👉️ Core concern: People jockeying for titles, prestige, and positional power. Beware the ladder climbers who care more about "where they sit" than the actual work.

🧰 How to handle it:

Create clarity around levels and roles.
If you don’t have a clear leveling framework, people will fill in the gaps themselves. Make sure it’s unambiguous what it takes for someone to be at a certain level, to the best of your ability.

Promote cultural carriers, not just executional talent.
Don’t forget to take into account the whole person! You want to put leaders at the top that are not only good at their jobs, but who also embody the culture you want your company to have.

Practice radical listening before the reorg.
If someone’s gunning for a Director, VP, or C-Suite title but you can’t give it to them, ask why they want it. Often it’s not the title; it’s what the title represents: bigger projects, deeper ownership, more strategic influence. Show them a path to those things. You will want to have any hard conversations before the reorg is announced, since these might be sensitive conversations.

TLDR: People can handle change if they feel heard, seen, and respected. Titles matter to people - not because they’re vain, but because they’re signals. Figure out what the signal means to them, and you’ll know how to lead them through it.

👉️ Core concern: Distrust, burnout, reputational damage (internally and externally).

🧰 How to handle it:

Decide the new org before you announce layoffs for best chance at seamless execution.

Don’t fire first and figure it out later. People need to see that you have a plan. (This is not a post about layoffs, but there will be a dedicated post in a few weeks on how to layoff properly - including a template too.)

Cut deeper if you must - but make the cuts clean.

Keeping low performers or toxic culture carriers only prolongs the pain. You’re better off facing short-term discomfort than long-term dysfunction.

Therefore, when figuring out who is impacted, consider performance ability and cultural fit. BOTH should be good at a high level, not just one or the other. Don’t retain people who you don’t want to see in your new chapter culturally, and don’t retain low performers.

When executing layoffs, meet with every remaining team member 1:1 after the announcement.

Your remaining team will be understandably upset from seeing their coworkers and friends’ jobs get impacted. Your managers must show up. Not to "fix" people’s feelings, but to hold space.

Again, radical listening is important here - you’re not here to solve their discomfort or sad feelings; you simply need to be there for them and show compassion / understanding that they’re still reeling, even if they know it’s what’s best for the company.

Rally the team around a clear mission. Make sure your leadership shares the same narrative consistently across the board.

If you’re not clear about why this painful step was necessary - and what comes next - people will fill the void with their own (usually worse) stories. All leaders in the reorg must share the same message and it has to be clear that the layoffs and reorg were painful but a necessary move to help the company survive and thrive.

Bring the team together, physically.

Create space to reconnect, recommit, and remind everyone that the company still has a future worth fighting for. I highly recommend having a rallying event like an offsite with the remaining teammates to solidify the remaining team’s bond.

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Through all of this, the mission has to be explicit and clear. All leaders in the reorg must share the same message and it has to be clear that the layoffs and reorg were painful but a necessary move to help the company survive and thrive. You all now have a responsibility to do your best work at the company to honor those who had to leave, to continue carrying the torch despite it being wartime.

👉️ Core concern: Who gets to lead, who feels like "second-class citizens," and whether the merged team believes the company actually has their back.

🧰 How to handle it:

Pick leaders based on trust rather than tenure.

You don’t need a 50/50 split across both companies. You need the right people - the ones others trust and follow.

Empower grassroots ambassadors.

The most effective culture carriers aren’t always execs. Sometimes it’s the respected IC who’s been there since day one. Identify these people, and have them do listening tours.

It helps if you give them a narrative they can authentically champion after practicing radical listening and sowing seeds of trust. These people don’t have to be top dog leaders - in fact, the closer to the boots on the ground they are, the better. Think of it like a union worker hearing from another union worker that things are good, versus hearing it from “the top.” It’s more likely to win trust because they have more in common.

Don’t wait for people to come to you - go to them.

Ideally, leaders at the top would also do check-ins with everyone. I’ve seen a lot of CEOs that announce some big change and then say, “I’m available if you want to chat, just message me.” But, saying "my door is open" isn’t enough.

Leaders are in a position of power - they should be the ones to pursue the conversations. People won’t voluntarily put themselves at risk. Sometimes, you must pursue them and really hear them for them to open up to you.

Be intentional about integration. Pair teammates across companies. Mix seating charts. Kill the "us vs them" dynamic early. If you let silos form, they calcify fast.

👉️ For the acquiring company, reiterate that you are ONE TEAM - no discrimination against the acquired company. You likely have “people people” on both sides who can help forge these bonds and identify who will like whom. If you’re in a physical office, make sure you’re seating people in a mixed manner versus siloing people into “acquired company” versus “acquiring company” - that just strengthens the divide.

👉️ For the acquired company, it’s important for the trusted leaders on the team to show enthusiasm for joining the main company. Show that there’s a common mission, and show how being a part of this new company will help advance their mission further and get them farther than they could on their own.

Define the new culture before Day 1.

Cultural integration is the hardest. Decide what the new culture will be before acquiring the company and make sure you know how likely an acquired company will adopt this new culture before making the offer.

If you’re hoping to "figure it out as we go," you’re already behind. Know what stays, what goes, and what’s negotiable.

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Lastly, if there are layoffs that must happen as part of the M&A, do them quickly before the integration. Otherwise, you will have teammates (both retained and department) feel burned in the process. Give people soft landings and generous severance.