Navigating Business Change with Confidence: Preparing your People for Investment
By Katie Selves
Investment Brings Change. Are Your People Ready?
When a business prepares for investment, the focus often falls on financials, legal documents, and pitch decks. But there’s another critical dimension that’s often overlooked: your people.
Investment brings change. New stakeholders, new expectations, and often a new pace of growth. For your team, this can be energising - or unsettling. How you lead through this moment will shape morale, retention, and performance post-investment and, ultimately, your ability to deliver return on investment for your stakeholders.
In my experience, communication underpins the success of any business change, yet so often it is deprioritised as the leadership team focus on the transaction process. Here’s my take on the key steps for preparing your people for what’s ahead:
Start with the ‘Why’
People want to understand the purpose behind investment. Is it to expand into new markets? Launch a new product? Strengthen your team? A clear, compelling narrative helps employees connect their work to the company’s future and reduces uncertainty. I’ve seen businesses decimated by post-investment attrition driven by employees who stayed to take advantage of the cash incentive offered at completion of a transaction, but who had no ‘buy-in’ to the next stage of the company’s growth due to poor communication.
To put it more bluntly, financial incentives only buy short-term loyalty – make sure you communicate the ‘why’ of the ongoing story and how your people will benefit from being a part of it.
Be Transparent About the Timeline
While you may not be able to share every detail, offering a high-level view of the process - what’s happening now, what’s coming next, and when decisions will be made - helps people feel included and informed. Silence or vagueness can lead to speculation and anxiety.
Often the CEO and CFO will be so knee-deep in the transaction process, it’s easy to forget the BAU. Ensuring transparency about the process and timeline, and when key leadership will have other priorities relating to the transaction, helps employees understand, and be more forgiving, of a temporarily distracted leadership team.
Explain What It Means for Them
Often investment can bring changes to the culture and operating model of the business, and this may result in changes to employment terms, reporting lines, and incentive structures. Be proactive in explaining:
Any potential changes to employment contracts, such as updated notice periods or restrictive covenants, which may be required by investors to protect their investment.
The impact of the transaction on legacy incentives, such as new shareholder restrictive covenants as a condition to vesting of share options on completion.
New share incentive schemes, which could offer employees the opportunity to invest in the business and benefit from its growth.
Shifts in leadership or governance, including the introduction of a formal board or new executive roles, or more formalised compliance processes.
These aren’t just operational changes - they’re cultural ones. They affect how people feel about their role, their future, and their place in the business.
Equip Your Leaders to Lead Through Change
Your leadership team will be the first point of contact for most employees. Make sure they’re aligned, informed, and equipped to answer questions with empathy and consistency. Change communication isn’t a one-off announcement—it’s an ongoing conversation.
Your leadership team plays a pivotal role in how investment-related change is experienced across the business. They are the bridge between strategic decisions and day-to-day operations. Their ability to lead with clarity, empathy, and consistency will directly influence how well your people adapt to the transition.
Start by ensuring your leaders are fully informed. They should understand not only the mechanics of the investment process but also the rationale behind it, the expected outcomes, and the potential implications for their teams. When leaders are aligned and confident, they can communicate with authority and authenticity - two qualities that are essential during periods of uncertainty.
It’s also important to equip leaders with the tools and language to manage sensitive conversations. Investment often brings questions about job security, evolving roles, and future direction. Leaders should be prepared to address these concerns openly, without speculation or defensiveness. Providing talking points, FAQs, and access to legal or HR support can help them navigate these discussions with professionalism and care.
Finally, consider creating space for leadership reflection and peer support. Investment can be a demanding process, and leaders may need time to process their own reactions, recalibrate priorities, and share insights with one another. Whether through facilitated sessions, informal check-ins, or strategic planning workshops, investing in your leadership team’s resilience is an essential part of the investment process.
Don’t Lose Sight of What Comes Next
In the intensity of preparing for investment, it’s easy for leadership teams to become consumed by the process itself - pitching, negotiating, and navigating due diligence. But once the deal is done, your people will be looking for direction. Employees need to have confidence not just in the fact that investment has been secured, but in what it’s for. If the post-investment strategy feels vague or underdeveloped, it can lead to confusion, disengagement, or even a loss of trust in leadership if the perception from staff is that investment was pursued “at all costs,” without a clear plan for sustainable growth.
That’s why it’s essential to communicate not only the why behind the raise, but also the what next - how the business will evolve, what priorities will shift, and how success will be measured. A well-articulated post-investment strategy helps employees feel grounded, valued, and motivated to contribute to the next phase of the journey.
Final Thought
Preparing for investment is as much about people as it is about paperwork. While legal and financial readiness are essential, the long-term success of any investment also depends on how well you lead your team through the change.
Leaders must be equipped not only to communicate the process, but to guide their teams with empathy, consistency, and confidence. At the same time, employees need to see that the investment is part of a well-considered strategy, not an end in itself.
Investment is a leadership moment - one that calls for clarity, connection, and a shared sense of purpose.
I help businesses navigate pivotal moments with clarity, confidence, and care. If you’re planning an investment round and want to ensure your leadership team and wider business are truly ready for the change it brings, get in touch to start the conversation about how I can help your team prepare for what’s next.
This article is for general information purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Specific legal or strategic advice should be sought separately and tailored to the particular circumstances of your business. If you would like to discuss how these issues apply to your organisation, please get in touch.
