Leadership Changes Are Like Moving Day
How employees can navigate the messy leftovers when a new leader takes charge.
Leaders in transition are counseled on how to sort and prioritize what stays and what goes. But for employees, that decision isn’t hypothetical—you’re the ones who live with the leftovers.
Your role quietly shifts
You are no longer “the resident”—the new person is. You know this place. You are the expert on the squeaky floorboard and the jammed window. You can spot the difference between the fixtures that were original and the ones clumsily installed in a later era.
Your challenge—and your opportunity—is to help the new leader sort out the load-bearing walls from the non-structural partitions they can safely demolish.
1. Be a House Historian
The new leader looks at something and sees inefficiency, or antiquated design, or an eyesore. They want to change it. Or worse, rip it out completely.
You, though, have historical perspective. You know the story of why this system (or process, or weekly report) exists. You remember when the old one literally exploded during the busiest quarter. Ugly? Yes. But reliable.
Offer your new boss some context they don’t have. You’re not being defensive, you’re being instructive. Which makes you a strategic partner, not an obstacle.
2. Help Sort the Furniture
Some decisions are easy: this is going, this is staying, and this just needs a new coat of paint. But others are more nuanced, and that’s where you can add value.
Resist the knee-jerk “we’ve always done it this way” and try this instead:
“The weekly report is the old sofa in the corner—dated, yes, but the data is genuinely useful for the sales and marketing teams. Let’s redesign it instead of eliminating it?”
You show you care about both form and function.
3. Know the Difference Between Structural Changes and a Fresh Coat of Paint
In any transition, some changes are superficial, others are not. The new company slogan. The all-hands meeting that’s suddenly a “town hall.” The mandatory slide template.
Irritating? You bet. But that’s how a new leader flags their territory—how they make the place their own.
Don’t expend energy arguing over wall color. Save your bandwidth for the big things: the habits, policies, and cultural norms that actually shape how work gets done.
Transitions are lived-in renovations
Transitions are not clean moves. They’re lived-in renovations.
And for employees, the goal is not to scrub away the marks left by the previous occupant. It’s to help the new one unpack, to direct them to the fuse box, and to make thoughtful choices about which pieces of the past belong—and which new pieces you’ll build together in the home you all inhabit.
If you’ve been through a leadership transition, what “leftovers” did you inherit—and how did you handle them? Share your story in the comments.
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