Who is change harder for: bosses or employees?
If you guessed employees, you’re not alone. That was my guess, too! But when my research team and I did a study last year, the results were clear: it’s *leaders* who tend to emotionally resist change more than individual contributors.
Why would that be?
First, leaders ranked higher in grit than individual contributors. That strong “leader’s mindset” can often mean leaders carry beliefs like “if I just work harder, I can accomplish anything I put my mind to.”
I had a boss like this once. Our team had been given an impossible goal to hit – there was no way we would be able to deliver what the sales team had promised the client. We all knew it… except the boss.
The only possible way of reaching this goal would have been with a fresh strategy and expensive new software. But instead of tools, Boss just kept offering us platitudes: “I believe in you!” “It’s just gonna take hard work!”
To no one’s surprise except Boss’s… we didn’t meet the goal. Because we needed innovation, not grit.
The second reason leaders might struggle with change is that bosses can feel more committed to the plan, because the plan was typically their idea in the first place! It’s harder, then, for them to admit the plan stopped working and change needs to happen. Most bosses in our study reported having a harder time letting go of “the way we’ve always done it” than their employees did.
So what can you do?
If you’re a leader, ask yourself: “am I balancing my grit with adaptability?” We found most leaders rely much more on the grit side, and that makes it tough to be flexible when change is needed.
If you’re a gritty leader, what can you do to see things from your employee’s side? Can you institute a method for gathering innovative ideas from your team, to add more bottom-up change to your strategic plan? Often employees can see things from a perspective you can’t.
