Nobody likes change. I know if you do anything that changes my routine in the morning, my whole day is whacked. We all hate change. Heck, most of us hate getting change at the grocery store because of all those coins.
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As a leader, though, your job is to get others to want to change.
Getting other leaders to be open to change is hard. You have to help them understand what’s in it for them because, invariably, you’re changing something in their very comfortable lives. They’re not going to like you when you do that. They’re going to resist and find every reason to point out that your conclusions and recommendations for change are wrong.
If you want change to happen, you have to help others understand that change is in their best interest. Show them you’re trying to drive metrics they care about. (I’ll dive into an example here in a minute.) Help them understand that they stand to benefit from the changes you’re recommending.
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Comments
Most resistance comes from fear of losing what’s already working
The call center example reminded me of a situation I faced on the home maintenance side. When we worked on upgrading our gutter system, there was pushback because the existing setup “wasn’t broken.” But the truth was, it was only not broken in the short term. Over time, it was quietly causing damage to the fascia and foundation, issues that only showed up later and cost more to fix. Once I showed how investing in a better design would prevent expensive repairs down the line, people started seeing the value.
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