People need to feel secure to do their best work. Both physical and psychological security are necessary because they impact a person’s sense of wellbeing. People do their best work when they feel stable and when they feel they can trust in the future of the organization and their leadership.

Trust is crucial. When employees trust their leaders, one in two are engaged. When employees don’t find leaders trustworthy, only one in 12 are engaged at work.

In my experience, many leaders are no longer staying in a position longer than two to three years. And if the organization does not have an agreed upon “management system,” that means team members are having to adjust to a new way of being led every two to three years. This created an environment where people cannot thrive.

Instability in leaders causes people to feel unsafe and to not trust in a stable future. Many people have had negative experiences with change in leadership; different leaders come and go and many organizations allow leaders to bring in their “new” way of doing things. Every time there is a change in guard, people must learn the new way, and keep up with their normal daily demands of the job. This creates extra stress and mistrust in the future. Eventually, people just give up and either leave or decide they are going to do things their own way.

Stability is necessary for people to do their best work. During times of change or uncertainty, stability is often shaken and can disrupt your employees’ ability to focus, adapt, and thrive.

Here are three ways to create and maintain stability in your leadership team:

1.   Adopt a management system that is not dependent on people. Each new leader should be on-boarded into the agreed upon business system. This will reduce the feeling of instability when leadership changes.

2.   Communicate honestly. Be transparent and keep your employees informed by checking in regularly with updates on any upcoming changes in leadership.

3.   Ensure stability within your leadership team. Your leadership team should all be rowing in the same direction and supporting each other. While there may always be healthy internal competition, company leaders must share best practices and follow the same business system and approach to improvements.