Change Reticence or Rush: 10 Traits of Terrible Leadership

Change is inevitable, but how you respond to it defines your leadership. Are you reticent to change, sticking with the “tried and true,” or do you rush too quickly into the new thing, leaving your team struggling to keep up? Great leaders strike a balance—guiding their teams steadily through change while building trust and resilience.

In this episode we explore the two extremes that leaders naturally gravitate towards and the pitfalls of both. In this episode I ask you some questions to help you explore how to strike that necessary balance; adapting with care and purpose in order to steadily maintain course towards your vision.

• Transcript

  Change is a constant in leadership, yet how we respond to it shapes the culture, trust, and effectiveness of our teams.

  As there often is, our personalities will determine how we react to change. Let’s consider these questions:

  When you can see that a change in direction or project may be beneficial, do you hold off in favour of staying with the safe option? Is your mantra to ‘just stay with the tried and true’? If you answered ‘yes’ to these questions you might have the Working Geniuses of Enablement or Tenacity, you may struggle with change and you may need to lean into how you can change more efficiently.

  How about these questions: Do you find yourself excited when a new idea pops up? Do you feel like you love change? If you answered ‘yes’ to these questions, you may have the Working Geniuses of Wonder or Invention. And the issue here is not that you experience change reticence, but that you change too quickly for your team to keep up.

  As we consider change reticence, I want to remind us that leadership carries a dual responsibility.

  First, it’s our privilege and duty to lead our teams safely through the metaphorical valley—the change required to move from one mountain top to the next, those changes and adversities that keep your organisation moving forward. As leaders we need to embrace being a calming, steady presence and providing a clear path forward when going through change.

  Second, leadership by definition is moving towards a destination. Embracing change is an essential part of fulfilling our mandate to care for and lead our people. If we tend towards resisting change; resistance might feel like protection, but it often leads to stagnation. Instead, we need to model adaptability, showing our teams that growth and progress are possible even in turbulent times. Or if we tend towards changing at every whim we need to stay planted on our change course so that our teams can create some natural momentum.

  So what’s your take away this week? I want to encourage you to spend some time on self-awareness. Do you find yourself reticent to change or too ready to change? Once you have answered this, then you can ask a second question: What do you need to do to help yourself and your team journey steadily towards your vision?

  As you navigate your change journey, understand this. Change will necessarily challenge you and your team’s relationships. That’s ok. It is uncomfortable. But when we do it well, we also create a unit of people with increased trust, resilience and adaptability.