Top 5 Ways Leaders Derail Change (Without Realizing It)
- Ashley Andersen, MSW
- Dec 3, 2025
- 5 min read
Most change initiatives fail to meet their objectives—regardless of how well-planned or well-funded they are.
People want to blame strategy, because it’s more tangible. But it’s not that. And it’s not a resource issue either, despite what you’ve heard.
In a global study done by IBM, 60 percent of executives and project managers say changing mindsets and attitudes is the biggest challenge to implementing change, followed by corporate culture at 49 percent.
Influencing mindsets, shifting attitudes, and molding culture during change requires a very specific set of skills that most leaders are never taught—skills for navigating the emotional and psychological reality of change—working with how people are wired, not against it..
So leaders double down on what feels tangible and controllable: strategy, budget, processes. Meanwhile, resistance hardens, adoption stalls, and people burn out.
Here are the top 5 ways we see leaders derailing change without even realizing it—because they're neglecting that human dimension:
1. Treating Change as Episodic, Not Cultural
The mistake: Talking about change as something to "get through" so you can return to "business as usual."
I hear this all the time: "Once we get through this restructuring..." "After this implementation is done..." "When things settle down..."
Here's the problem: change isn't episodic anymore. It's constant. AI adoption, market shifts, leadership transitions, new competitors, evolving regulations—there's always something. Waiting for things to "settle down" sets your team up for disappointment and exhaustion. It’s like a roller coaster of emotions—and you pay the price for those lows.
What to do instead: Talk about change as an ongoing reality, and drive skill building that supports sustainable change navigation. Stop framing it as "getting through this" and start framing it as "building the muscles we need for what's ahead." This shift—from temporary disruption to permanent capability—removes the roller coaster ups and downs and puts your team on steadier ground.
2. Under-Communicating (or Over-Padding) the Truth
The mistake: Either staying silent because you don't have all the answers, or over-packaging bad news to make it sound better than it is.
Leaders often fall into two traps:
Under-communicating: "I'll wait until I have more clarity before saying anything."
Over-padding: "This is going to be great! So many exciting opportunities!" (when the reality is messy and hard).
Both erode trust. In the absence of real information, people's brains fill the gap with worst-case narratives. And when you over-pad difficult news, people feel patronized and stop believing what you say.
What to do instead: Communicate honestly and often. Say what you know AND what you don't know. "Here's what's decided. Here's what's still being figured out. Here's when you'll hear more." People don't need perfect certainty. They need transparency and opportunities to understand what’s happening in each shifting moment.
And as far as frequency goes, communicate 3-5 times more than feels necessary. What feels repetitive to you is just starting to land for your team, especially given the fact that our brains don’t always process information fully when we’re under stress—so that first time you told them something, it might have gone in one ear and out the other.
3. Forcing Uniform Enthusiasm
The mistake: Expecting everyone to be excited about the change—and treating skepticism or concern as resistance to be squashed.
Not everyone will be excited about your change initiative. Some people (likely many people) will fall on a spectrum of skepticism. Others will be anxious. And some will even grieve what's being lost. It’s all to be expected, and part of an average response to change, especially when it’s out of people’s control.
But when leaders signal (explicitly or implicitly) that the only acceptable response is enthusiasm, people learn to perform. They smile and nod in meetings, then disengage or resist passively.
What to do instead: Allow people to be at different points of their acceptance and enthusiasm while still maintaining clear expectations of operational behaviors you need to see from them. "I know not everyone is excited about this. Some of you might be concerned or skeptical. That's valid. Here's what I need from you: stay engaged, ask questions, and let's figure this out together."
People don't need to love the change. They need to feel like their concerns are heard and their perspectives matter.
4. Carrying the Weight Alone
The mistake: Believing you need to have all the answers, never falter, and bear full responsibility for success or failure—alone.
Many leaders feel immense pressure during change to be the strong, certain, unshakeable presence their teams can rely on. So they hide their own uncertainty, avoid showing vulnerability, and carry the full weight themselves.
This backfires in two ways:
It's unrealistic and unsustainable for you. You burn out trying to hold it all together.
It shows your team that vulnerability isn’t allowed. If you're not modeling how to navigate uncertainty, how will they learn?
What to do instead: Be open and share the uncertainty while maintaining a strong presence—the two aren’t mutually exclusive. "I don't have all the answers yet, and here's how I’m thinking we’re going to still move forward." "This is challenging for me too, and what I’m doing to maintain my stability is..."
Vulnerability during change isn't weakness—it's credibility. It shows your team that it's okay to be human through this, and it invites them to be open and honest throughout the change process, instead of pretending they have it all figured out.
5. Ignoring the Emotional Reality
The mistake: Focusing only on the logistics—new processes, systems, org charts—while ignoring what people are actually experiencing emotionally.
Here's what most leaders miss: people are wired for stability, clarity, and control. Change threatens all three.
When roles shift, people wonder if they're still valuable (fear of irrelevancy). When the path forward is unclear, people's brains fill the gap with worst-case narratives (story-making in absence of data). When decisions are made without their input, people feel powerless (loss of control).
These aren't just "soft" issues to manage later. These are the patterns that drive resistance, disengagement, and burnout—the things that derail any change initiative.
What to do instead: Name the emotional reality explicitly. "I know this change raises questions about your role and value—let's talk about that." "I know there's uncertainty right now—here's what we're doing to address it." "I know you don't have control over the decision, but here's where you DO have influence."
When you acknowledge what's happening beneath the surface, people feel seen. And when they feel seen, they're more likely to stay engaged instead of shutting down.
The Bottom Line
Change initiatives don't fail because of bad strategy. They fail because leaders don't understand how people are wired—and don't know how to work WITH that wiring instead of against it.
The good news? These mistakes are fixable. Once you see the patterns, you can shift how you lead.
And when you do, something bigger shifts: adoption accelerates, resistance decreases, and transformation doesn't leave people burned out.
Want help navigating the human side of change in your organization? Let's talk.
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