Resistance isn’t a leadership failure, it’s feedback, but if you don’t recognize it early or respond well, it becomes a drag on momentum. Especially in growing businesses, where old systems are breaking down and new ones aren’t fully formed yet, resistance is often misread as disloyalty or laziness.
In reality, it’s communication. When it comes to changing your organisation, “No” is an opportunity to pause, reflect, and reconnect with your stakeholders.
Leaders of small to mid-sized businesses, especially those transitioning to larger, more complex structures, need to develop not just systems for execution, but also a human-centered process for responding to emotional and psychological resistance.
This is where the 3 R’s of Empathetic Change Leadership come in:
- Recognize
- Relate
- Reinforce
These don’t replace a change strategy. They make it stick.
Recognize: Resistance is Data, Not Defiance
McKinsey estimates that 70% of change efforts fail, with resistance from employees cited as the leading cause.¹ The problem isn’t always the strategy, it’s that resistance isn’t addressed early enough or deeply enough.
Resistance shows up in three forms:
- Active: pushback, sarcasm, missed deadlines, or outright defiance
- Passive: disengagement, absenteeism, going through the motions
- Neutral: people waiting to see how things play out
Crucially, the “neutral middle” can be swayed, but only if leaders take time to understand what’s behind the hesitation.
Leaders should use diagnostic tools like readiness assessments, active listening, and culture audits to interpret the underlying causes, which often include:
- fear of the unknown
- loss of control
- unclear expectations
- cognitive overload
- poor past change experiences²
Understanding resistance as a protective response, not insubordination, builds the empathy required for productive leadership.
Relate: Build Safety Before You Push Change
Even with a solid plan, change fails without psychological safety. Neuroscience confirms that change often triggers a threat state in the brain, leading people to shut down.³ That’s why leaders who communicate only in logic and deadlines often hit walls. They haven’t engaged the emotional engine of the team.
Good change leadership involves:
- Acknowledging the emotional toll of change (grief, anxiety, exhaustion)
- Creating spaces for honest feedback, without retribution
- Reframing the change as something meaningful, not just operational
One technique: ask extraordinary questions—like “What are you worried we’ll lose if this works?” This way you open dialogue, you don’t shut it down.⁴
Bridges’ Transition Model and the Kübler-Ross Change Curve both emphasize this; people need time to emotionally disengage from the old before they can embrace the new.⁵
Reinforce: Momentum Comes from Meaningful Action
Finally, change only sticks if you reinforce the right behaviors consistently, visibly, and systemically. That means:
- Celebrate early wins, no matter how small
- Invest in training and resources
- Run pivot/persevere reviews to adjust based on feedback
- Reward behavior that models the new culture
It also means knowing when to stop. Leaders should not push through initiatives that aren’t working. Smart organizations schedule monthly or quarterly reviews to determine whether to pivot, persevere, or stop; a discipline that separates resilient cultures from reactive ones.⁶
Bottom Line: Treat Resistance as a Leadership Invitation
In smaller organizations, where every person and process matters more, the ability to lead through resistance becomes a core leadership competency. The 3 R’s are simple, but backed by serious evidence:
- Recognize resistance early, before it hardens
- Relate to people’s fears, hopes, and fatigue
- Reinforce change with consistent support and structure
These aren’t soft skills. They’re success skills. The future of your business depends on how well you lead not just the change—but the people who need to live it.
Footnotes
- “70% of Change Initiatives Fail,” McKinsey & Company, accessed June 2, 2025, https://newsletter.wildcapital.co/p/70-change-initiatives-fail-mckinsey
- “Complete Guide: Managing Resistance to Change,” Prosci, accessed June 2, 2025, https://www.prosci.com/managing-change-resistance
- Sana Ross, “Neuroscience and L&D: Overcoming Resistance to Change,” Sanaross.com, accessed June 2, 2025, https://www.sanaross.com/the-neuroscience-of-achieving-more/neuroscience-and-ld-overcoming-resistance-to-change
- Horizons Project, “Good vs. Toxic Polarization,” accessed June 2, 2025, https://horizonsproject.us/good-vs-toxic-polarization-twitt/
- “Bridges Transition Model,” EBSCO Research Starters, accessed June 2, 2025, https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/business-and-management/bridges-transition-model
- “Knowing When to Pivot, Persevere, or Stop,” 1CMO, accessed June 2, 2025, https://1cmo.com/knowing-when-to-pivot-persevere-or-stop/