Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of performance through strong human relations, team building, and golachieving. This is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host Paul Fellavledo.
Hello everyone, and welcome to the seven Minute Leadership Podcast. It's episode five sixty seven. Every leader I know has lived this moment. You had good intent, you showed up, prepared, you thought through the decision, you believed you were doing the right thing for the team, and then you rolled it out and hit resistance. Not loud rebellion, not open defiance, but the subtle kind, crossed arms, side conversations, passive compliance,
silence where there should have been buy in. That moment messes with leaders because in your head you're thinking, I'm trying to help here, I'm trying to fix something. Why is this so hard? This episode is about what to do next, not how to avoid resistance. Resistance is part of leadership. This is how to course correct when your intent is good but your impact misses the mark. So let me ground this with a simple truth. Intent lives in your head, impact lives in their world, and leadership
is judged on impact. I see this all the time in ems, business, nonprofits, startups everywhere. A leader changes a process to improve safety or efficiency. A leader tightens standards to raise performance. A leader rolls out a new tool or expectation because it makes sense on paper. The intent is solid, the execution is clean, the reaction is cold. Here's where leaders often make their first mistake. They defend
the intent instead of diagnosing the resistance. They say things like I'm doing this for your benefit, or this is better for everyone, or you'll see why this matters later. And none of that helps. In fact, it deepens the resistance. Course correction starts with this mindset shift. Resistance is data, not disrespect. When I was learning to fly, one of the first things drilled into me was this. When the aircraft drifts off course, you do not panic. You do
not argue with the instruments. You make small, deliberate corrections, and leadership works the same way. When resistance shows up, it is telling you something. It might be fear, it might be fatigue. It might be confusion. It might be history. It might be timing. It might be that you're right, but you move too fast. Step one is slow the moment down. Do not double down immediately, Do not force compliance.
As a reflex pause long enough to ask yourself one question, what are they reacting to that I may not be seeing? And that question alone separates seasoned leaders from reactive ones. Step two is name the resistance out loud. This is where a lot of leaders get uncomfortable, but it matters. Silence allows stories to grow. You do not need to
justify the decision. You need to acknowledge the reality. You might say, I can feel some hesitation around this, or I'm sensing some pushback and I want to understand it, or this change landed heavier than I expected. That kind of language does two things. It lowers the temperature and it invites honesty. People resist harder when they feel unseen, they soften when they feel heard. Step three is set operate the goal from the method. This is a critical
leadership skill. Many leaders fall in love with their solution. They confuse the objective with the path they chose to reach it. Your goal might be safer operations, your method might be a new checklist, or your goal might be accountability, and your method might be stricter documentation. Or your goal might be growth. Your method might be new metrics. When resistance shows up, revisit the goal together, re anchor on the why, then be open to adjusting the how. This
isn't weakness. This is command presence. Strong leaders protect the mission, not their ego. I tell leaders all the time, do not die on the hill of a method if the mission still gets accomplished. Another way, Step four is own what you missed. This is where trust is built or lost. If you move too fast, say it. If you did not explain the reasoning clearly, say it. If you underestimated the workload impact, say it. If you assumed buy in without earning it, say it. Owning the miss does not
erase authority, It strengthens it. People follow leaders who are real enough to self correct in ems. We run after action reviews for a reason, not to assign blame, but to learn leadership should work the same way. Step five is reset expectations. Clearly, course correction does not mean abandoning standards. It means recalibrating how you get there. Once you have listened, clarified, and adjusted where needed, you restate the expectation with confidence, calm, clear,
and steady. This is what we're trying to accomplish. This is why it matters. This is how we're going to move forward together. Clarity kills resistance faster than pressure over will. And let me leave you with this. Good intent does not guarantee good leadership. Awareness does. The best leaders I know are constantly making small corrections. They read the room, they listen without flinching. They protect the mission while respecting the people. They do not confuse resistance with failure. They
treat it as feedback from the system. Leadership is not about getting it perfect the first time. It's about recognizing when the plane has drifted a few degrees and calmly bringing it back on course. So if you're facing resistance right now, do not retreat and do not bulldoze, pause, listen, adjust, and lead forward. That is how trust is built. That is how momentum is restored. That is how good intent
turns into real impact. So if this episode hit close to home, take seven minutes today and reflect on where resistance is showing up in your leadership. Ask yourself what it might be trying to tell you. Small corrections made early prevent major problems later. So stay grounded, stay accountable, and keep leading from the front. And this has been the seven minute Leadership Podcast, and I thank you for listening.
For more Paul fell of Alito Podcasts. Visit paulfellowalito dot com.