Is your team resisting change? Here’s how the best advice businesses get it right

But for those of you thinking “I can’t wait for this period of flux to be over, then I’ll be able to relax a bit”, think again. The combined forces of technology and new business models are here to stay and will continue to change what it means to deliver a modern, relevant financial advisory experience. As modern professionals and leaders, we need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable, and our teams must follow suit. Change is inevitable and to put it bluntly, our only decision is the degree to which we want to be proactive in anticipating change and responding accordingly, or otherwise be forced to change at a time outside of our choosing.

For those of you in the middle of a small or big change within your business, you’re probably experiencing how hard it is to upgrade the way you do things. You most likely kicked off the early stages of your project with gusto and optimism but before too long, your energy, focus and traction have started to disappear. For many leaders, our businesses become akin to the house of a home renovator who starts a bunch of DIY improvement projects but never finishes any of them.

For teams of people with varying degrees of openness to change, it’s never going to be easy to change the way you do things, but improving your business doesn’t have to be like ‘pulling teeth’. Through managing change within dozens of financial advice firms, I have found some common principles that the best businesses understand better than the rest. Here are four ways to make essential changes in your business with maximum support and minimum frustration.

Involve your team early

Far too often, I see a business leader go to a webinar or conference, see some brand new idea (read: bright shiny distraction) and make a significant internal change without consulting the people around them. Teams lack context for why they are changing this thing when there are a bunch of glaringly obvious problems in your business that your new solution most likely fails to address. This is a sure-fire way for your team to breed resentment and work against change rather than enable it.

You will be surprised how well tuned-in your team members are to the challenges in your operations and potential solutions. They just need to be invited into these discussions and most importantly, listened to.

You probably have great ideas as a leader, but it’s also likely that many of them are mistimed. Work with your team to triage the right problems and most suitable solutions, and experience the powerful force of a team working together on a common goal, rather than everyone pulling in different directions. Communication is the secret sauce of team buy-in.

Narrow your focus

If you have too many priorities, you have no priorities. We have limited time, energy and focus and combined with our tendency to underestimate how long it takes to implement a project, the more we have on our plate, the less traction we will develop. If there’s one thing that will reduce the trust of your team in your ability to lead meaningful improvements, it’s the tendency to start a bunch of projects and take too long to finish any of them.

Prioritise outcomes over ideas by ruthlessly triaging the changes you want to make in your business, focusing on as few as possible at a time (one to two is a great target). If you get bored quickly and find more joy in starting rather than finishing projects, that’s completely fine; just find someone on your team who is a great finisher and can turn your excellent ideas into meaningful change.

When you have the option, it’s always better to start small and focus on a more manageable piece of a bigger puzzle. Implement well, then decide on the next step. Rinse and repeat.

Create better accountability

When your team considers change a ‘nice-to-do’ rather than a ‘must-do’, you set yourself up for failure. Most of the time, business improvements are important without being urgent. Unless there are consequences to pushing these important projects down your to-do list, you and your team will never prioritise them.

The first step in turning important ideas into outcomes is making yourself more accountable for the ‘doing’ part. Build a rhythm of regular meetings or rituals with other key team members that focus on significant changes and give you nowhere to hide when it comes to following through. As a general rule, I have found fortnightly project meetings that feed into a 90-day planning cycle strike the right balance between getting stuff done and not allowing you and your team to get distracted.

Also consider how you can make others in your team accountable for necessary change. You may be surprised at how much improvement you can create across your business by allocating important priorities to high-performing people. With the proper accountability in place, you will become more comfortable letting go of the implementation bit.

Share success stories

Business leaders are inherently future-focused and once an important change has been implemented (or even beforehand), they’re usually quickly focused on the next one. This future-focused mindset is part of the entrepreneurial spirit but it often neglects a critical opportunity to create trust and belief across your team as to why ‘all this change stuff’ is necessary.

Far too often, I see teams of people working hard to put an idea into action without any visibility over the difference their change has made. Many business improvements are responsible for saving time, delighting clients, making money or reducing stress and yet if team members aren’t aware of this, it’s easy for them to think that the changes they’re making are a waste of time. If your team aren’t on board with changing how they do things, perhaps you need to ‘up your PR game’.

Demonstrate to your team that you’re not changing things for the sake of it. There are problems to solve, and the projects they are working on are solving them. By closing the feedback loop on how your team are contributing to the success of your business, they will be more satisfied and engaged with the work they’re doing and have a growing appetite to be involved in future business improvements.

Michael Back, founder and business coach, Human to Human

Neil Griffiths

Neil is the Deputy Editor of the wealth titles, including ifa and InvestorDaily.

Neil is also the host of the ifa show podcast.