Change is one of the natural flows of life that occurs often, even when we. Start by bringing it to their attention in a non-confrontational way. Resistance to Change: How to Overcome Employee Pushback It may also signal to others what effective behavior looks like, and it indicates that managers are paying attention to the performance of the team. ET. Everybodys worked with a difficult employee or coworker before, whether its a passive-aggressive colleague, an explosive boss, or a unresponsive direct report. In situations where you expect a lot of resistance but must make a change quickly, this strategy may be the only option. Know your people. This worked for the functional leader, who, with a much smaller team of fellow experts to manage, ran into fewer obstacles and generated less unhappiness among his subordinates and superiors. 1. There may well be a hidden reason behind their failure to deliver andlack of motivation. Learn how to make the feedback you give even more effective so that others can benefit from your message. Dont sandwich negative feedback between positive reinforcement. Knowing what your next steps are is pivotal towards building resilience towards change. 2. Give your current employees the cure: open and honest performance and development feedback. If youre unable to embrace our teams values and behaviors, that might be the best option for you. As a leader, you wont judge their choice, but you cant budge on the core values your team and organization rely onincluding, and especially, during times of change. How to Manage Change - SHRM Giving negative feedback or firing someone is never easy. Create a safe space in which your colleague can express their opinions. Lets work together to transition you out of the team as quickly and smoothly as possible.. Accelerate your career with Harvard ManageMentor. Employees fear losing relationships, activities, and even their jobs. When some just want to be aggressive, we explain, You dont have to change, but there are downsides to this kind of aggressive behavior.. A guide to dealing with resistant employees - Fast Company Develop a plan establishing objectives, a timeframe, and regular progress evaluations. 5. Frontiers | The Psychology of Resistance to Change: The Antidotal You should get to the bottom of the cause of their behavior before taking drastic action. Dealing with difficult employees can be a headache. Other people might see one change as a sign that more changes are coming, which they could perceive as a threat. These bonds play a big role in an employee's job satisfaction and also in your retention rates. And that hurts everyone. The goal was simple. Get your colleague to lower their defenses. Leaders who get lazy in their handouts of development and performance feedback create an entire generation of resistant employees for the future who fall into one of three categories: Tenured employees whose skills are not up to date created by leaders who do not give each of their employees new and great challenges in their work assignments (raising the bar or expectations each and every year in performance expectations and goals) or who let up on their insistence on continuous learning and development from the employee. First, figure out what is driving their negative behavior. So, what can you do about it? Why invest in team-building and collaboration? Save this strategy for situations when transformation needs to happen quickly and inexpensively, and other methods wont work. The change management team needs to anticipate pushback from people who are inconvenienced by the change, then create a robust transition plan for those who are leaving positions or occupying new ones. In addition to his work with Apty, Nathan runs his own consulting company, Innate Digital, helping companies develop content and get the most out of their marketing tech stack. Firstly, when communicating the change in time to all employees, they have time to process the change and . , we found that these 5 behaviors are most common: Subscribe to our eNewsletters to get the latest on cutting-edge, leadership insights & research. Resistance to change is natural and should be expected. Build a better team and achieve more of what matters. Third, expose those who fall into the neutral category to the passive and active support categories. Keep it short, and let the employee respond. By incorporating these seven best practices into their change management plans, leaders can help the transition happen more smoothly and quell any concerns. Whether it is adapting to modern technology or overcoming resistance to change due to the COVID-19 pandemic, companies must leverage different strategies. Access more than 40 courses trusted by Fortune 500 companies. Use active listening to make sure you understand what theyre saying. It's important for people to see the leaders' logic and hear the rationale, even if they don't agree with it. If they believe they lack control or that their input doesnt matter, theyre more likely to show resistance to change. Transform your enterprise with the scalable mindsets, skills, & behavior change that drive performance. Then he helped the managers better understand their employees concerns to work towards positive change and improve functionality. Then how was their irrelevance and resistance created? They can also work to combat resistance by using these six strategies: 1. A former journalist and product manager, Nathan is a proud tech geek who blogs about digital transformation, employee productivity, and enterprise software. Finally, well review some best practices to ensure your organizational change is successful. Our model lays out the five factors - realization ( R ), incentive ( I ), pressure ( P ), expectation ( E) and natural inclination ( N) - that determines how open a person is to changing their. Even as you hear each other out, you cant budge. The following are some effective ways to minimize employee change resistance. An unwillingness to take responsibility for their actions and instead blame others also ranked highly as a common negative attribute, regardless of the exact form the behavior took. Tech. And, although the pandemic has been a once-in-a-century disruption to business, navigating this challenge should be no different than managing any other kind of organizational change with professional and personal implications. Maintain your body language and a neutral tone. Assume good intentions if at all possible. Javitch says questionnaires like these often reveal hidden workplace challenges quickly and easily. In the world of functional medicine and therapy, the research of the last 10 years manifested the advanced chemical and material tools as the game-changers of the field. To better understand what youre up against, we studied the scope of the issue by surveying more than 200 global leaders about problem employees. Listen to your employees side of the story without prejudice. Thus, they get comfortable with the status quo. A good employee relations process is essential to engaging and retaining employees. Fourth, emphasize the benefits of the change to mobilize passive supporters. When he behaved in ways that were counter to norms around work/life balance and demonstrating respect for individual differences, he was chastised and counseled multiple times by a colleague from HR, but he assumed that his financial performance would protect him. Then, give them specific examples of their negative behavior to help them understand the problem. Remember that not all difficult employees intend to be difficult. Here are a few strategies to help get your employees on board: If youre dealing with a difficult employee, following these steps can help you resolve the situation. Model the values and company culture that you wish to see in your colleagues. The primary drawback of this strategy is that you could have too many cooks in the kitchen and experience a drawn-out change process. But despite their prevalence, many leaders feel unwilling or unable to deal with them effectively. 1 question I hear from managers and leaders is, "How do I deal with resistant employees?" The answer is actually contained in the question: You "deal" with them, as in actually . In this guide, well provide an overview of the best approaches for dealing with resistance to change. Present the facts, state the case or better yet have their peers do so and let them make up their own minds. What does a difficult employee look like? You might be able to adjust their job responsibilities to leverage their strengths. Ironically, teams succeed because they are exceedingly human.. 4 Reasons Why Employees Resist Change Strategies for Minimizing Employee Resistance to Change Strategies for Dealing With Resistance to Change Selecting a Strategy for Overcoming Resistance to Change Best Practice for Dealing With Resistance to Change Key Takeaways for Dealing With Resistance to Change Why People Resist Change Alternatively, they may lack the specific skills required to perform their tasks. Ultimately, the health care corporations large size hindered communication among team members, explains Javitch. Second, talk to active and passive resistors to identify the nature of their objections. Showing appreciation for an employees knowledge and overlooking for a time their delivery can help build a positive connection you can then expand on. Use the right technology. What do you do as a leader if one of your employees doesn't want to accept the new technology? Vladimir Putin's latest appearance since the Wagner armed mutiny involved a girl, a bunch of flowers and his finance minister. To get the best from them, try three tactics. Ukraine keeps making gains south of Bakhmut while facing stiff resistance to the north of the embattled eastern city, according to Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar. The effect of these difficult employees and others like them is clear. Change management is not just a tool for managing resistance reactively. Some of the hardest employees to manage are people who are consistently oppositional. Create a favorable environment for feedback. Summary. First, if the HR team is aware of the problem, they can implement company policy for dealing with such situations. As a leader, knowing how to distinguish between the two will help you address the problem effectively. Deutsch | You are bound to have a hard time ensuring that everything is on track at all times. A brief overview of what the employee lifecycle is, its stages, and why its important. The longest-running leadership development program of its kind in the world, available in person or live online. Leaders report issues with employees who resist change, or who may even refuse a change altogether. Where, oh where has my willing employee gone? Managers need to quickly clear up any misconceptions so that resistance does not build and deepen across an organization. 1. UK | That isnt a matter of throwing empathy to the windits just about recognizing that their observable, tangible, measurable behaviors are more relevant. Does the employee undermine me by doing their work differently than agreed? How to overcome resistance to change. Rather than providing behavioral coaching on their negative or inappropriate communication, at least initially, it can be more effective to focus on the quality of their knowledge or output, and only work on stylistic problems once the employee feels more familiar with the changes and expectations. Have a plan to allow for negotiations and natural transitions out of the organization or into a new position within the organization. Predict the employee behavior and natural resistance that might occur. Give them the language and framing to be comfortable in their position. 2. 9 Interview Questions About Managing Change (With Answers) They say, But weve always done it this way. hbspt.cta._relativeUrls=true;hbspt.cta.load(9253440, '18bbac98-d8f0-4f4f-a151-74e23b6c5002', {"useNewLoader":"true","region":"na1"}); When an employee undermines your authority, it disrupts employee morale and productivity. Unlock unlimited access to our world-class, research-based leadership development content and solutions. All Rights Reserved. How to Deal With Difficult Employees | CCL Involve executive leadership. Have an estimated timeline on how your company or how the team will adapt to change. Build leaders that accelerate team performance and engagement. DE | Once you have established your employees action plan, the next step is to monitor their progress. Be timely and deal with issues as they arise. Often, but not always, a bad attitude at work is passive rather than directly confrontational. While its difficult to establish a high level of trust between employees and managers, managers must work on these relationships. Handing them a measure of control or power over the situation can alleviate their anxieties and decrease resistance to change. Providing feedback to others about their performance is a key developmental experience. Start with 'why'. As the world changes, leadership should change with it. Seek involvement and counsel from a supervisor, the HR department, or legal counsel. This means they can advise you on how to handle a difficult conversation with your employee. A digital adoption solution, like Apty, can provide on-screen guidance to walk users through the changes step-by-step. Or,upskill your team so they can more effectively hold tough conversations and deal with difficult employees by building conversational skills across your organization. Learn why work motivation is important, why employees lose motivation in the workplace, and ten ways to increase motivation in your employees. But we understand that the daunting possibility is why some leaders make the costly choice to avoid dealing with potential conflict with a difficult employee altogether. One of the chief sources of resistance is a misunderstanding of the change and the reasons for it. Fast Company & Inc 2023 Mansueto Ventures, LLC, A guide to dealing with resistant employees. Leaders wanting to learn about managing change of this kind should consult the rich literature, especially John Kotters classic work, which is as true todays as when it was published. We are genetically born to listen to our frontal cortex, which' main task is to protect us and not to venture into the unknown. Not only could that lead to unproductive conflict, but it is unlikely to help resolve the behavior. We've once again been named a top provider of leadership training on Training Industry.com's global Top 20 Leadership Training Companies list. A digital adoption platform is another option for overcoming resistance to change when employees feel overwhelmed by a new software or process. Make sure that you involve employees in the change, through seminars, working groups, committees, and other ways that people can give feedback and ask questions or even be part of the change. And where did all of these irrelevant and resistant employees come from? Hopefully, it wont rise to that level. Without trust, misunderstandings develop, and employees are less likely to buy in to essential changes. Javitch says he is able to successfully uncover workplace challenges such as these thanks to the work of James H. Shonk, author of the book, Working in Teams: A Practical Manual for Improving Work Groups. Sometimes employees undermine leaders because they have a perspective the manager cant see. If a manager cant describe the process of exactly what needs to be changed, how the changes will be implemented, and how the change will improve things, then resistance should be expected. Join 6000+ monthly readers learning about best practices, solutions, and strategies to drive software adoption, Copyright 2023. Nonetheless, when someone is fully against change, Javitch recommends you take a graceful, but firm approach. 4 Reasons Your Employees Resist Change--And How to Overcome Them But youll only be able to manage things from here on out if you stay calm the entire way through. View on-demand BetterUp events and learn about upcoming live discussions. At the end of the agreed period, use the reports to evaluate their success.