Motivating Change-Resistant Employees

intensify as each day goes by. What this means to your business is that you really need the performance of every person in your company to constantly be on the upswing. So you can imagine how important it is that executives, management and supervisors alike take a constructive approach towards change management in order to consistently drive these improvements within your organization.

Now, change is growth, so it is generally a positive circumstance for your company, but nothing kills change like the resistance of the people within the business. How do you overcome employee resistance? Good question. Frankly, it’s pretty difficult to get people on board with change if they really don’t want to embrace it. There is no doubt that change is difficult for many people, and often you will hear employees lament about company transformation with sad reminiscences of ‘the good old days’ – and by that they mean the ‘good ol’ “pre-change” days’. Just listening to these stories brings visions of productivity trickling away like sand through your fingers. No one wants to see that. So leaders within a transforming company need to find ways to effectively manage the change. So how can your company create an effective change strategy that trickles down from top leadership into implementation by management and team leaders? Let’s take a look at a few techniques that have worked for us and our clients:

1. Be upfront with your people. As soon as you know that change is a foot, you need to begin preparing the people in your company. It’s no big secret that one of the best ways to overcome resistance to change is to inform people about the change effort in advance. Let them know what is coming up, how this impacts them, what you want and/or expect from them in relation to the change and the anticipated time frames. Being honest and clear in your communications is the key to setting the stage for successful change and helping your people to feel calm and collected about their situation.