambitious employees, employees who are always worried, and employees settled in their comfort zone.

Print your brand

You will be able to observe, if it takes place, a poor equity between the privileges granted to certain employees and not to others, or even bad habits (non-respect of schedules, breaks of more than 40 minutes, etc.) which were common under the direction of the transferor but which are to be avoided for the development that you wish to lead. If you make the key people in your company accountable, you will clearly have to expect exemplary conduct vis-à-vis the team in return: respect for schedules, rules, work. If the support of the employees is lacking, and you find that certain elements are real obstacles to change despite the discussions, the valuations and the proposals, you will have to decide on a layoff or another assignment.

(…) Discuss with employees about their wishes in terms of development and training. Demand that any development can only take place after specific training for the desired position.