Employees That Resist Change Can Stop Your Business Growth

Your running your business and doing a great job.  Sales are up and you have brought on new employees to manage the volume.  Everything seems fine until one day there is an event; not the kind we want to have in our business but the kind that makes you loose sleep at night.  Its the kind that business coaching professionals call a system failure.  Some one, some thing or both have messed up and it is going to cost the company (really you) time, money or reputation.  Ouch!  Could this have been prevented?  You bet, just read on!

The Roll of Leader as Change Agent

These types of growth pains can easily be prevented by understanding human nature.  Most people will avoid change until the discomfort of dealing with the change is less than the discomfort of staying with the status quo.  That means your employees discomfort is important as a leadership tool to transform your organization and business.   In fact the ability to use your employees discomfort as a motivation tool will help you bring out the best in everyone you lead and is directly related to how well you are viewed as a leader.   But here is the caveat – this is not the type of motivational discomfort that will manipulate and degrade an individual, it’s the type of leadership that influences someone to bring out the best in themselves for the betterment of the organization.

Business Coaching Training That Will Have Your Employees Embracing Change

The first thing that I need to reiterate that as a leader and business owner you need to look at your employees as good and willing to change.  Even though some of their actions seem to be going against the grain of the change that is required most people want to do a good job and be part of a team that is succeeding.  So how do we motivate them to change?

Here is a step-by-step program to have your employees looking forward to making change happen.

Business coaching training step 1

Assessment - Take a look at how tasks are being done.  If you ask someone to do some thing and then it doesn’t happen, or happen as you wanted ask yourself some question.  Do they know what to do, how to do it and have all the necessary resources to make it happen?  How do they relate to others; can they get others motivated to assist in a project willingly?

By looking at these clues you can find out and assess if they are overwhelmed, confussed, or lacking personal or team leadership skills.  You will also find out if they are addicted to people pleasing.  Yes I said ADDICTED!  If the only time they say “no” is to say”no problem” to every request that comes across their desk then there is a problem waiting to blow up before your eyes – your business is at risk.

Business coaching training step 2

Create Awareness to the Challenge- Once you have effectively assessed the situation you will have the background information you will need to begin the change process.  Our first step is to get the employee to see that change is needed.  I know you are probably saying that you have told them a dozen times that they need to change, however, as a leader you need to watch someones behavior to see what they are believing and hearing.  As a leader for your business, if you ask someone to make a change and they keep doing what they were doing before, they they didn’t really hear you – accept that”; actions speak louder than words.

Business coaching training step 3

Create a learning experience in your business – It’s time to create a learning experience in your business to bring this issue to the place where you can work with it.  Look for a opportunity get a project that will be part of the change you are looking for.  Ask your team member to work on this project, set proper expectation, and then set an accountability date for them to get back to you with an update or confirmation of completion.  Let time pass without checking back with them, asking them about the progress or any followup initiated by you as the leader.  Wait for the accountability date to come and go.  After a few days, if you have no contact initiated by the employee about the project, call them and set up a meeting.

Business coaching training step 4

Conduct a Powerful Transformation Meeting- In this meeting you will overview what you had asked them to do and state that they never got back to you saying it was do.  Now stop to listen to how they respond.  Do they place blame on someone else?  Do they brush it off as not important.  Are they telling you they are overwhelmed?  The way in which they responds is a good clue to what type of training they will need latter.  However, no mater what excuse they give, let them know that it is unacceptable and that in the long term this type of action costs the company.  The main objective that you want to have them understand is that they need to change the way they are doing things.

Once you have an team members attention you can now train and educate them to make the changes that will benefit the company overall.  Employee resistance to change is inevitable but it doesn’t have to cause your business trouble.  Learning to use the leadership skills that help people grow and change will be one of your companies biggest assets that will help you grow your company to the next  level of accomplishment.