Dear Change Leader,
“We just need to give it more time,” David told me.
He was six months into a major restructuring at his regional healthcare network — new reporting lines, redesigned workflows, a leadership team that had been reshuffled twice. On paper, the plan was solid. But the signals were troubling: key staff were disengaging, client complaints were ticking up, and the middle managers he needed to carry the change were quietly going through the motions.
His instinct was to hold the line. After all, change is hard. Resistance is normal. Good leaders don’t abandon ship the moment the waters get choppy.
He wasn’t wrong about any of that. But the line between persistence and stubbornness in leadership is one of the most consequential distinctions a change leader can make — and it’s rarely obvious until you know what to look for.
When Persistence Becomes Stubbornness
Persistence is among the most important qualities a change leader can have. Change is uncomfortable. People push back. Progress is rarely linear. If leaders adjusted course every time they encountered friction, nothing would ever get done.
But persistence has a shadow side. When we’ve invested heavily in a plan — our credibility, our energy, our identity as a leader — it becomes genuinely difficult to distinguish between “this is hard, and that’s normal” and “this isn’t working, and I need to adapt.”
The difference matters enormously. Persistence in the face of difficulty is courage. Persistence in the face of evidence is stubbornness — and it’s one of the most expensive mistakes a change leader can make.
Three Signals That It’s Time to Adapt, Not Just Push Harder
The challenge is that both persistence and stubbornness look exactly the same from the outside — and often from the inside, too. Here are three signals worth paying attention to:
- The resistance is substantive, not just emotional. Some resistance to change is predictable and temporary — people mourn the familiar, need time to adjust, and gradually come around. But when the people closest to the work are raising consistent, specific concerns about how the change is being implemented, that’s different. They’re not resisting the destination; they’re telling you something important about the route. If you find yourself dismissing concerns as “just change resistance” without really interrogating them, that’s worth examining.
This week: Identify the two or three people on your team who have been most vocal in their concerns. Rather than managing their resistance, ask them: “What would need to be different for this to work?” Listen for substance.
- Your early indicators are moving in the wrong direction — and have been for a while. Every change initiative has leading indicators — early signals that tell you whether you’re on track before the final results are in. If those indicators have been pointing in the wrong direction for more than a brief period, that’s data. Not necessarily a reason to abandon the plan, but a reason to take a hard look at your assumptions. Are you tracking the right things? And are you being honest with yourself about what those numbers are telling you?
This week: Name your three leading indicators for your current change effort. When did you last review them honestly — not to explain them away, but to really hear what they’re saying?
- You’re working harder to defend the plan than to deliver it. This is perhaps the most telling signal of all. When leaders find themselves spending significant energy justifying the approach — to their team, their board, their own inner voice — it’s often a sign that doubt has crept in but hasn’t been given permission to be productive. Healthy change has a quality of forward momentum. When the energy starts going into defending rather than advancing, the plan may need rethinking.
This week: Honest question — in your last three leadership conversations about this change, were you primarily moving things forward, or primarily explaining why the approach is still the right one?
Adaptation Is Not Failure
David and I eventually had a different kind of conversation — one where he set aside the need to be right about his original plan and got curious about what the signals were actually telling him. What he discovered was that the overall direction was sound, but two specific elements of the implementation needed to change. Adjusting them didn’t undermine the initiative. It rescued it.
Adapting mid-course is not a sign that you planned badly. It’s a sign that you’re paying attention — that you’re leading the actual change in front of you rather than the one you designed on paper.
The best change leaders hold two things at once: a clear commitment to where they’re going, and genuine openness to learning about how to get there. That’s not indecision. That’s wisdom.
Until next time,
P.S. If you’re in the middle of a change effort and finding it hard to tell the difference between normal turbulence and a genuine signal to adapt, that’s exactly the kind of conversation I have with leaders every day. Sometimes a thinking partner is all it takes to see clearly. Click here to set up a time to talk.
Recent Articles
Read other editions of this newsletter for further insights:
“Is Your Success Setting You Up for Decline?“ When things are going well, it’s tempting to keep doing what’s working. This newsletter explores the Sigmoid Curve — and why the best time to invest in renewal is before you need to.
“Measure Twice, Change Once“ The pressure to act quickly is real — but rushing into change without adequate preparation is one of the most common reasons initiatives fail. This newsletter walks through the four foundational moves that set a change effort up for success.
“The Fatal Flaw of ‘Ready, Fire, Aim‘” Launching before you’re truly ready has a hidden cost that shows up long after the kickoff meeting. This newsletter introduces the pre-mortem — a practical tool for identifying what could go wrong before it does.
EFFECTIVE CHANGE RESULTS FROM INTENTIONAL LEADERSHIP
We’re a leadership and organization development consultancy. My team and I work with leaders like you to prepare for and lead successful change processes.
Here’s why our clients call us:
- Leadership Coaching: I support leaders as they navigate transitions into new roles or expanded responsibilities.
- Group Coaching and Learning Programs: Bringing groups of leaders together, I facilitate learning experiences and months-long programs that equip people to be effective change leaders.
- Effective Teams and Stronger Organizations: I work with leaders and their teams with tailored processes that increase their effectiveness, building layers of aligned teams that transform organizations.