Moving your organization into, and through, an uncertain future takes courage, confidence, and a lot of comfort with ambiguity, even in the best of times.

And then when the world is as uncertain as it has been for, oh, most of the last decade or so, the leadership challenges only expand.

If you’re a leader in these uncertain times, you may have these concerns:

“How do I know if we’re on the right path for us to succeed…or perhaps, even to survive?”

“How can I let the people I’m leading know which direction to move next…and how can I do that as rapidly and clearly as possible?”

Leading well in uncertain times works best if you can create just enough structure to reduce unnecessary uncertainty in your organization, and yet not so much that you lock your team into an inflexible, maladaptive position when the world they’re operating in changes quickly.

Set your team up to be able to turn the best intentions and limited resources into maximum results on behalf of your customers and your company…before your competition can.

Leadership in unpredictable circumstances requires the ability to read your environment well, especially the significant changes in it. And then you must have the ability to communicate that well, and to inspire appropriate action, as a result.

When you do, you give your company or team far more opportunity to respond well to changing circumstances, reducing the changes they’ll be blindsided by them.

Here are a few tips for creating the right team signals, and then using them well in the uncertain circumstances:

1. Figure out the relevant details you have to pay close attention to.

Not all information is valuable. Lots of it is just noise.

But some details are absolutely crucial to your success.

Unpredictability and uncertainty doesn’t have to hold you back.

Knowing what signs and signals you must pay close attention to can make or break you. It tells you where to direct your attention, action and resources, leading most likely to success.

It’s almost inevitable that there is something valuable you can monitor, measure, and track that will help you stay focused and moving ahead well, together.

2. Figure out the minimum daily, weekly, and monthly communication requirements for your team to function well in current and foreseeable circumstances.

At a minimum, who needs information, to do what, if you have can provide it to them?

When do they need the information?

How do they need to receive the information – what channels, and in what format – in order to be able to understand it, and act on it well, and in a timely fashion in these circumstances?

3. Use the same terminology…and make sure you are.

It’s easy to believe you’re communicating well with someone, only to find out that you’re talking about very different things even though you’re using the same terms.

Here’s one non-work example to illustrate the point:

What comes to mind when you think of the word, “vacation”? (Just for fun, and to make this a graphic example, describe it in enough detail that you wish you could take that vacation right now).

Now ask three other people the same thing, what they think of when they hear the word “vacation.”

The odds are, you’ll come up with four VERY different ideas of what a vacation is.

In normal, everyday discussions you have to get on the same page to make any conversational headway, especially if there is any kind of agreement you need to reach, as is the case on almost any team.

Clear communication, starting with common terminology, is all that much more important when information comes at a premium (if the information is available at all), attention is limited, fear is running high, and the risk of error is very high, as well.

4. Listen. Don’t just stop talking…really LISTEN.

You may think you’re listening when you’re not talking. Often, though, our thoughts and fears are chattering away rapidly, keeping us bound up in our own concerns, even as we seem to be listening.

Still those attention-blocking concerns of the past, present, future – and places you’d really rather be at the moment.

Make space for new information to come in.

5. Create the time and space for dialogue now and then, when you can.

Uncertain times call for stronger than average teamwork.  You can’t dictate teamwork, legislate it, expect it, or inspect it in. I was in several different circumstances recently when leaders took this approach – trying to dictate teamwork, without engaging the people whose best efforts their own success depended upon.

Ultimately you have to inspire teamwork, for followers have to trust their leaders, if they are to follow fully, and with best effort.

Create ways for dialogue to occur in the simplest, most user-friendly way possible.

This, alone, can go a long way to opening up channels for essential information to flow out, and back in…leading you and your team more surely to success, even in uncertain times.

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Conversational skills can make a difference in team success, as they can in many other parts of work and life. When team members care about each other, as well as the work they’re doing together, it increases the chances they will succeed.

Good conversation has common characteristics, no matter who’s involved, or what subject is being covered.

Compare two very different conversations you’ve had in the past year. Think of one very satisfying conversation, and one that was unsatisfying or frustrating in some way.

What was the difference between the two experiences?

The following were probably some of the characteristics of good conversations you’ve had (and the opposite was probably true of unsatisfying ones, as well):

– People were fully “there,” and discussion was shared and free-flowing.

People in the good conversation were fully present, and committed to the discussion. They shared the give and take that good conversation involves. No one person or group dominated the floor, or had the burden of carrying the conversation on their own.

– There was a creative flow, and a sense of discovery.

In satisfying conversation, there’s often a sense of a flow, an exploration, in a way, as you share ideas and learn about each other – and often, learn about yourself, as well – in the process.

– You felt you could be honest in the discussion, and were. You felt that others were comfortable being honest, too.

You had no sense of trying to crack through a shell or a mask that you or others in the conversation had created to keep others away, or to block or prevent a high-quality conversation and experience together.

There may have been other reasons why the great conversation you recall was so memorable, but these are some of the most common ones.

If your conversational skills could use a tune-up, don’t be afraid to admit you’d like to learn and practice.

For starters, find and observe a friend who’s a good conversationalist. That’s probably not your friend who talks the most.

It’s the friend who draws others out, and engages them in a satisfying give-and-take…and seems to be able to do that in almost any situation.

A good conversationalist doesn’t try to control the conversation – unless it’s an interview, performance or meeting, but those are other experiences, entirely.

He or she can let go, and trust himself and others in the dialogue, as it happens.

Try to learn from good and great conversationalists. Ask them how they do what they do so well, and ask for their advice on how you can improve.

Practice skills and abilities they show in their easy and free-flowing conversation. Practice their mindset before and as they’re in conversation, if they share that information with you.

Also, increase your curiosity about others with whom you’re trying to have a conversation.

If you’re often nervous when talking to others, talking less, rather than more can help.

Learn to be comfortable with silence.

Ask more questions. Listen.

Let someone else share the floor, and the responsibility for good conversation.

Also – and this seems deceptively simple, but it’s an important thing – make sure you’re taking deep breaths so you’re as relaxed as you can be.

Taking deep breaths forces you to slow down, calm down, and relax a bit, and helps you to stay present. And that’s all part of being a good conversationalist.

The ease, confidence, and flexibility being a good conversationalist offers you can take you far.

As a final review for now, keep in mind these simple guidelines:

Care

Share.

Be there.

Be curious about other people.

Be open, be honest.

Breathe.

Relax, and let go.

Being a good conversationalist is an increasingly rare skill. It can lead to many great opportunities and wonderful experiences, if you learn to trust and let go a bit.

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Have you had the experience of feeling unseen, even though someone was talking directly to you?

Perhaps they said something to you like, “I know what you’re thinking!”

And then, as they announced what they were sure was true for you, it turns out they couldn’t have been more wrong?

Or maybe you’ve been guilty of that, yourself.

Projection is often at least part of what’s going on.

Projection is when someone “assigns” feelings they are having to someone else, often because they either do not see, or are unable to accept those thoughts or feelings in themselves.

When you are the one who has been “assigned” an erroneous feeling or thought by others, it can take a bit of time to realize what’s going on, and to try to untangle the stories people have created, or the misinterpretations that have been “cooked up,” somehow.

Projection is fairly common, and causes other problems.

It can lead to miscommunication, at a minimum, and various issues that arise when people are wasting time, effort, and precious resources, trying to solve the wrong problem – or busying themselves with a story but not trying to improve the situation, at all.

Projection can start from some simple observation, followed by assumptions and misinterpretations.

When we may draw these erroneous conclusions, they’re often based on our own past experiences, the way we believe we would have felt in such a circumstance, or any of many reasons why we assign a particular meaning to what we observed.

How can you reduce your own tendency to project, even if you can’t guarantee that it will never happen?

First, simply observe.

- What do you see?
- Would you hear?
- What do you feel?

Next, be aware of what you’re interpreting from what you observe.

- What do you interpret?
- Why are you interpreting it that way?
- Do you need to interpret what you observe?
- How could these assumptions or interpretations be helpful to you in some way?
- Could your observations or interpretation help other people involved, if they are correct? If so, how?
- Instead of interpreting, how can you check with the person, or people, involved to see if your assumptions are correct?
- If need be, how can you help the people involved? How can you check to see if that’s what will be most helpful to them?

Ask, don’t assume.

Be curious about the other person’s experience.

Care about what’s happening to that person, and in their world.

If you don’t care about what’s happening to the other person, what’s the point of taking the time and energy to form an opinion about this particular situation or how they’re handling it?

Free yourself and others of opinions you’ve formed if there’s no role you can play in improving the situation, or supporting those involved.

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“Investors are investing in you, the team”

That’s what companies who seek venture funding are advised, as they were once again, many times, at a boot camp for startups where I was a mentor recently.

“We’re investing in the team” is easy to say.

It’s not always easy to understand.

That’s especially the case if you haven’t had a lot of team experiences, and more specifically, if you haven’t had a lot of business team experiences and roles.

To really understand “We’re investing in the team,” you have to understand teamwork in a visceral sense.

And sometimes, frankly, it helps to have been on, and to have led very successful and less successful teams, as well.

“We’re investing in the team” is far easier to grasp if you understand the risks, opportunities and tools of teamwork and leadership.

And often some of the best learning occurs when you’ve had excellent but also less praiseworthy experiences on, and at the helm of a team. You learn a lot, like it or not, from having to scramble to create success from impending failure.

Fundamentally, what “We’re investing in the team” means is that investors – whoever they are – are looking to see if you and your leadership team can:

1. Turn a great idea into a company and then a growing flow of profits
2. Work well together
3. Turn your strengths as a team into something far greater than your strengths, as a group of separate individuals
4. Connect well with your prospects and convert them into customers
5. Organize people and resources to meet the opportunities and challenges you face, some of which you know, and many of which you don’t…yet
6. Attract a great team
7. Engage the team in your vision and keep them engaged through the ups and downs of startup life
8. Lead without squashing the strengths and enthusiasm of individual members of the company
9. Adapt well, as a team, as conditions change – because they will
10. Admit when you, as a leader or leadership team, need help
11. Listen and learn from customers, advisors, employees, and other members of your team
12. Make good decisions
13. Lead effective implementation of decisions
14. Grow and change, as individuals and as a leadership team, as the need for your leadership evolves
15. Let go of the reins, as appropriate, and delegate well
16. Show courage without foolishness
17. Get over, around and through the barriers that are presented to you without, in the process, causing other problems downstream
18. Be an alchemist, sometimes making progress in lieu of funding, sometimes stretching cash, and always turning the resources you have into more and better results than one initially might expect
19. See the path to success, and keep seeing it, and keep leading your team to it as it changes occur, obstacles emerge, and distractions happen
20. Handle success well

There are other things that investors are looking for, too, when they say they’re “investing in the team.”

You can rest assured, however, that if you do the 20 things on this list well, and if you do them better than your competitors, you’re well on your way to success, however your company is funded, whoever is at the helm.

Think about what would give you confidence that a startup company and leadership team were likely to succeed, if you were an investor, trying to guess which company was most likely to succeed from among the many on which you could place your bets, and your money.

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Do you have decision phobia?

Some people do, and it can be very life- and progress-limiting.

Decision-phobes may not know why they’re fearful of committing to one course of action instead of leaving their options endlessly open.

Perhaps their fear is based on having made big mistakes in the past.

Or perhaps they felt that perfection was expected from them with each and every step they took. And as a result, they began to stay cemented in spot, rather than to take the risk of making one misstep, no matter how recoverable it was.

Decision-making doesn’t have to be scary.

If the decision is one that you’re familiar with and have made successfully before, or if the risks of making a mistake are low, the information gathering can be very quick.

If a decision has large, clear risks, all the preparatory phases will take more time and careful thought.

As you get ready to make a decision, there are ways you can further reduce the risks. Here are a few:

- Rehearse
- Look at the costs and benefits of all options and choose the best one
- Use scenario analysis
- Test your decision with experts you trust
- Create a decision diary for high-risk decisions

Here’s more detail about each of these options:

Rehearse

Imagine the outcomes.

Envision a successful outcome of the decision-making process that meets the requirements of the customers for the decision. If you need more information about this, learn more about creating decision-making frames.

Now imagine yourself being comfortable making the decision, and comfortable with the outcome of the decision.

When you imagine that, what does it tell you about the process, and the decision, itself?

Look at the costs and benefits of all options and choose the best one

List the various decisions you could make.

Now list the costs and benefits of each option. If a more analytical approach will increase your confidence in the decision, use weighted criteria. Evaluate how each possible decision meets each criterion, and see which option “wins,” when viewed analytically.

Use scenario analysis

Create scenarios of most likely circumstances. Then exaggerate these scenarios by imagining far better outcomes and far worse outcomes.

Now, fortified with the wide range of scenarios, consider which ones seem most likely.

Test each possible decision in these most likely scenarios.

See how that affects your decision, if it does.

Test your decision with experts you trust

One additional way to reduce the risk of the decision is to find experts you trust. Test your decision with them.

See if they advise you to consider something you had not seen, or to weight decisions in a different way than you anticipated.

Create a decision diary for high-risk decisions

Just by writing down your decision-making, you may make better decisions. It’s like writing down goals to increase your chances of reaching them. The simple act of writing tightens your focus, and can improve your logic and the completeness of your thinking.

Here’s a simple way to create a decision diary:
1. Write down the decision you have to make.
2. List the customers of the decision and what success would be like for them.
3. Record your assumptions.
4. List the decision you’ve made and what you expect to have happen.
5. Use this information if the decision needs refining, changing, or when you are improving your decision-making process.

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Which answer makes the following statement true for you?

Decision-making is easy:

- Often.
- Always.
- Almost never.

If you find decision-making an ordeal – and many people do – you can make it far easier with a good decision-making process.

A good decision-making process starts by creating a good decision frame.

Creating a good decision frame is almost like describing the missing piece that you’re looking for as you try to solve a jigsaw puzzle.

When you create an effective decision frame, a good decision can almost seem to fall out of the process automatically.

That’s because it will seem familiar, somehow, when you’ve carefully considered what the ideal solution is, what the priorities and options are, and when you’ve done your research to know the costs and benefits of each possibility.

Well-framed and researched, a good decision will become clear, almost naturally.

These are some of the things to consider as you create your decision frame:

- Know what problem you’re solving when you make this decision
- Understand who the decision customers are
- Understand what decision criteria and priorities will be used to make the decision
- Be clear about what’s in and what’s out as this decision is being made
- Understand who will make the decision and how they’ll make it

To frame the decision, answer these questions:

1. What’s the problem you’re solving, specifically?

Be clear about what problem you’re solving with this decision.

Without a well-defined problem statement, or a clear goal, you can go off-track right from the beginning of the decision-making process.

Know what you’re aiming for.

2. Who are the customers of this decision? Do they see the problem the same way?

Many people can be involved in making a decision, but not everyone has to live with the outcome of the decision.

The primary decision customers are the people who are most directly affected by the results of the decision, whatever they are. with these customers want an ideal decision

3. What do these customers want in an ideal decision?

Customers’ needs and wants may be two different things.

What do the decision customers want in the decision that’s made and implemented?

What do they need?

If you don’t know, ask them, or ask a representative sample of people who will be affected by the results.

Understand their priorities, as well.

What is most important to them in the decision and its outcome? What can they live without, if they must?

4. What’s in and what’s out as you make this decision?

When you’re making a decision to take a certain course of action or commit resources in some way, you’re also deciding not to do something else.

And sometimes the real problem with decision-making is not that it’s hard to say “yes” to one course of action, but rather, that it’s harder to say “no” to another one.

Know what you’re choosing not to do when you’re making this decision.

If you’re planning a vacation, for example, and have children who will be on the trip with you, you may put a higher priority on a well-planned series of activities that will keep them busy and happy than you do on luxury accommodations you might choose if you were planning a romantic trip for two.

Consider, also, any constraints you have for the decision that’s being made.

For example, are there cost restrictions or deadlines by which the decision must be made and all actions fully implemented?

Be clear about all the requirements for the decision and a good outcome.

5. Who will make the decision, and how will it be made?

Know how the decision will be made, and who will make it.

For example, will a committee be making the decision and each person in the group has one vote?

Will a committee be advising a final decision-maker?

Is a person making this decision by him or herself?

Understand what a win is to each person involved in making the final decision. Understand what failure is to each person, as well.

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Many companies struggle as they try to keep everyone focused and on the same page.

This is even more of a problem during times of great stress, growth, or other types of major change.

One tool you can use to overcome this not-on-the-same-page problem is to create a brief summary of your company, a Company Overview.

This brief overview of the company can help create a more consistent and higher quality experience for customers as they interact with people at your company.

It can also increase employees’ understanding and pride in the company they work for. The Company Profile can also be an important tool to managers and employees to discuss the value of employees’ work in creating company success.

As you create the Company Overview, you may discover strengths you hadn’t fully recognized or appreciated. You’re also likely to see areas where the company can improve.

If you’re thinking about creating a Company Overview for your organization, plan to gather and include information such as the following:

Who We Are and Why We Exist

- What is your company’s purpose, or the primary reason it exists?
- What is are you trying to accomplish, and for whom?
- What is your company’s vision of the future it is trying to create for itself?
- What is your company culture?
- What are your company values, or guiding principles and behaviors?
- What are your organization’s core competencies, or primary strengths? How do they relate to being able to fulfill your mission?

Our Customers and What They Want From Us

- Who are your primary customer segments? What do they need and expect from you?
- What are the main products and services you offer customers?
- How do you provide your products and services to customers?
- How do you provide customer support to customers who need it?
- How do you use feedback from customers to continually improve your products, services and support?

Our Company and Its Competitors

- What is your competitive position in your market?
- Who are your primary competitors now?
- What are the principal factors that drive success for your company, compared to its competitors?
- What are the major changes that affect your competitive position?

Our Resources and Governance

- What are the primary groups of employees in your company?
- What are the primary motivators that draw each group to your organization, and engage them in supporting your mission?
- Where the key benefits you provide employees?
- What are your main facilities, technologies and equipment?
- What is the regulatory environment under which your company operates?
- Are there any occupational health and safety regulations that govern your company?
- Are there certification or registration requirements, industry standards, environmental, financial, and product regulations with which you must comply?
- What is your organizational structure and governance system? What are the primary reporting relationships between your senior leadership, board, and parent organization, if you have one?

Who We Work With

- What are your key types of suppliers, partners, and other collaborators?
- What role does each of these groups play in your company’s success?
- What are the primary ways you communicate with customers, suppliers, and other key stakeholders?

Our Challenges and Strengths

- What are the primary challenges and advantages your company has now?
- How do you monitor and improve performance at your company?
- What are your key business, operational and human resource challenges and advantages?
- What are the key challenges and advantages for your company with respect to organizational sustainability?
- How do you monitor, manage and improve your company and its products and services?

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Delegating is no big deal. And giving good directions to others is a “piece of cake.”

Is that what you think?

Recall a time when you were assigned a new job or task, and the person making the assignment had:

- High standards
- A tight timeline before the work had to be complete
- Little or no time for you to ask questions of them, once the task was assigned to you so you were completely dependent on the instructions and resources they provided you

Now, recall:

- What directions did you receive for that work?

- What resources did the person provide you for guidance, in case you had problems you couldn’t resolve as you worked?

- How did it work out? Were you able to complete the assignment successfully?

- If so, what are the main reasons it worked out well?

- If there were problems with the project or its result, what made the work difficult?

I had the experience of starting a new job at a new company right into middle of the busiest season of the year in the department where I had been hired.

My manager had very high standards and I knew I would learn a lot there, which a big reason why the job appealed to me.

But I was also going to have a steep learning curve in this job, which I knew, and my manager knew, too. And I was not the only one like that in the department.

Delegating well, and providing effective guidance to new employees were leadership skills that were essential for success with this particular team.

Because my manager didn’t like to take the time to provide instructions or send employees to training, people in the group fairly often found themselves caught in a proverbial – and preventable – thorny thicket of problems.

One particular time, he and I had no alternative but to stop and correct something that had gone very wrong with a big deliverable on a tight timeline.

Suddenly there was no choice for him but to pause, slow down, listen and teach patiently and attentively.

He had many other leadership strengths that we knew, but no one had ever seen this one before.

And suddenly, with calm direction and teaching, the work now seemed easy to me. The problems seemed clear, the solutions achievable.

I learned a lot in that department, surviving the boot camp he’d created, perhaps unwittingly. And it prepared me well for other jobs at that company. But looking back, I still feel that the same thing could have been accomplished far less painfully.

Here are a few guidelines for you to provide good instructions, if you delegate work to others:

When you make the assignment of a project or task, provide this information to the person who will be doing the job:

1. Who needs this work? What will they do with the product, service or information that is being provided to them?

2. What are the customers’ standards for a high quality job, such as timeliness, cost, and quality requirements?

3. When does the customer need the work to be complete?

4. Is there a process or procedure they must follow to do the work? Where are the specific instructions for that?

5. Are there constraints they need to know about?

6. Are there materials or tools they need to do the job? Where will they get those?

7. If they need further guidance while doing the work, where should they go or whom should they contact?

8. How can they reach you as they work, if need be?

9. Will someone check the work before it goes to the customer? If so, who will do that, and when will that happen in the overall process?

10. What questions do they have? Do they need to have any information explained in another way to fully understand the instructions for what they must complete?

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Like a slow driver holding up many cars behind it in the fast lane, a “road boulder” may be clogging up the workflow and stopping progress for many other people at your company, or on your team.

It happens in many organizations.

“Road boulder” is a term I coined a few years ago in frustration about the people who drive more slowly than the flow of traffic in the fast lane on the freeway.

Often, there’s a mile or more of clear space – and pure potential – in front of them, but they stop the flow, even so.

The term also cropped up for me because I see road boulders of various kinds in companies’ workflows.

Road boulders not only frustrate the people behind them, but they can also create a very dangerous situation.

On the road, emergency response teams get caught in the no-exit-path logjam they create. In companies, people can be so distracted by problems caused inside the company that they miss significant signs of emerging problems outside the company.

The problem of road boulders can be corrected. And it can be prevented.

If you’re the road boulder at your company, you may be blocking others’ otherwise efficient, effective workflows by actions such as these:

- Providing too little direction, training and feedback to help employees stay on track
- Trying to control things you don’t need to control
- Not controlling things you should be managing closely, especially in high risk areas
- Poorly monitoring how well you’re meeting customers’ needs
- Poorly communicating with suppliers about what you need from them, and how well they’re meeting your needs

How can you find out – and correct the problem – if you or your department is a road boulder at your company?

Check in regularly with the people whose needs you’re supposed to be meeting. These are your customers.

They may be paying customers outside the company, or they could be customers inside the company who need your work in order to do their own.

Check, also, with your manager, if you’re an employee.

Check with your employees, if you’re a manager.

These are all potential customers of your work. You can accelerate their workflows through the work you do, or you can inhibit it. And you may not know what effect you’re having until you ask.

Ask the people who are dependent on the quality of work you provide them:

1. How well are we meeting their needs now?
2. Where could we improve?
3. What are we doing well?

Open the dialogue now, and continue it a few times a year.

You’ll find that the flow will grow as you radically reduce the chances that you and your department are company road boulders.

And in the process of gathering the feedback to make the overall system work better, you’re likely to collect a few accolades for your current work, too.

If you found this post valuable, please share it with friends and colleagues who can use this information, too. You’ll also like the free weekly newsletter I publish every Tuesday. Sign up for the newsletter here.

A lot of companies talk about the need to change.

And the leaders of such efforts mean well.

But, let’s face it, change is hard. Very, very hard.

All the good intentions in the world don’t make change work, just because you want it to.

Think back to the last big change or improvement effort at your company.

Did it work?

If so, why do you think it succeeded?

Or if, as is more likely to be the case, that big change effort failed – or didn’t work as well its leaders hoped it would – these are probably a few of the reasons why:

1. Real customer feedback wasn’t getting inside your company.

Or if it was, that feedback wasn’t provided in a compelling way that made a strong case for customer-focused change.

To make a strong case for change, bring the sometimes-visceral power of customer feedback into the company. If people don’t feel customers’ pain about the problems they’re experiencing, or feel their excitement about what will be new and different, change can slip away.

2. There was no clear and compelling vision of where you were going.

To guide change successfully, create a compelling picture of the future, or a compelling story about the circumstance you’re creating.

3. Somebody lost the vision on the way to success.

It’s one thing to start out with a strong vision. It’s another thing to hang onto it, all the way through the sometimes long journey of change.

4. The vision wasn’t supported by a real plan.

Another big problem people have with the change process is that they’re highly motivated to get somewhere different. But they don’t do a good job of planning how they’ll get there, who will do what, or how they’ll communicate with each other as they move ahead.

5. There was little or ineffective follow-up.

You can make task assignments, but you have to make sure that people are completing those assignments.

Great follow-up is sometimes not much fun to do if things are not getting done in a timely fashion. But great follow-up is one of the most essential roles in management of any type.

It’s often not done, or if it is, it’s poorly done.

6. The anti-change effort was more powerful and better organized than the change effort.

Where there’s change, you can bet there’s also resistance to that change. The resistance is sometimes far more powerful than you ever dreamed it would be. People often have a strong vested interest in keeping things the way they know and like them.

7. The leaders didn’t really believe in a successful final outcome for the project – and employees knew it.

Sometimes the reason change doesn’t work is that the people leading it don’t really believe it can be done.

They hope it can, but they’re not sure it can.

And uncertainty can overwhelm hope.

When leaders don’t really believe in the vision and goal they’ve set for the company or team, employees know it.

There’s no way they’re going to throw themselves wholeheartedly into a difficult change process if leaders aren’t willing to do so, too.

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