The People Who Stayed: Leading After a Restructure
If your retention numbers look fine since the restructure, that might not be the reassurance it seems like.
Keeping someone's job and keeping their engagement are two different things, and most organisations only measure the first one. I recently wrote about a pattern I see constantly in coaching, and it clearly struck a chord for a lot of people who read it. Maybe you're seeing it in your team right now, or maybe you've felt it yourself.
People who kept their jobs through a difficult round of change, but stopped bringing what they used to bring to it. It isn't a performance problem, and it isn't someone about to resign. It's smaller than that, and harder to name.
"Loyalty doesn't disappear all at once. It erodes quietly, one missed moment at a time."
What It Looks Like
A few signals worth watching for, in yourself or your team, that don't show up in an engagement survey. The person who used to raise their hand for the hard, high-visibility project starts doing exactly what's assigned instead, nothing more, or the one who used to push back in meetings starts going along with things they've questioned a year ago. And somewhere in there, people stop asking what's next for them, because they've stopped expecting an answer.
None of this looks like a problem from the outside. That's exactly why it doesn't get addressed.
Why Leaders Look Away
Honestly, I don't think leaders always miss this. I think they look away from it. Noticing means facing whether the restructure was actually done well, and that's uncomfortable to sit with, especially when the decision made sense on paper.
Maybe it's not just one person on your team, maybe it's a few. But the point is that you've noticed. If you care about people on your team actually speaking up and thriving, it's worth going back to what made them stop in the first place.
What Actually Helps
What helps starts with a genuine, open question, not a script, an actual one. Something like, "I've noticed you're a lot more quiet in meetings lately. Is there anything you'd like to discuss?"
Before you ask, it's worth asking yourself first what you think the answer might be. Then ask them for real, and see what it opens up. Often, the person pulling back hasn't fully noticed they're doing it themselves, so give them room to get there rather than expecting a clean answer straight away.
The words matter less than the energy you bring into the conversation. Go in defensive, and they'll feel it, and they won't open up. Go in curious, genuinely wanting to understand and actually improve things, and that comes through too.
Reflect on This
Who on my team has changed how they show up since our last big change, and what have I actually noticed, not assumed?
Am I measuring whether people are still here, or whether they're still fully here? What's the gap between those two telling me?
What do I imagine my quietest team member would say if I asked them an honest question this week, and what am I afraid they'd say instead?
Ready to Go Deeper?
Your next step is within reach
Before you have that conversation with your team, there might be one worth having first, with me, not about them, about you. What are you actually curious to find out? What are you holding onto that might get in the way of asking with real openness?
Sometimes the most useful thing isn't a script for the harder conversation. It's sorting out your own readiness before you walk into it.
If that's useful, reply to this email or send me a message, and we can talk it through.
With you,
