4 Steps Executives Must Take To Overcome Employee Resistance

A new CEO of a manufacturing company had been given a mandate by the board to deliver growth and double the size of her business over the next five years. To say the strategy differed dramatically from her predecessor was a major understatement, who was known for his relentless focus on driving efficiencies, reducing costs, and a ‘spend as little as possible’ mindset.

While the new CEO wasn’t surprised that the shift would represent a significant change for company employees, she didn’t fully anticipate the high level of resistance she faced as the execution of the strategy got underway, and the early wins she had expected hadn’t materialized.

Why the resistance? Here’s the background and lessons learned.

Board Mandate: Move Fast

The company had a reputation for lackluster growth, exacerbated by the effects of the pandemic, global conflict, the macroeconomic environment, and more. As growth remained flat, she found herself navigating more questions from impatient directors, who felt that if the company didn’t start to deliver results, they would lose credibility with investors and become the target of an acquisition.

The CEO moved quickly to accelerate execution, and the rollout of initiatives and aggressive targets followed. She said: “Going slow would have been the ideal thing to do, but we didn’t have a choice.” Fast forward: A year later, little had changed. The CEO described the situation this way: “Nobody was on board, even though the train had left the station.”

Lesson #1: Don’t assume the value and benefits of the strategy are obvious to employees.

Experienced leaders have heard plenty about making the case for change, the importance of bringing others along, and this CEO was no exception. But as progress stalled, she realized something was off, and she pointed out something easy to forget: What is obvious to one group of people may not be for another.

She said: “Our message was essentially this: ‘We must grow, we have no choice, here is how we will do it, now go do it.’” Cue the town hall meetings, global road show, information sessions, trainings, and lots of emails about the changes underway. But something basic had been missed: Employees weren’t ready to hear about workstreams. They were still wondering why growth was the objective in the first place.

Lesson #2: If messages aren’t getting through to employees, pinpoint why.

At first, the CEO resisted this notion: “Isn’t it obvious why we need to grow?” The answer: It was obvious to her and the executive team, but to employees, far less so. They wondered: What was wrong with the way we used to run our business? Why is growth the answer? Why are we focused on growth in some areas, versus others? What else did you consider?

It was only after a deliberate effort to assess the effectiveness of the strategy rollout did the CEO appreciate the degree to which her messages weren’t getting through. She quickly did away with the one-size-fits-all all approach and realized this: “I believed, ‘You should understand why growth matters. You should care.’ By insisting how people should feel, we failed to recognize how they actually do feel.”

Lesson #3: To accelerate and scale results, make it uncomplicated with small actions.

No matter how many plans, messages, and new processes the company established to advance the strategy, legacy behaviors, and habits were slowing progress. The CEO pointed out: “For years, employees focused exclusively on lowering cost and creating operational efficiency. Now, we’re asking them to prioritize growth. That isn’t a strong muscle for us.”

She noticed how many of the company’s day-to-day mechanics – from OKRs to meeting agendas - reinforced old thinking and were counter to the culture and environment required to drive growth. To address this, she initiated a series of smaller roundtable discussions to explore what a growth-first approach would look and feel like for different groups of employees, in concrete, simple terms.

She shared: “This was not complicated. We focused on small steps, like, ‘Add an agenda item to your weekly team meetings that address growth for your business.’” She was surprised at how quickly these small changes added up. “The momentum has been outstanding, and we’ve done more to advance the strategy in just a few months than we did in an entire year, with far less effort. In hindsight, I see how needlessly complicated we made this entire process.”

Lesson #4: Don’t tell employees what they should think and feel. Instead, recognize and accept what they actually do think and feel.

The CEO shared this: “No matter how many different ways we wanted employees to take action and feel ‘all in,’ it wasn’t until we understood and accepted what employees were truly thinking, and met them where they truly were – not where we believed they should be – that we were able to get traction on our strategy.”

Too many strategic plans fail because we’ve forgotten this basic formula when it comes to human performance: Thoughts create feelings. Feelings drive actions. Actions create results. For actions to work and a strategy to progress, start by identifying the real thoughts and feelings of your workforce. Don’t skip this step. Take the time to get this piece right so that you build actions that can catch hold, create momentum, and deliver results.