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.

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.

 …