Leaders: 3 Ways To Overcome Pushback To Change At Work

For leaders who want to create a more positive workplace culture. In this recording from an Insight Timer live, Nik you in on three ways to get people on board with your vision and how to handle pushback.

Transcript

Welcome conscious leaders to this beautiful insight time alive.

I go live every couple of weeks and we talk about a new topic of conscious leadership and today's topic is about three ways to overcome pushback when you're wanting to create change in a workplace.

So I'm assuming that you're in a position where you are able to create change and if you're like and I'm what I mean by creating changes maybe you're in a position to create systemic change in your workplaces or maybe you're just creating change from a really individual place right so you're doing change on yourself and this is having ripple effects out towards the people who work with you.

Either way is great okay either way is great and I always advocate for first personal work and then let those and then work outwards right.

So some of you may have come across the Buddhist meditation called loving-kindness and loving-kindness works in the same way.

First you work on loving yourself and then you work on loving the people that you like and then you work on love like loving the people that may be outside of your circles and then you think about loving strangers and then you think about loving me people you don't like and then you think about loving the world okay.

So just in the same way when we're creating change we want to be working firstly on ourselves and then coming out towards systemic change but if you're in the position where you are able to make changes in the systems in the ways that you're working in your business then go for it right.

We're going to talk about three ways to overcome pushback to change and creating a workplace culture that embraces evolution.

Now if you're not familiar with who I am or how I work I'm Nick Chung I'm a conscious leadership coach and mentor and I'm here to bring more of the spiritual and personal work that is necessary for us to develop as a human species into traditional workplaces.

So I know that this is often taboo area right people don't want to talk about spirituality or personal development necessarily in office spaces but it is a necessary evolution that has to happen if we want to create a world that is more compassionate and more inclusive of everyone and where we can thrive as a species.

Now how I see a workplace working is that workplace is kind of like the school for adults right just as we were we were in school and we had a lot of influence from the teachers that we were taught by the same occurs in a workplace where the leaders maybe that's you the leaders who we work under really can influence the trajectory of our lives and so the workplace is a really wonderful space for us to be able to create change in the world.

So let's get started into the guts of the three ways to overcome pushback to change when you're creating something empowering in your workspace and the first one is one of the foundations that I talk about that you have to get under your belt if you want to become a conscious leader and that is compassion.

Yes the big C so under compassion is really this idea that through compassion we can start to understand that any kind of change that we are trying to implement is scary for people right just think about yourself for a second when you've gone through a significant change how scary that may have been or how fearful you may have been about making that change.

The same goes in a workplace right we're not not human in a workplace we're not robots in a workplace and so you as a leader in order to create this change and make it more comfortable and more empowering for your people really have to practice compassion.

There are going to be people who do not like it who do not want it one of the reasons might be because of fear actually probably most of the reasons going to be because of fear there's going to be fear about losing jobs maybe there might be fear about what that means in terms of their work security it might mean that some people might be scared about how that affects their position.

Remember that although we are here to create amazing empowering workspaces and we're here to create change and maybe get rid of some of these toxic workplace practices that occur there are also people who really benefit from the system staying the same right and so maybe some of the pushback is actually from those people they're like well if you change the way that we're working and you're empowering everyone how am I going to be able to stay on top of this you know.

So if you've been with me before you know that I talk a lot about competition in the workplace and how we have to move away from that we really have to think about as conscious leaders how can I create a culture that empowers everyone to thrive not only so they can hit their goals in the workspace but also thrive as human being on all levels outside of the workplace.

As a conscious leader you have decided that it's your responsibility to take care of and help the people that you are so blessed to lead and empower them to live really fulfilling lives and this is a legacy that you get to leave so the first thing compassion you need to nail this remember that firstly start with yourself are you being compassionate to yourself it's all good to practice compassion kindness with other people but to really be authentic and in integrity with compassion you have to be able to do it with yourself first.

So I love this because as you probably know having already done some personal development I'm assuming we have layers of which we can go deeper with any practice that we have so I had my if you want to call it a spiritual reawakening about 10 years ago and you know have done a lot of compassion work and it was one of the first things that really came into my life in terms of a spiritual practice was compassion with myself however I'm still doing that work now so don't think that you know I've done it once I've got a practice I've done it once don't need to do it again as we get deeper into our work and we become more aware of who we are and how we operate and some of the maybe less helpful beliefs identities that we hold we start to understand that there are subtle ways of which we are not compassionate with ourselves so just as we're practicing this compassion to be able to handle some of the pushback that may happen when we want to create change so we're being compassionate to the fact that people are fearful of change and when I say people it's actually the ego right we also need to make sure that we're being compassionate with ourselves so that when we are leading with compassion we're actually leading an integrity so being an integrity and being in an authenticity so rather than doing compassion for compassion sake because that works you have to be doing with yourself first as well okay so the first thing is compassion first up with yourself make sure that you are doing it as well as you can with yourself and then in integrity you're able to display that to the people who may be pushing back against this positive change that you want to bring into your workplace remember a lot of the pushback is due to fear where does fear come from fear comes from the ego the ego loves to keep us safe it loves to keep us in familiar territory even if it's not territory that actually makes us feel good right it's familiar so whatever is familiar is safe to the ego and so when change happens the ego rocks up and is like I don't like this I don't like it at all I don't want to be here I want to push up against anything that is going to make me change anything that is making me feel unsafe so when we get that perspective of everything when we get that perspective that pushback often comes from fear and fear comes from the ego and the ego is really just this this part of us that wants to be safe we start to have more compassion for that person and we can bring that again as I said at the start back to ourselves when have I been fearful of change we are all very alike remember that we're all very alike with how we react we're all very very similar to each other so have compassion for the people who are pushing back on you this also brings you to a state where rather than pushing up back against them fighting against them you're going to bring them into a fold of love what this serves to do is that it serves to bring that sense of safety to that person so let me just catch up on some on some comments that have come through office hello office keeping positive while this is important though this is important because it's a revolutionary process it is absolutely yep yep it absolutely is it is a revolutionary process so when we're looking at changing systems and making workplaces more humanizing more empowering to our people when we want to bring in more of that as a conscious leader it is important to be positive absolutely and compassion is one of those things that can keep you allow you to be allow you to be positive in the in the face of having pushback right Paul let me have a look at this any suggestions for handling institutional pushback conscious leadership can be powerful for self and the individuals around you but it feels impossible when the infrastructure is so strong well yes Paul okay hmm let me just I'm just going to tune in to see if I can do this in a really succinct way because this is the work that I do with conscious leaders is to create institutional pushback let me just see if I can give you a really quick wind for today Paul I think we're going to get there with the next thing that I'm going to talk about okay so hang on to that question and if I haven't answered it well at the end I'll see if I can give you a few more little wins okay so let's move on this is great Paul thank you because we're gonna move on to the second thing which you can do to overcome pushback and that is share your vision so Paul was talking about how can I handle institutional pushback yeah it is a big question Paul how can I handle institutional pushback part of that is sharing the vision right when we're talking about institutional pushback sharing your vision of say creating change at being a conscious leader and trying to change systems and having infrastructure which is so strong that doesn't want to change remember there are people who benefit from the infrastructure staying the way it is when you share your vision the way that you want to be able to do this in terms of handling that infrastructure is that you need to align your vision with the goals and the values of that institution so for example if we have a company that has certain goals they want to meet certain values that they hold when you are say pitching this Paul as a way to go forward you need to align your vision and share your vision in a way that's going to say hey we are going to be able to hit these goals we are going to be able to stay aligned to our values and we're going to be able to do it in such a way that everyone else also feels empowered if we go this way there has to be some kind of benefit and benefit and alignment to the business in question to change infrastructure so that's the really simple way of saying it Paul as I said this is kind of the work that I do with clients as we really dive into this and like how can we make this change really comfortable for everyone how can we get everyone on board so if that's something that interests you you know that's something we could talk to you later but hopefully that gives you an idea of where you need to head so when we share our vision it's this is not only just for institutional change this is also about getting your team on board right but at any level whether it's getting your team on board who are giving you pushback or whether it's getting institutions on board that are giving you pushback you need to really understand who you are talking to so when we are sharing our vision it's not just about blurting out your vision and going I have this dream of creating empowering workspaces everyone get on board part of how you share effectively is by communicating effectively what is communication it is not just speaking to people it's listening to people so part of the process of sharing your vision is having this communication piece and this communication piece involves you speaking to people and understanding their motivations understanding their values understanding their goals and when you are speaking then about your vision when you're sharing your vision with them you want to make sure that you're saying it in such a way if it is true okay so remember we have to stay in integrity we're not going to lie our way through this but if it is true align how you frame your vision to align with the values and goals that a person has as an individual or an institution has now I guarantee that you'll be able to find some kind of alignment there there are so many ways that you can you can align that in a in a in a way that's authentic if it's really off and I don't really know how because I haven't come up against this I've always found a way of where we where we can you know pitch it in a way that is aligned maybe it's time for a change maybe it's time to leave that place and get out that's like last resort right because I really believe conscious leaders like you like Paul has I think Paul must be one of these people that you can really create a change most of it is about being really creative with your thinking being a solutions person as what I would call it yeah rather than seeing it as like oh you know we've got these huge infrastructures that feel impossible to break down it's never gonna happen it's how how how constantly asking how how can I do this how can I do this get curious how can I do this what would be needed of me to be able to do this and honestly if you're having truthful honest transparent conversation with people in a heart-centered way you almost always find a common ground somewhere yeah so Paul let me know if that helped answering your questions and for everyone else remember this isn't just about the the question that Paul has this is one of the ways that you can overcome that pushback whether it's from your team from an individual or from an institution sharing your vision in a way that is aligned with their values and goals is going to help them get on board so to recap we've done two of the three ways to overcome pushback to change one is being compassionate being understanding that fear often comes through when you are creating change yeah so practicing compassion with yourself remember you want to be an integrity so with yourself first and then with everyone else the second thing is sharing your vision making sure that it is an alignment sharing it in such a way that it is an alignment with people's values and goals and this will mean that more people will be able to come on board and back your vision yeah now the last way to overcome pushback to change is this include absolutely everyone if you can in your decision-making I know that takes so much time and it's so much easier if we can just do the things ourselves I hear you and it's like oh more voices we have on board the more crazy it gets it does the thing is when you are implementing change how coming back to this this idea of communication right when we're implementing change we really want to be transparent with our communication transparent with where we're going and so if we can if we have the opportunity to include people in decision-making key decision-making points or we're taking of them along the journey with us so really this maybe should be being transparent in your journey then what happens is people feel involved they feel part of a mission they feel like they have had their personal hand in creating the thing that you're going to create yeah so what we're doing here is we're asking people to come on board and be part of the team and what that is in in other words is the buy-in we want them to buy into our vision so how do we do that yeah of course we share our vision with them but we also make them part of it if they're willing to be part of the decisions that we make to go forward along with that is that constant communication of the journey that we're on so it's all good to like share a vision and then completely forget about it not share anything about it and then everyone's like what's happening I've personally seen that in a organization that I worked with where they were going through some massive changes I actually came in in a really terrible time because I got contracted to come in and work and then I found out that we're having these changes literally on the day I signed my contract it was crazy I was like so what's happening but no one could answer my questions because there was such a lack of communication between the leadership team and everyone else no one really knew what was going on I figured out what was going on about a week in but I had to constantly ask for updates now you don't want your people to feel like they're not part of the journey the more that they are feel like they're part of the journey the more likely that they're going to back you and they're going to come onto your side and even the ones that are pushing back if you just involve them just keep involving them just keep asking them even if they're like no I don't want to be involved with your thing just ask them keep keep the invitation open keep communicating with them and slowly you'll see that people come around I know that this can be a really time-consuming thing and this is why often people don't want to do this part they don't want to involve others it's like if I just have one or two people on board then we can make this change really quickly but what happens then is that you're setting yourself apart from all of the other people in your institutional organization that's not the point of conscious leadership conscious leadership is about involvement and empowerment of everyone so one of the ways that we can combat I shouldn't say combat because we're not about combat either are we one of the ways that we can overcome pushback is by involving everyone in the journey and especially on those key decisions that may affect people let them have their say let people be heard let them feel valued for their opinions and you're more likely to have people instead of pushing back at you giving you ways of which you can go forward so we've gone through three of the ways to overcome pushback to change if you're a conscious leader who is creating these huge changes and you want to create a culture that embraces evolution one is compassion second one is sharing your vision and the third one is including them in the journey now I do have a bonus tip for you about how to overcome pushback and it is this always always act in integrity and what I mean by that is act in integrity to your vision so I'm assuming as a conscious leader that your vision is to create empowering spaces empowering workplaces places that make people feel human that treat people well that allow them to develop into beautiful human beings outside of the workplace as well I am assuming that that is your vision so if you have that vision make sure that you are living that within yourself and you are being the role model of that now so not when it happens not when the systems have changes but now this is what I mean by acting in integrity with your vision so that is the final bonus tip of how to get people on board be the role model act in integrity with your vision right now awesome so let us dive into a quick meditation to integrate what we have learned today three ways plus a bonus tip of how to overcome pushback to change one was compassion have understanding about the fear of change share your vision in a way that is aligned with people's own values and goals and include people in the journey and then the bonus was acts and integrity to your vision be the role model let me just take a moment I'm just going to tune in and see what we need as a collective to integrate today so give me one second while I do that oh wonderful okay so we are going to dive into a meditation all about believing that it is possible so when I tuned into the energy or what we needed as a collective it's this feeling that what we want to create is possible yeah so there's there's a bit of self-doubt that this can happen not self-doubt I shouldn't say self-doubt there is doubt that this can happen yeah maybe it's because you have infrastructure that is so strong or traditional workplaces that are so embedded and what they do and how they do it or like people say the old boys club doesn't have to be the old boys it could be the old girls club who like to keep things the way they are perhaps there's just some tough nuts to crack and you feel like I've got this huge vision but I don't know if it's possible we're gonna fix that right now okay so if this sounds fun for you stick around and if it's safe for you to do so close your eyes and start to tune into your breath hmm and just notice the quality of your breath whether it is long short ragged deep notice the quality and as you notice it consciously start to ask it to be deeper and longer and slower breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth and if there's a lot of tension you can audibly breathe out you can do an R or a sound you might want to go oh what we're doing is we're drawing all of our attention to the breath so any thoughts that you have about the past or what you have to do in the future or what you're doing after this meditation just let them drop and concentrate on your breath breathe in through the nose through the mouth we ask for any stress any fear anything that is other than presence to drop away with the out breath and just continue to take a few deep breaths slowly deeply and deliberately and now I invite you to bring to mind that doubt piece where you think hmm not sure if I can actually create this vision just bring it to mind notice its quality notice its flavor notice maybe how it tastes or smells or looks like or sounds like tap into your senses and activate the senses and just see what this doubt manifests as there's no right or right or right or wrong way to do this so just trust whatever is coming up for you visualize taste see feel this doubt and continue to breathe deeply and slowly now if there's any tension that has been built up just by simply observing this doubt remember that out breath that out breath is magical and you can use it to audibly sigh or just heavy breath out letting go of any tension or stress associated with this doubt letting go of any fear associated with this doubt letting go of anything other than present presence with the out breath beautiful and now we're going to use the out breath in a different way so now as we observe the doubt that has come up about am I able to create the change that I want is it possible as we observe the doubt we're now going to use the breath as if it is powerful which it is and you're almost going to use it as the wind that blows the dust of doubt away so this time take a nice deep breath in feel that doubt and as you breathe out imagine that you're breathing that doubt away from your energetic field deep breaths blowing it away and for some of you if the doubt is incredibly strong what it's doing is it's breaking up each out out breath is breaking this up into smaller and smaller pieces blowing it away or breaking it up into smaller and smaller pieces for those of you who are breaking up into smaller pieces breaking it up into even smaller pieces until they become as small as dust where a simple breath can blow it out of your path for those who like energy work and want some assistance with this just say a yes in your third eye and I will give a group for those of you who say yes I'll give a group energy to assist you with moving that doubt for those of you who prefer to just do it on your own perfectly fine and absolutely capable of doing that so breathing in breathing out seeing that dust of doubt moving breaking up being blown away and now with the final breaths that we're going to take I want you to imagine that you blow it so far that a distant wind picks it up and takes it away from you further than you could with your own breath so really using the out breath to visualize yourself breathing that doubt out and away and seeing it being picked up by another wind and out of your field and seeing it being picked up by another wind and being blown out of not only your field but the field of all the people around you who are involved in this change and seeing that wind may be gathering up everyone else's doubt that this change can happen and taking it far far away beautiful and now focusing yourself now that you have this clear space focusing yourself on your in breath and see in your mind's eye feel that this pathway is now clear feel the self-doubt having gone not the self-doubt the doubt having gone see the pathway clear in front of you and just notice on the sides of the path people and things and situations and energies that support this vision that you have see how they support the path that you are on see how some use their outbreath to push you further along this path see how there is no longer any obstacles for you moving forward with your vision feel your feet strong anchored down through your pelvis transferring all the way up through your spine a strong spine standing tall in the vision that you have to create empowering spaces for your people see the pathway clear see the support for you on this pathway breathe it all in and when you're ready take some steps outward along this pathway firmly and sure each step one step at a time creating the vision that you have for yourself and for your people and staying in this vibration slowly coming here back here opening your eyes and returning to the space firmly anchored in a pathway that is clear for you to go and create the awesome changes that you are here to create thank you beautiful conscious leaders thank you for being here today with me I hope that this was incredibly useful for you so if you like what you were part of today come and follow me on Nick Chung on Insight Timer and you will be able to see when I schedule my next live and we'll talk about another topic that can help you really step into your evolution as a conscious leader and I'm so stoked that I get to be part of your journey even if it's just this thank you so much for letting me in if it feels good to you too I do accept donations so if you're like hey I'd really love to grab your coffee Nick I'd love a coffee actually I'd really love a hot cacao so you can drop in some donations they will they help me to be here a little bit more often and to create some more resources for you otherwise I really hope that you join me again if you found it if you found it useful come and join me I just love being in the vibration of people like you who are here to create amazing change thank you thank you for being you go out in this vibration where your pathway is clear where you are standing firmly and stepping firmly forward confidently forward no more doubt get on with it I love and appreciate every single one of you have the most amazing rest of your days or evenings and I hope to hang out again bye for now