Despite all of the evidence, companies and teams that are merging, still tend to ignore the people side of things. It is more about how the balance sheets line up and where the efficiencies lie than how the cultures align. But surprisingly, mergers and integration tend to fail because of the people practices.

This is about more than just wholesale integration between two companies, this work should be done when integrating functions or teams. Due diligence should include how the people will integrate with one another, how the cultures line up and how to get the most out of your people.

If you are thinking about merging teams or acquiring another organization, here are some things that you should be doing to make the transition smoother:

1. Create a change team that focuses solely on people

2. Examine performance policies and processes

3. Look at benefits and compensations

4. Understand what’s on the table, what the tradeoffs are and what the implications for change are on the impacted parties

5. Give both sides a voice and a vote

6. Work directly with the business leads to align with their strategies

Most of what I have seen in my experience is that processes, technologies and the hard aspects of business are cared for up front. However, is very typical and almost predictable that the people side of the deal will be left to the last minute. Then the inevitable happens, we get the call from the leadership team asking why it is not working. We get call from the new organization struggling to achieve their business strategy in the midst of internal workforce challenges.

Why are people going to back channels? Why are they not just simply following the new protocols? And, why is their enmity between the groups? It is not too late to fix when that call comes, but it is much more difficult and it takes a lot longer. It is of course better to do the hard work of building a cultural integration strategy up front, rather than hope for a snappy HR “people policy fix” at the end of the deal.

Give the people side of the deal the right amount of attention early on and you will see the difference pay off in the short term. Plan for the culture change needed up front. It is not only good for your business, it is also the right thing to do with and for your people.

Tim didn’t have the best NFL arm or accuracy, and it ultimately doomed him. But he did have heart, he had hustle, and he was an undeniable leader. When given the chance to play his game, he led my favorite NFL team, the Denver Broncos, to an 8-8 record and entry into the 2011 NFL post season. It was not always pretty but he found a way to win in every game he played. For me as a die-hard Broncos fan for over 25 years, it was great that he made my team fun to watch again since the great #7, John Elway retired. But the idea of being lucky is better than being good led to the end of his time with the Broncos. He was traded in the off season to the Jets.

Rumor has it that he reported to Jets training camp in 2012, after the trade, in the best shape of his life. He had worked all off season on his throwing mechanics and arm motion. Apparently he was the first into the facilities every morning and the last to leave. He worked hard and according to an ESPN report, he had started to build a group of followers and believers inside the Jets locker room by his work ethic. Despite all of this, and perhaps because of his growing support by other veteran players in the locker room, he was cut from the team before this season even got started.

As someone who sees parallels to talent management everywhere, this is a lesson in life and career. To be fair, his time with the Jets was tumultuous. The organization was not ready for the “Tebowmania” that ensued. And with the drafting last week of quarterback, Geno Smith, the Jets put a stake in the ground and ushered in a new era. And Tim Tebow, a good leader, a hard worker, and by all accounts a good person … was unceremoniously sent packing.

Tebow had what can be called signature strengths … an unyielding work ethic, servant leadership, and tenacity under fire. But, he also had critical weaknesses. Weaknesses that ultimately became his derailer. His throwing mechanics, and his arm strength were just not there. He forced teams to change to fit his strengths, because despite all he did he could not change his weaknesses. The result was a chasm that was too wide for him to overcome. His strengths were not enough for the Jets to overlook his weaknesses. And he finally landed on a team that would not change to meet his strengths. He landed on a team where the media hype could not cover up his playing hype.

I have heard some in our profession say that you need to make your weaknesses competently average. And to do that, you need to really emphasize your strengths. Well, we cannot be great at everything. But we do need to honestly look at our weaknesses and decide which of them could be a potential derailer for us. From there, we should ask ourselves, what can we do to get to a minimum level of proficiency in our deficient areas so that these weaknesses do not impact our career opportunities.

The lesson to this story? Hard work, a great personality, a cult-like following, an unbreakable spirit, and flashes of success are sometimes just not enough. No matter how nice you are as a person, if you cannot do the job, or you force others to change the game so that you can play … you may be cut from the team.

And so today, I am here to ask you, what have you done to support this change? I am talking beyond just supporting the business by talking about the change. I want specifics. I want to know how you’re helping to push our field forward and I want to know what you’re strategy is for moving people through the inevitable change and how you’re helping them cope.

This is not rocket science, but as we know it is not easy either. It requires that you start to think differently about your craft, about your place in the organization and about your ability to do something different. I am not looking for the game changing idea that you have, but I want to know if  you’ve even started to have discussions about how this field will evolve and where it is headed. I want to hear about how those discussions have come together, and how as an organization you have started to lay out plans and look at options.

When Clayton Christenson talks about disruptive change, he talks about our propensity to think change will occur sooner than it truly can and in a much more disruptive fashion than it really will occur. Disruption can take years. I am not here to sound an urgent alarm, but we need to wake up because change s coming. If education can be disrupted, everything is fair game.

Which leads me to my second question. What are your plans for helping people cope with change? It’s happening somewhere this instant in your business, so what have you done to help? Is it a training in isolation? If so, it’s not enough. I love training, it is a great tool, but it is not a panacea for everything that ails your organization. Sending people through a course on how to handle change and then leaving them on their own just will not cut it.

I am not being an alarmist, but it is time you get ready for change. Especially if you want a say in what the change will look like in our field. If you do, it is time you start doing something about it.

I like to think about it like the European Union. If you think aligning the cultures of two organizations is tough, consider how difficult it must be for the French to integrate into a broader cultural exchange. Not to go into a political science lesson here, but the French are simultaneously trying to integrate immigrants into the French culture, maintain the cultural legacy of what it means to be French in the midst of globalization, and adapt to the new social, cultural and political realities brought forth by the European Union. So if you are struggling through a cultural integration at your company, remember it could be a lot more challenging.

There is not a one size fits all remedy for how to bring together two disparate organizational cultures. However, there are a set of tools and practices that when used correctly will help you get through the integration. Most importantly, you need to start the aligning the two cultures during the due diligence process. It is often overlooked, because the focus tends to be on the books, the numbers and the efficiencies, but if you cannot get the people to buy in, then you have a much larger issue at hand.

Running a diagnostic up front allows you to assess the cultural readiness of the organizations and will give you insight into how the employees from both organizations feel about the merger. This is not to say that you use the assessment to prevent the merger from occurring, but it certainly gives you perspective into the areas that you’ll want to address early on in the process.

Forming a steering committee is a good way to start evaluating the two cultures and the practices that are up for debate. Most organizations that we’ve worked with also bring in outside help because it provides a fresh set of eyes to point out various cultural aspects that may go unnoticed by incumbents.

It’s no easy task to bring two cultures together, but with the right preparation and right tools, you’ll see great improvements and ultimately a better pay off in the long haul.

We talked about how she was doing. It was evident in the feedback, that her team was supportive. She started to address all concerns early on and often. She brought issues to the table, aired them out and worked as a team to solve them. She prides herself on never assigning something to her team that she herself wouldn’t do. Things were working, the team started to hum. She talked about the long term state and what the team and work would look like once they got through all of this. They celebrated wins and put to bed old habits. She followed the script for change to the letter. But the one recurring piece of constructive feedback was (the perception of) her lack of visionary leadership. Something was wrong. We talked through the steps and the actions, what she was doing, what was working, what was resonating and I asked her to describe for me the end state. It sounded very reasonable.

But when we dug a little deeper, that is where it stopped. It was reasonable. It made sense, but it didn’t necessarily inspire. She was in a space where she could get her head around the idea. Her team understood the direction and was up to follow, but they did not feel the passion. They were missing the inspirational messaging. Her drive was not what they expected. They knew she was committed. They just did not know how inspired she was to the idea. To me listening in, it felt like the path was dictated to her, out of her control and influence. So she made the most of it, put together a detailed plan and went along for the ride. But she never put the brakes on to find the inspiration to compel her team to new heights.

She had checked all the boxes, but one necessary emotional intelligence component was a glaring omission.

Think globally, it is not just about sports. It could have been a teacher, a friend, a colleague, a boss or a family member as well. What was it about what they said to you that made you think and challenge your assumptions? Good coaches have a special quality about them. They are able to get you to a place where you feel confident enough to take on a challenge or comfortable enough to confront an issue.

If you are thinking about moving your career along, or are thinking about how to coach someone who is ready to jump, keep in mind the following tenets:

Do your homework

Research and network in advance of making a move. Know who the key players are, talk with people in that space and get a sense of what it is really like on that side of things.

Timing is key

When it comes to managing your career, timing is critical. Do not jump too soon, and do not wait too long for the right opportunity to come along. A good coach will help you understand when the timing is right and when you should make the move, and when you should stay put for a little longer.

Lateral moves are good too

Do not just always assume that you have to move up in an organization. Gaining breadth of experience and exposure will help your long-term potential.

Think 2 to 3 moves ahead

Think before you act, what opportunities will this next role set you up for? Be strategic about what roles you take, try and avoid pigeon-holding yourself into what area.

Get on the ground experience

Get as close to the customer as you can, understand how the company operates and do not be afraid to get dirty.

Navigating a career takes effort and a good deal of work, it takes a support system and for many people that means it takes a good coach; someone who can get you to see through any biases that you may have about a particular role or person.

Keep these tenets in mind as you think about how to coach your employees through critical career transitions.

And then there are the days that you are so consumed by your work that you forget to grab lunch. Your conversations are short, hurried and brief.  You do not even have time to check the web. You rush, your frantic, but you are delivering. You are really pounding it out. Only problem is, no one notices. You are still hidden in plain sight. Only thing people see is you in distress. Each interaction that you had was so frantic, you have pushed people away. And maybe they are talking, and if so, it is not in a good way.

If this sounds like you, ask yourself how do people know about the work that you do? I know in most organizations they measure success based on metrics, and results. But what are you doing to show your true value to the organization if what you do goes unnoticed? This is the paradox of being stuck in the middle. Sometimes, the harder you work, the deeper you dig and the more invisible you come.

I am not suggesting that you stop working and you loaf about and pound on your chest all day long. I am saying that you need to find a balance. You need to make sure your value is evident throughout. You need to own what you do well and make sure people know it, but be confident, not arrogant.

If you want to move in your career, and get unstuck, think about who sees you, what they see and go do something about it. Take the time to walk the floors. Check in frequently, albeit briefly, with your people. Share the learnings that you strike upon. Share the successes and the war stories. Learn to lead and guide others.

Oh, and its not 1992 anymore, staying late in the office for appearance sake went away with MC Hammer pants.

In every organization, there is the formal and the informal network. And within each of those, there are nexuses of power dynamics that arise. In the traditional and more formal organizational structure, you have command and control. People gain power based on title and place. In the informal organizational structure, the network, people gain power through information and connections.

What Kotter does that is interesting, is he names this distinction, and he challenges companies to accept the distinction and to embrace it. The article talks about creating a dual structure where the network is uninhibited by the formalities of the hierarchies bureaucracy and command and control structures.

The challenge for most companies is that people are resistant to change, and creating an informal network that focuses on strategy and is not controlled by a formal hierarchy is ripe for resistance. The irony is, it is already in place … you just have not named it.  And more importantly, you have not sanctioned it. It operates like a favela in Rio. You know it is there, it is impossible to miss, but because the law hasn’t sanctioned them, they operate under a veil of secrecy.

But here is the catch; they are organized. They have structures and rules, they have guiding coalitions that are responsible for the upkeep and in that way they gain legitimacy. So the question is, what is taking you so long? Why not name it, sanctioned it and use the informal network to inspire and engage your people?

Maybe you just have not paid much attention to its existence. Maybe you know it is there, but you refuse to believe in its inherent value. Whatever the case, it is time you embraced it. If you are unsure of what it looks like. Ask people in your organization how they get work done. Do they go through the formal hierarchy, or do they work around people? My bet is they move around the hierarchy to get work done.

Are you sending out notes to people telling them that they have to notify the formal leadership team before talking above their station? If so, it is right there in front of you. You cannot stop it, so name it, sanction it and use it.

Remember the old adage … if you cannot beat them, join them!

What I realized was an exaggerated sense of self on the part of my boss and an exaggerated sense of their importance on my part. It is not like they did not have allies or were not in a high powered role, but they thought they suffered from over-confidence. Their tentacles had limited reach. They did not extend beyond their fiefdom. Their peers knew they were like this. They wouldn’t do anything openly to provoke a reaction, but they would work tirelessly behind the scenes to get what they wanted.

On one occasion, I remember my colleagues sending me warning signals. Do not make the move or s/he will chew you up. But the job was so bad that I could not stand it anymore. The two-up boss at the time was fierce, an emerging star in the organization, and all of us thought s/he had influence. I could not take being stuck in the middle. So I took a chance. I went for it, applied for a new role, kept it hush until I got the job. The worst was yet to come. I was pulled into an office and berated for a 20 minutes. I mean, red-in-the face type yelling. I was young, I sat there. I took it. But I never forgot it.

I settled nicely into the new role. I was never stung by the tentacles, but did have to work with that boss on multiple occasions. The tone of those meetings changed as I progressed in my career and s/he started getting moved around. A line was crossed. Their boss noticed. S/he was exiled and pushed into a dead-end career path. I have moved on since. Last I heard, s/he was looking elsewhere, even came to me for a job once. You can imagine what I did. While I was not vindictive, I did nothing. Literally nothing, I sat on it. I think s/he got the message.

Moral of the story: don’t be afraid to get stung, but do be mindful of who you sting.

And, I do not mean because you do not like them personally or you had some falling out with, what I am instead talking about is that they stonewall initiatives. They are roadblocks to getting work done and/or they refuse to offer any help when it comes down to getting things done. They would rather pull out the job description and tell you that they are really sorry that they cannot help but, unfortunately, it is not in their job description.

Do this enough times and I am sure you will start to dislike them personally or will have a falling out with them. But what’s most likely is that you will learn to work around them.

Working around people is a clear sign of a dysfunctional team. It is an indication that you have an informal network in play. Which, in and of itself, is not bad whatsoever, but in this type of situation, it is clearly the result of negative behaviors. When it becomes commonplace for people on your team to say, it is easier to do it myself than it is to work with that person, you clearly have some coaching to do.

Hopefully it is not you as the leader that they are working around. Because if it is you, then you are leading your team in title only … as the members have quietly gone rogue. If you start to see patterns where people would rather beg for forgiveness than ask for permission when working with you, take it as a clear sign, they are not buying what you are selling. That they do not trust in what you are asking them to do, or is it that they do not see it as a viable solution to the problem at hand.

This, is office politics. It happens every day, in every company. The question that you need to ask yourself as a leader, is whether or not you are in the way of getting work done? Are you the reason that the politics are being played? Are you the reason that there are dysfunctional teams running around the building?

It is time to get introspective and start asking yourself the harder leadership questions. Are you seen as the solution? Or, are you the problem?

If you are feeling stuck in the middle, it is quite possible that you are getting worked around as a leader.

So now the question to you is … what are you going to do about it?