The Key to Eliminating Resistance

ELIMINATE RESISTANCE

Without buy-in, there will be resistance.

“People buy into the leader first, then the leader’s vision.” ~ John C. Maxwell

In The Transformation Equation, Leadership Development comes before Buy-In because of the principle contained in Maxwell’s quote above. Leadership Development is the key to generating Buy-In, especially when you’re trying to get people to buy into cultural transformation because developing effective, positive influence is the only way to get them to move from where they are to where you want them to be.

When the team doesn’t buy-in to the leader, there will always be resistance.

The team will be frustrated and the leader will be frustrated. When people are resisting their leader’s influence, they will be disengaged.

No one can be resistant and engaged at the same time. People resist specifically because they don’t want to engage. They may be resistant while being paid to be at work, but that doesn’t mean they have bought into the leader’s mission and vision. They may be at work, but they won’t be as productive as they could be.

Disengagement is simply a passive form of resistance.

I’m always amazed at the time, energy, and financial resources that are continuously spent on employee engagement surveys year after year as they continue to reveal that nothing is changing with the passing of time. 65-70% of employees on average continue to remain disengaged. In other words, they’re not bought-in to their leaders. This statistic hasn’t changed in the past 30 years or more.

Leaders are still continuing to ask, “Why?”

For those who have a deep understanding of high impact leadership, the answer to “Why?” is very clear: The people aren’t engaged because their leaders aren’t engaged.

The leaders may be extremely engaged when it comes to managing the people, but they’re extremely disengaged when it comes to leading the people. Without effective leadership development, there will not be effective leadership of people.

Managers of people conduct employee engagement surveys because they don’t know what they don’t know about leadership. This doesn’t mean they’re bad people or dumb people. They simply can’t know what they don’t know. Conducting an engagement survey is a management activity. Another attempt at managing the people like objects.

Doing something about engaging the disengaged is a leadership activity. However, if those managers of people actually knew what to do about the survey results, they would already be doing it and wouldn’t be spending time and money conducting a survey. If they were capable of leading the people to begin with, they wouldn’t have a reason to conduct a survey because the people would already be bought-in and engaged.

As long as management of people continues, disengagement will continue. Nothing will change except the people due to high turnover and low retention.

Buying-in is about wanting to, not having to.

If people had to buy-in, there would be 100% engagement instead of 30-35%. Without a transformational leader to lead the way, the disengaged will never become engaged because they don’t have to, and they don’t want to.

If you buy-in and act upon what I present to you in this book, Blue-Collar Leadership & Culture: The 5 Components for Building High Performance Teams, that transformational leader will be you.

If you’re resistant and not fully buying-in and think there’s another way, an easier way, or that what I’m proposing will never really work, it will not be you.

There’s only one way to create a high impact culture and to build a high performance team that will make your organization a sought after employer of choice within your industry and in your area of operation. It’s the mindset and methods I introduce to you in Blue-Collar Leadership & Culture. However, I only scratch the surface of what will ultimately be required.

When I say there’s only one way, I mean you must develop your character and the character of your team members. There is no other way.

Managers of people have insufficiently developed character and lack leadership ability. Therefore, they demand buy-in and struggle to get it.

Leaders of people have well-developed character and leadership ability. They achieve significant buy-in because they seek to earn it and refuse to demand it.

All of my character-based personal growth and leadership development books are full of principles that will help you build trust, generate buy-in, and engage your team.?Preview excerpts here (no email or subscription required).