“We’re on the B-Team” Dealing With Resistance and Entrenched Employees

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One of the questions I get asked often times is how to deal with entrenched employees. So let me tell you a little story. I was essentially the city manager for an air force base of 23,000 military and civilians in the western part of the United States, and there was a civil servant a very, very competent, solid, and great leader. We were sitting there talking, and she says to me one day, “You know what, I’m on the B team.”And I’m like, “What is she talking about?” Because for me you’re on the A-Team leading out front.

She says, “Yeah, we’re going to BE here after you leave!”

Then I understood. For military people coming through on an assignment, we’re on a rotation of two to three years max. On the other hand, civil servants are generally in one place for an entire career.

But we military are coming in and with all these great ideas, and people used to joke that we come in with the with the good idea fairy that’s flying around your head, waiting to land.

So there’s a natural resistance to change. However, as a leader you have a responsibility to lead change.

Change is part of the environment that you’re dealing with. If you stay static eventually you’re going to go into a death spiral.

So how do you deal with employees that are there an entire career that have their own networks and ideas about things and may in fact mount active resistance to the change you want to implement?

Let me give you a couple of ideas.

The first thing is to build relationships with the people that can influence the outcome that you’re trying to achieve, like the civilian leader I mentioned in my story. We eventually developed an understanding between one another. This doesn’t mean that she supported the direction I wanted to go all the time, but we established a channel that we could have forthright, honest conversations. By the time I left—yes she was on the B-team but she had helped me accomplish some very important hard projects to move the organization forward.

Number two is to communicate your vision in a way that everybody can understand, and communicate the vision all the way down to the people that are actually getting the work done. Talk to them. Ask them what they think should be done to “change things around here.” If you those kind of people on board, and help you construct division you are much more likely be successful in your endeavors.

The third idea—and this is a quality that i think all leaders need in spades—is to persevere in your efforts. You will face resistance. You will face people that think every decision you make is wrong or boneheaded or ridiculous (you might want to listen to that advice from time to time!) Nonetheless, there are going to be time when you just have to blow through the resistance, and take the criticism because you’re not going to please everybody.

So to sum up, if you constructed relationships, if you constructed a shared vision, and you persevere in the implementation of that vision, you’ll be able to work through the resistance and deal productively with entrenched employees.

And, oh by the way, maybe get something awesome done while you’re in charge!