When You Have to Shrink What You Spent Years Building
- Priya Venkatesan
- 15 minutes ago
- 2 min read
You built the function, the department and the scope. You expanded the mandate, hired the team and executed to perfection. Now you're being asked to downsize.
The business shifted and lead to priority change. Budgets tightened. New leadership took over.
And you're the one holding the scissors.
Every business follows an S curve. Ramp up, Peak & Ramp down.
We celebrate the ramp up. We measure ourselves by how much we grew, how many people we hired, how big our scope became till we are hit with the ramp down.
A leader I coached, had tripled his team in 2 years. He was asked to reduce it to a number the business deemed optimum.
I feel like I'm undoing everything I built.
As we processed through the change of shrinking what he built, he became aware of how un-solicited and all encompassing the change itself was. The helplessness that he experienced was coming in the way of banking on his business acumen - all business cycles are Sin curves. What comes up goes down and vice versa.
When you have to shrink what you spent years building, what helps in acknowledging and accepting the reality are:
Honour what you built
A change does not negate the impact of what was already built. Take pride in your team's accomplishment. Acknowledge everyone's contribution.
De-tag identity from size
The more we become what we build, the tougher it becomes to detach from it. 'Creation' does not define the 'creator'. The 'creator' defines the 'creation'. So keep a space between who you are and what you build in such a way that the size of what you build does not determine who you are.
Focus on creating your next vision
Tomorrow is another day, another vision, another creation. Create space for the new. Transitions are not future end states.
Careers are long. Business cycles are short.
You will build. You will shrink. You will build again.
There is no constant.
What stays is the impact you create in every moment.
Reflections for leader of leaders:
What would stay true about your leadership if your team was half the size?
What did you build that will outlast the org chart?
What will your best people remember about working with you?