What do you do if your leadership style is met with resistance during a career transition?

If your leadership style faces resistance during a career transition, first, assess the source of resistance. Listen actively to concerns and feedback, seeking to understand perspectives. Adapt your approach by incorporating elements of your style that align with the organizational culture while addressing concerns. Communicate openly, explaining your intentions and soliciting input for collaborative solutions. Build relationships and trust by demonstrating competence and integrity. Seek mentorship or coaching to refine your leadership style and navigate the transition effectively. Remember, flexibility and openness to feedback are essential for successful adaptation.

Begin by communicating and adapting. Seek feedback from your new team to learn about their concerns and expectations. Be willing to change your approach while remaining clear about your vision and values. Building trust and being flexible can help bridge the gap and ease the transition, transforming resistance into acceptance and collaboration.

There is a reason for this to be the first step on this list. Assessing the "resistance" can do a lot of things. One, it will allow you to see if it is true resistance or potential misunderstanding. Stopping and assessing the pushback before reacting ensures you do not jump to conclusions and create more of an issue. As a leader, you are not going to please everyone, but making sure you are doing your best to work with your team to make everyone succeed will be the best path to long-term success. Assessing the pushback will allow you to develop a path forward.

Facing resistance to your leadership style during a career transition can be challenging, but it's an opportunity for growth and adaptation. Here are steps you can take to address and overcome this resistance effectively: 1. Understand the Source of Resistance Listen Actively: Take time to listen to feedback and understand the concerns or reasons behind the resistance. Seek Feedback: Ask for specific examples or instances where your leadership style may not align with the team’s expectations. Reflect: Self-assess and consider if there are aspects of your leadership style that could be improved or adjusted.

In my experience, embracing flexibility is crucial if your leadership style is met with resistance during a career transition. Effective leadership requires the ability to adapt while maintaining your core values. This means being open to feedback, understanding the concerns of your team, and finding ways to adjust your approach to better align with their needs and expectations. By showing flexibility, you demonstrate resilience and a willingness to evolve, which can help build trust and facilitate a smoother transition for everyone involved.

Leadership Style is not something static. You learned it in one (or more) job and you can always learn more in this job. If you think of resistance as learning and people as teachers, you will not only be able to deal with career transition better but also expand your leadership skills. Consider yourself lucky compared to those who only get a chance to practice one style because they never changed the organization. This mindshift will make sure you are more curious and open to resistance and adapt your style.

When you step into a new leadership role, one of the first things you should do is dedicate time to getting to know your team and building relationships based on trust and respect. This not only allows you to get to know each of your team but allows you to ascertain what they need from you as a leader. By learning this, you can then adapt your leadership style accordingly. I don't mean compromising your leadership values and core philosophy. I am referring to knowing who might need more of your time and attention and who might prefer greater autonomy. It also informs you how to interact with your team members to help bring out their best. This will be different for each individual. Your job is to learn what they need from you, then give it.

In this situation I will try to gain a positive power by 1. Stepping into uncertainty areas be the first mover and take initiative to find an effective solution for the challenge faced by the community 2 create dependency by effective performances and having specialised knowledge 3 sharing scare resources like finance and other information which is used in the decision making process 4 making a direct appeal by persuasion and empathy 5 build Coalition & expand network Build a network such a way that you should be connected with all the heads of the department who is involved in decision making processes

It is normal when stepping into a new leadership role to expect some level of resistance from your team. Adapting to change always takes time. I have found that the best way to navigate this is to spend as much time early on with your team as you can so you can get to know them, and they can get to know you. Talk to them about who you are and how you lead. Use storytelling to demonstrate your leadership values. This can help bring it to life for your team. Then ask them what they need from you as a leader to help them bring out their best. Some will be more ready and able to answer this than others, as it takes a level of self-awareness. Be patient and understand that leadership is about people, so trust, openness and flexibility is key.

Musashi said "There is more than one path to the top of the mountain." When you meet resistance when leading, a great way to turn that into an advantage is to ask those offering resistance "what sort of plan would you make?" This does 2 things, it builds in buy-in from them so that they feel involved in the planning process. This also gives them pride in helping to find a solution which means they'll do everything they can to make the new plan work. This stops them from trying to subconsciously sabotaging a plan they had no input in and brings everyone together in the problem solving process. Indeed, many paths to the top of the mountain.