How Tracy Nolan Led 24,000 People Through the Largest Telecom Merger in US History, During COVID
Tracy Nolan has led people through two of the largest telecom mergers in US history, first Bell Atlantic Mobile into Verizon, then Sprint into T-Mobile, the latter during COVID, with no in-person meetings possible. She joined the Strategy and Leadership Podcast to talk about what actually gets 12,000 to 24,000 people through change that big.
The open bridge call
During the Sprint-T-Mobile merger, Tracy set up a weekly open call for anyone in the company, ten minutes of update, then forty to fifty minutes of open questions, no pre-screened topics. The first call was silent. By the third or fourth week, people were asking real questions, including whether their benefits were changing. Tracy answered what she could, said "I don't know, let me find out" when she couldn't, and treated that honesty as part of building trust rather than a weakness to hide.
Resistance to change is data, not a rejection of you
One employee's question on a call, about a goose that had nested in the parking lot and was getting stressed by passing cars, became one of Tracy's central leadership stories. It wasn't really about the goose. It was a reminder that you don't know what's actually weighing on people during a merger unless you create space for them to tell you, and what's stressing someone out is rarely what you'd guess from the org chart.
"If your name is on the invite, you've earned the right to be there"
Early in her career, as the first woman on a management team, Tracy wasn't invited to the full meeting, only the portion after lunch. The lesson she built from that experience and now teaches other leaders: if you've been invited, you don't have to over-prepare to justify your seat. You've already earned it. That mindset shift, she says, is what lets people actually contribute instead of just occupying space.
Results aren't enough on their own
Tracy calls it "full circle leadership": managing your team well is necessary but not sufficient. She also actively manages relationships with peers, with her own boss (proactively sharing wins rather than waiting to be noticed), and with customers. Leaders who only focus downward on their own team's results, in her experience, often don't get the visibility their work deserves.
Decisiveness beats a perfect blended plan
When Sprint merged into T-Mobile, leadership made a clear call: adopt T-Mobile's processes rather than spend a year negotiating a blended "best of both" approach. It was blunt, but Tracy says it was also the fastest path through the change, because ambiguity is what actually drags transformations out, not decisiveness people don't love.
Want strategic clarity like this in your own organization? Work with SME Strategy on your strategic plan: smestrategy.net/strategic-planning-facilitator
Or connect with Anthony directly on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/anthonyctaylor604
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