Most of the candidates are managers who are accustomed to dealing with stability by arranging resources, putting staffs together, working the money flow and supervising tasks. But strong leaders are required during transition when people and cultures merge. They are expert at building teams, creating an environment of engagement, and reinforcing the behaviors of cross-functional collaboration. The need for thoughtful leadership is greatest during a merger, so the chances for acceptance and success should be good.

At Szemsted Industries, where the sales reps do knowledge work, the first hint of a coming merger would have provided a perfect opportunity to have begun training sales executives, and particularly their supervisors, in the leadership skills of collaboration and internal communications.

Those are the human strengths that clearly would have been needed most when it came time to unify the selling forces, eliminate internal confusion, demonstrate the values of collaboration, provide early results to build upon, and create new opportunities in sales.