Any leader will tell you that acceptance of change – big or small, expected or unexpected, internal or external – takes time. But if you’re navigating change and feel like you just can’t get your team on board, experts indicate it might be time to turn toward team dynamics.

Acknowledge the emotional burden of change

According to Forbes contributor and career coach Luciana Paulise, change and grief are not so different from one another. “Most managers consider only what the employees may rationally need to do their work throughout the change, but not many worry much yet about what the employee may need emotionally,” she says.



Paulise compares the stages of accepting a change to those of grief:

• Denial
• Anger
• Confusion
• Depression
• Crisis
• Acceptance
• New confidence

It’s important to know that, also like grief, these stages may not be linear and may occur more than once throughout the change process. Additionally, if one team member is stuck in the anger or depression phase, it’s possible they will hold their colleagues back from progressing to acceptance and new confidence.

As a leader, acknowledging some of these emotions to the group can help team members feel heard and understood, allowing them to move through the phases instead of getting stuck. Set aside time in your schedule to listen to their concerns. Even if you cannot meet their requests, the fact that they were heard will go a long way toward acceptance.

Avoid common change management pitfalls

Experts at the Harvard Division of Continuing Education agree that change management success depends on so-called soft skills: “When change initiatives fail (and they do so more often than not) they rarely fail on technical skills (hard skills), they fail on the people skills.”

They identify seven common mistakes that leaders make when it comes to change management, and all of them revolve around the people skills of communication, collaboration, and culture:

• Incomplete or poorly defined strategy
• Rigid strategy
• Lack of communication
• Failure to identify and address resistance
• Disconnection between strategy and culture
• Unrealistic expectations
• Failure to create and celebrate short term wins

If it seems like this is a long list to manage, you’re right – leading through change is no easy feat. These seven common pitfalls become a lot easier to avoid when you’ve already established a healthy team dynamic as your foundation.

In order to align your change management strategy with your culture, you have to have a robust culture in place. In order to identify and address resistance, your team has to be honest with you. If you have a history of struggling to lead your team through change, you might have larger team dynamics issues that need to be addressed.

Activate a strategy that works for your team

Leadership and team development done in-house only goes so far. If you have big changes on the horizon or have implemented changes that are not going well, it might be time to integrate some external guidance on team dynamics.

Be sure to look for a talent development partner that evaluates not only individual strengths and weaknesses, but also those of the team as a whole. Ideally, feedback from team members about leadership and about one another can be incorporated into an actionable strategy for team cohesion and change acceptance.

Here at Teamalytics, we offer proprietary analytic tools and three decades of experience working with leaders. We help companies scale for growth, nurture struggling teams, and navigate mergers and acquisitions. Change is a constant in this modern, complex world, and you shouldn’t have to manage it without support. We equip leaders with tools that serve them no matter what situation arises.

Above all, you need to find the best talent development partner for you and your organization. That’s why we’ve created the free guide, “Key Considerations When Choosing a Talent Development Partner.” Short and to the point, this guide will help you take the first steps toward hiring an external group to help you navigate change with your team. Take ten minutes to read it today.