How to Lead Your Team After Layoffs

Speak to the team within a day, even if you have little to add

Silence after layoffs fills up with rumour. Bring the team together, in person if you can, as soon as the announcements have been made. Acknowledge that this is hard, name the colleagues who have left with respect, and share what you are allowed to share about the reasons.

A simple opening works: 'This is a difficult day. We've lost colleagues who mattered to this team, and I know many of you have questions and worries. I'll tell you what I know, what I don't, and what happens next.'

Be honest about uncertainty. If you do not know whether more cuts are coming, do not promise there will be none. People cope far better with 'I don't know, and I will tell you as soon as I do' than with reassurance that later proves false.

Read what the people who stayed are feeling

Reactions after redundancies are often indirect. The behaviour you see is a clue to what sits underneath it, and each calls for a slightly different response.

Reset the workload before you ask for anything new

1. 01

   List everything the departed colleagues did

   Include the informal work: the supplier relationships, the report nobody asked for but everyone read, the person who knew how the old system worked. Gaps in informal work cause the most surprises later.

2. 02

   Decide what stops

   Not everything can continue. Agree with your own manager which work will be dropped, delayed or done less often. Saying no on the team's behalf is one of the strongest trust signals you can send.

3. 03

   Redistribute in the open

   Share out the remaining work in a team discussion, not by quietly adding tasks to your most reliable people. Check capacity and skills as you go.

4. 04

   Review in four weeks

   Workload plans rarely survive contact with reality. Book a review now and adjust when it comes.

Rebuild trust through consistency, not speeches

After layoffs, people watch what leaders do more closely than what they say. Keep your regular one-to-ones, follow through on small commitments and stay visible. If you avoid the team because the conversations are uncomfortable, they will read it as guilt or indifference.

Let people talk about the colleagues who left. Gulf teams are often close, with relationships that extend beyond the office, and acting as if departed colleagues never existed feels cold. For expatriate staff, losing a job can also affect residency, which makes the loss feel heavier for everyone who watched it happen. Acknowledge that reality with compassion.

For habits that rebuild trust over the longer term, see the guide on how to build trust in a team.

Look after your own state as the leader

Leaders who deliver or carry layoff decisions often feel guilt, anger or exhaustion that they do not show. Find somewhere to put those feelings that is not your team: a peer, a mentor or a coach. Your team needs you steady, not perfect.

If the stress starts affecting your sleep, health or mood for weeks at a time, speak to a doctor or a licensed mental health professional. Coaching is not therapy or medical treatment. It works with how you think, decide and lead under pressure, and it can sit alongside professional support. The same applies to your team: point anyone who is struggling towards your employee assistance service or appropriate professional help.

Mistakes leaders make in the weeks after redundancies

• ✦Rushing to move on. Declaring a fresh start the week after layoffs feels dismissive to people still absorbing the loss.
• ✦Forced positivity. 'This makes us leaner and stronger' lands badly with people who have just lost friends.
• ✦Criticising the decision in front of the team. You can say it was hard without undermining the organisation. Open criticism leaves people more anxious, not less.
• ✦Overlooking quiet high performers. Your strongest people have the most options. Talk to them early about their future.
• ✦Promising stability you cannot control. 'There will be no more cuts' is the fastest way to lose trust if you turn out to be wrong.

Example: a regional sales head after a restructure

Imagine a regional head of sales at an FMCG company in Dubai whose team has gone from fourteen people to nine after a restructure. In her first meeting she names each departed colleague, thanks them for their contribution and tells the team she does not yet know the full plan for the region.

Over the next fortnight she holds a one-to-one with each person, agrees with her director that two low-value reports will stop, and redistributes key accounts in an open team session. She also says plainly that targets will be reviewed. Trust does not return overnight, but the team sees a leader who is present and honest. This scenario is hypothetical and illustrative, not drawn from a client.

How coaching supports leaders through restructures

Leading after layoffs asks you to hold your team's emotions, your own and the organisation's expectations at the same time. Coaching gives you a confidential space to process the experience and plan your next conversations before you have them.

Change leadership coaching focuses on exactly this: leading people through change you did not choose. If the wider organisation is still in flux, the guide on how to lead through uncertainty complements this one.