Transition Communications:

Leadership Change

When an organization faces transition to a new leader or leadership team, uncertainty can swamp the strategic intentions of the change. Questions among key constituencies include:

• Does this change our mission or vision?
• Will we continue to embrace the same values?
• Does this portend other changes, such as process re-engineering, realignments, cost cutting or strategic changes in geographies, business units or functional areas?

In short, your employees, customers, advocates, stockholders, regulators (and competitors) are all asking the same question: “What does this leadership change mean for the future of the enterprise?”

Cathey Communications can help your organization develop effective messages that convey the strategic importance of the leadership change, taking care to present all individuals and their contributions to the company in an appropriate, respectful light. The goal of transition communications during a leadership change is to engage your key constituencies in a conversation about the future, not the past.

There are special considerations for leadership changes that are tied to an ownership change. This is even more critical when the ownership change is a buyout, rollup or inter-generational transition in a small- to medium-sized business. Cathey Communications has expertise with these transitions as well.