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How to Handle Resistant Personalities
All organizations have people who are opposed to changes in the status quo. These people have either helped create or worked within a structure for years, and it has become their comfort zone. Individuals like this will likely guard their zone fiercely and are opposed to policy change, feeling it could affect their job security. They may even feel that their authority has been threatened. It’s important to identify and deal with these individuals directly if you want to ensure the success of your new initiatives. Generally, there are two ways to approach people who resist or derail efforts to change:
- Co-opt Resistance: You work to change the individual’s position or point of view.
- Workaround Islands: You work around the individual because changing their point of view is impossible.
Which method you use is dependent upon the type of individual you encounter. In this discussion, we’ll identify the different personality types you’re likely to meet and examples of how to handle them effectively.
Type #1: What’s In It For Me?
This person has invested too much into their current point of view and is threatened by any change. The only way to connect with them is to prove that they will benefit from the change. To co-opt this type of personality, you’ll need to…
