5 Strategies For Working With Leaders Who Don't Want To Change

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Leadership is changing.

This is the consensus from the over 140 CEOs I interviewed for my book, The Future Leader.

Change is hard, in fact it goes against our very human nature! Nobody wants to be changed.

Don't believe me?

Then why do babies cry whenever you change them?

There are 5 strategies you can use when working with a leader who refuses to change.

If you prefer, you can watch the video I did below and make sure to subscribe to my Youtube channel for my content. 

Understand their objection

Saying, "my leader won't change" isn't an excuse. You need to go one level deeper to understand what the issue is. WHY doesn't the leader want to change?

Maybe they don't feel safe to try something new, perhaps they are too focused on being liked by everyone, maybe they are open to change but just don't know how. Whatever it is, you have to understand the objection so that you know how to talk about it and address it.

I once gave a talk to the executive team at a large oil company on the skills & mindsets from my new book, The Future Leader. After my session one of the executives came to me and said "those are nice ideas but they won't work on my team."

"Why not?" I asked, "because we don't have the time to do this stuff," he said.

I countered with, "how long do you think this will take?" "A few hours a day at least, he said."

Finally, I responded with "can you give me just 20-30 mins a day of leadership training, my goal is to get you and your team to improve by just 1% a day." He hesitated for a minute, and then agreed, and more importantly, everyone else on the leadership team made the same commitment.

Long-story short, I understood his objection and removed it. There is always a WHY behind the objection, find it, and address it.

Honor the past

You must respect and acknowledge where leaders have come from and what they have accomplished. This is something I learned from Frances Frei, the former SVP of Leadership at Uber.

Imagine you spent years of your life doing something a certain way and then someone comes along and says, "Hey, all that stuff you did in the past, it's garbage, here's the new stuff you gotta do." OF COURSE, you are going to fight back on this.

Instead, you need to come at it from, "I acknowledge and respect the successes you have had in your leadership career, let's build on those together so that you can be just as successful in the new world of work."

Honoring the past means occasionally referencing and acknowledging it, just like you would with a dearly departed ancestor or family member.

Propose solutions

Years ago I had someone on my team who was quick to point out all the things that I needed to change or do better.

They liked to critique me and my other team members but they never actually proposed solutions for what can be done to improve. That person is no longer working with us.

It's easy to point out that change needs to happen, anyone can do that. But not everyone can help propose solutions for how to make change happen.

For example, don’t just tell your leader that your company needs to focus more on innovation. Instead, say. "I have some ideas I’d like to test out, can I have an hour each day to work on something that I can then present to you in 2 weeks?"

Don't complain and say "our corporate culture is terrible." Instead say, "I don't think our culture does a good job of putting people first, how about we try putting in some 'people-metrics' like diversity and inclusion so that we can look at how well our people are doing as well as how well our company is doing financially.'"

You get the idea...solutions.

Speak their language

Why should a leader change? Will it help with team productivity? Will it boost morale or satisfaction? Will it allow the leader to attract and retain top talent? Will it drive innovation? Understand what the leader cares about and position the change in that context.

For example, before this pandemic started flexible work was a huge issue of contention. Instead of telling a leader, "I want to work from home two days a week" try saying, "if you let me work from home two days a week it will really improve my productivity, engagement levels, and ability to be a better contributor, can we test it out for a few weeks and see how it goes?"

You have to position change in the language the leader will understand and appreciate.

When all else fails

If you have done all of the above and the leader you work with is still stuck in the 80's and 90's world of "management" then you have a few last-ditch options.

1. Do nothing and continue to suffer (not recommended).
2. Keep working on your leader to get them to change.
3. Move to another team.
4. Quit!

Ya, I said it, quit. Get the heck out of there. Life is too short to work for a leader who doesn't care about you or embrace new ways of working.

This also means that if you're a leader who doesn't change, then people should QUIT working for you too.

But you're not the type of leader to resist change are you? Nope. You're the type of leader who embraces change, welcomes it even. You understand that what worked in the past won't work in the future and that we are all a part of a new world of work.

Leadership is changing. What are the skills and mindsets you need to master in order to lead in the new world of work? According to over 140 of the world's top CEOs there are 4 mindsets and 5 skills that leaders need to master. Learn what they are and hear directly from these leaders by downloading the PDF below.

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If you enjoyed the article and want more content like this here’s what you can do:

1. Subscribe to The Future of Work Podcast where I interview business leaders around the world each week. 

2. Grab a copy of The Future Leader which has been endorsed by the CEOs of MasterCard, Best Buy, Oracle, Audi, Unilever, Domino’s Pizza, Ritz Carlton, Kaiser, and Marshall Goldsmith. It explores the most essential skills and mindsets for future leaders.

3. If you are or want to be an entrepreneur then my wife and I just launched a brand new podcast on how to Be Your Own Boss, called the BYOB Podcast where we share what we did and how we did it. You can subscribe to that here.