Lead the Change, Keep the Team

There’s an old African proverb: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

I reminded a coachee of this recently. He was preparing to launch a new initiative and anticipating resistance. He felt strongly about the importance of this project to the organization’s success, yet knew the magnitude of the change would unsettle some of his direct reports; leaders who had been with the organization for years and were deeply invested in the past, not the future.

He could “go fast” and arrive alone at a solution that might look elegant on paper but prove unworkable in practice. Or he could learn to “go together” and build the kind of ownership that makes real progress possible.

This tension is especially sharp for leaders who are new to a team or organization. They are often selected specifically to add value, not to maintain the status quo, and they bring a fresh perspective that can be enormously useful. Process improvements, AI applications, strategic shifts, and product innovations all benefit from that new lens, but only when it’s paired with the deep institutional knowledge already on the team. The question is never whether to change. It’s how to bring the right people with you.

So how do you go together?

Build the Case for Change

People are more likely to embrace change when they understand that staying put carries its own risks. Start by creating a clear, honest picture of what’s at stake: the competitive threats, shifting market conditions, and evolving customer expectations that make the status quo no longer viable. You might accomplish this through:

  • An experiential exercise that places team members in the client’s shoes; having them interview end users or experience the product firsthand to see how it is actually performing.
  • A comparative analysis in which the team reviews expert assessments of comparable products or services in the market.
  • A forward-looking exercise that invites the team to imagine a clean slate and redesign the product or service from the ground up.

When people discover the need for change themselves—rather than simply being told about it, they become partners in the solution.

Address the Human Side of Change

Resistance to change is rarely about the initiative itself. More often, it’s about identity, security, and influence. As Spencer Johnson captured so vividly in Who Moved My Cheese?, people grow attached to their routines, their recognition, and their sphere of influence, and change threatens all three.

As a leader, your role is to help each person find their footing in the new landscape:

  • Identify and affirm each direct report’s individual strengths and the unique value they bring to the organization.
  • Clarify the capabilities the new initiative will require.
  • Where appropriate, align leaders with roles—on this team or another—where their strengths will have the greatest impact.
  • Invite the team to co-create the new routines, expectations, and decision-making structures that will define success going forward.

When people feel seen, valued, and involved, they are far more likely to contribute their best rather than protect the past.

Let Go of What No Longer Serves You

Every leader has earned their achievements. But sometimes, past success becomes the very thing that slows an organization down. The approaches that worked brilliantly in one era can quietly become a ceiling in the next.

A Fortune 500 company addressed this recently by forming a dedicated team charged with reinventing their manufacturing process using a clean-slate approach, imagining what might be possible with new tools, new technologies, and no sacred cows.

This kind of discipline is especially critical for organizations that have experienced significant past success but are now facing powerful external headwinds. The natural instinct is to dig in and repeat what has worked, or to pivot so sharply that you erode the core value your customers depend on. But this may be exactly the moment to reexamine your playbook and ensure your value proposition is still aligned with your market. Business history offers cautionary tales: Bed Bath & Beyond, Circuit City, Kmart, Blockbuster, and most recently Spirit Airlines all declined because they failed to adapt in time.

The path forward isn’t about abandoning what made you strong. It’s about carrying your strengths into a future that demands something new, and inviting your team to help build it with you.

Navigating change is never easy. But leaders who bring their people along, who make the case compellingly, address the human dimensions honestly, and create space for the team to co-design the future are the ones who go the farthest.

Copyright 2026 Priscilla Archangel.
Image from iContact.

Want more leadership tips read past leadership articles or check out the book LeaderVantage.