Inheriting a Leadership Team with a Change Mandate
- Priya Venkatesan
- 2 hours ago
- 2 min read
When your leadership team resists your change agenda, they are pushing back on who they need to become to deliver it.
This is the lesson every leader learns the hard way when they inherit a team with a mandate to change.
Context:
You've been brought in to lead change: A new role. A clear mandate. An ambitious timeline.
But the team you're leading was already there. They built what exists. They were successful in it. They know what you don't.
Now you're asking them to let go of what made them successful.
The leader who built their reputation on deep expertise? You're asking them to delegate.
The leader who thrived on control? You're asking them to trust.
The leader who knew all the answers? You're asking them to learn again.
This is a change in identity. And identity doesn't shift quickly.
So how does one navigate from here?
Accept the resistance
It starts here. For every new way you propose, they have a reason why it has to stay as it is.
They don't confront you. They dont say No. However passive resistance is on.
New things move at snail's pace because they wait for you to figure the context better.
A great question to break the status quo will be:
What is this change asking you to let go of?Then listen.
Foundation
When you listen without resistance, offence or defence, you become enriched with what exactly is the reality today. They start understanding that you are not here to prove them wrong. You are here to make things better.
Then you get to hear the real reasons things work the way they do. They start sharing what they're afraid of losing. The skills that defined them. The reputation they built. The version of themselves they're being asked to leave behind.
This is what you needed all along.
Now, co-create the path forward.
Sometimes the change you are charted to complete could be one sided. Still work out how it can be implemented with the least hurt as possible. See the human in the change.
Momentum
Tie the change to their growth. Meaning creates motivation.
Once trust is offered, change co-created, and they find it meaningful, your collective agenda picks up momentum.
This becomes the new reality of the team.
Reflection questions for a leader with change mandate
What is your change agenda asking your leaders to let go of?
Where does your team need your ear?
What is left unsaid by your team?
What is left unheard by you as a leader?
What can be co-created by the collective?
This is Part 5 of my Leading Leaders series. Stay tuned for the next.
