With the tempo of change accelerating, it’s clear that organizations want leaders who can do greater than execute nicely. They want leaders who can navigate ambiguity, mobilize individuals by way of uncertainty, and adapt quicker than situations are altering.
However many leaders are struggling to make that leap.
Harvard Enterprise Impression’s 2025 Global Leadership Development Study discovered that 71% of organizations now say the power to guide by way of fixed change is vital, up from 58% in 2024. But the worldwide management consulting agency DDI has discovered that solely 18% of leaders really feel able to anticipating and reacting to alter.
Widespread explanations level outward: Change is occurring too quick, leaders are underequipped, incentives are misaligned, and workers resist change. All of those matter.
However in my work as a management researcher and guide, I’ve discovered that leaders are sometimes resistant to alter for a purpose that’s generally neglected: Change threatens the very inside drives that helped them change into profitable.
Research has shown that when individuals stake their self-worth on being profitable, that may each drive achievement and create vulnerability, as a result of any failure feels essentially threatening to their id. These leaders change into captive to what I name self-protective drives to protect their value, picture, management, safety, or relevance. These behaviors typically gasoline the self-discipline, possession, and excessive requirements that make leaders efficient. However when change requires experimentation, uncertainty, and letting go, these identical forces can change into constraining.
Throughout my work with a whole bunch of leaders, I’ve discovered three self-protective drives that mostly preserve leaders from changing into prepared for change.
1. The drive to show your value
One CEO I labored with had constructed a profitable firm. From the skin, issues regarded spectacular. The group had doubled to about 1,000 workers within the prior 18 months, however the progress was changing into unhealthy and unsustainable.
The CEO had simply returned from a month-long sabbatical tied to a stress-related well being difficulty, and he was not the one govt coping with comparable pressure.
I used to be introduced in to assist the crew determine tips on how to proceed rising with out growing burnout. Early in my work with the CEO, I requested him why he began the enterprise.
His reply: “To show others incorrect.”
That drive had helped him construct one thing substantial, however as the corporate grew, the identical drive started shaping your complete group. He and his govt crew stayed deep within the day-to-day, pushing relentlessly, fearing that if issues slowed or slipped, the proof they had been chasing would disappear.
That’s the reason this drive can undermine change-readiness. Change requires leaders to experiment, tempo themselves, create house, and construct capability in others. However when leaders are pushed to show their value, they typically push more durable as an alternative of working from a strategic place.
2. The drive to manage the end result
One other chief advised me she knew she was scuffling with change as a result of she was micromanaging. However she felt she had no alternative.
In follow, that regarded like repeatedly checking in on the small print of a proposal, revising items her crew ought to have owned, and never giving individuals sufficient house to work by way of challenges themselves.
Once we explored what was driving how she operated, she mentioned, “If I don’t keep on high of the whole lot, it gained’t come out proper, and I’ll look unhealthy due to it.”
Her drive for management was not nearly high quality. It was about safety.
That drive could have helped her change into dependable and trusted. However in a altering atmosphere, it made her the bottleneck. It prevented her crew from taking possession and diminished the group’s agility.
Change-ready leaders can’t personally management each end result. They must distribute possession, construct belief, and create the situations for others to adapt shortly.
3. The drive to guard your competence
A 3rd chief realized he was stifling change as a result of he hardly ever invited the opinions of his crew. And when individuals did provide concepts, he shut them down shortly.
As we unpacked it, he mentioned, “If the great concepts come from somebody aside from me, I’ll change into much less related.”
That sentence captures one thing many leaders really feel however hardly ever say out loud.
The drive to be seen as competent might help leaders construct credibility early on. However later, it will possibly make them defensive, closed, and overly hooked up to being the neatest voice within the room.
The irony is that defending competence typically blocks the very data leaders must adapt—and stay competent. Change requires curiosity, humility, and openness to weak alerts. If leaders shut down enter to protect their picture, they minimize themselves off from the perception wanted to navigate change.
The shift change-ready leaders should make
The drives to show your value, management outcomes, and defend competence can result in sturdy efficiency in secure environments. However when the atmosphere turns into extra complicated, these drives trigger leaders to be self-focused. As a substitute of asking, “What does this case require?” they ask, “How do I make sure that I nonetheless look worthwhile, in management, and succesful?”
Leaders’ skill to drive change and make an impression will at all times be restricted in the event that they’re unconsciously working from an inside want to guard themselves.
The leaders most prepared for change are those safe sufficient to launch management, invite contribution, and transfer towards uncertainty with curiosity moderately than self-protection.
