Here's how you can navigate a boss resistant to change or new ideas.

You should always assume everyone including you has bias that is impeding your perspective. The best way to address a Boss' resistance is validating why they are resisting and earning their trust by going deeper into their why. You will either end up agreeing with them or by virtue of your genuine questions to understand, expand their awareness that begins to dissolve the resistance. You do not dissolve the resistance to change by judging the person resisting. You would be amazed how many people soften when they feel fully understood. You will also be amazed to discover how often you had not realise facts that ultimately balance you into alignment with those you previously disagreed with.

In my experience, earning trust and giving people a chance to earn your trust is how the currency of trust delivers the goods. Pay attention to how you are being perceived. How reliable are you? What is your tone when you ask questions? How often are you understanding well before attempting to be understood? It is the little details that build a solid foundation of trust, as well as respect, which allows relationships and collaboration to go to another level. Getting into the habit of being informed means your approach will routinely get aligned to the values, purpose and facts your boss will share, thereby earning their trust. The key is to build the discipline of getting informed first.

Solutions are the easy part when you have demonstrated your ability to understand the situation well. Understanding where you want to be positioned, what value exchange you want to achieve means the solution will be tailored, relevant and robust, maximising its value and acceptance. Solutions coming from you is not best evidence of your true value. The synergistic and resourceful process of creating solutions from involving key and varied views is what will set you up to create powerful solutions that are accepted and implemented readily. That also earn the trust, respect and support of your colleagues and management.

After pointing out why the need for change, outline a feasible solution in clarity to avoid confusion for your boss. When being resistant to change, the last thing we want is to add to the frustration of an unclear explanation. The presentation for your solution should include current situation/ problem, proposed solution, pros and cons of solutions, data analysis of possible outcomes, how to implement the solution and the timeline.

Low lying fruit shows how resourceful and strategic you are, knowing the power of building momentum and achieving a lot for less effort. Small wins is your way of earning trust but also showing the patience and discipline to build a robust pathway to lasting solutions. The process to achieve these small wins is more important than the wins themselves. The critical thinking and balanced approach is the golden goose that will deliver ongoing golden eggs. Live in the process of small wins from meaningful incremental steps because then the journey is sustainable and the big win destination points become inevitable. The great thing is, the big wins won't feel that hard to achieve because the process is doing all the heavy lifting.

When your purpose expands beyond the transactional outcomes of winning your boss over, and moves into delivering true value exchanges, you will believe in the rewards that will inevitably come. Once you evolve your approach to your role to achieve your core responsibilities in less time, this skill can then be turned to proactive opportunities to deliver more value beyond your core role. This life skill of evolving and innovating means your value exchange is reaching rare levels that people will notice and your value in the organisation will attract rewards and opportunity without much negotiation needed.