What to Do When Employees Are Not Ready to Change: 6 Leadership Strategies

6 Steps to Take When Employees Are Not Ready to Change
We know from action learning leadership development projects that market realities often dictate the need for organizational change.  Whether driven by competitors, internal shifts, or evolving customer expectations, change management training experts know that leaders must be able to guide their teams through both evolutionary and revolutionary transitions to keep pace — especially when employees are not ready for change.

Yet, employee change resistance often arises — not because employees are inherently defiant, but because organizational change is often disruptive, uncertain, and deeply personal.

To change management consulting experts, the question is not whether change resistance will occur, but how leaders should respond when:

• Employees are not ready to change.
• Employees are not willing to change.
• Employees are not able to change.

What to Do When Employees Are Not Ready to Change

1. Understand the Root Causes of Resistance
   Before labeling employees as “resistant,” leaders must recognize that hesitation often stems from rational concerns. Research by Oreg, Vakola, and Armenakis highlights that individuals respond differently to change based on their personal dispositions, trust in leadership, and perceptions of leadership fairness.

   We know from project postmortem data that some employees fear losing competence, others worry about increased workload, and still others distrust whether leadership will follow through.

   Are you taking the time to identify and address these root causes through active curiosity, empathy, and listening before pushing ahead?

2. Create Psychological Safety
   Change readiness depends heavily on psychological team safety — the belief that individuals can speak up, ask questions, and admit mistakes without fear of penalty. Harvard researcher Amy Edmondson’s work demonstrates that psychologically safe environments enable employees to engage constructively with change rather than retreat into silence or resistance.

   Are your leaders encouraging enough constructive debate, being honest about the costs and uncertainty of change, and admitting their own concerns to create the trust in leadership required to lower change resistance?

3. Communicate the “Why,” Not Just the “What”
   We know from change management simulation data that one of the most common mistakes leaders make is over-explaining the mechanics of change while under-communicating the business case for change, the urgency for change, and the change vision for success.

   Employees want to understand why the change matters, how it connects to strategy, and what’s in it for them. Research by Kotter and Schlesinger underscores that articulating a compelling vision for change, tailored to different stakeholders, is far more effective than issuing top-down directives.

   Are your leaders using compelling stories, real-world examples, and transparency to win over the hearts and minds of those affected by change?

4. Actively Involve Employees in the Process
   We know from organizational culture assessment data that change imposed is change resisted. Employees who feel like passive recipients often disengage, while those invited into the design process tend to become advocates. Actively involving employees in change doesn’t mean every decision is democratic, but it does mean being clear about what is and what is not up for debate while creating authentic opportunities for input and feedback.

   Are you using cross-functional change councils, focus groups, or change prototypes to help employees to have a say in the path forward?

5. Build Change Capability, Not Just Compliance
   Many employees are “not ready” because they lack the skills or confidence to thrive in the new environment. Instead of framing resistance as stubbornness, leaders should see it as a capability gap. Providing customized training, coaching, and peer support can transform fear into competence.

   As research by Armenakis and Harris argues, readiness for change is not static — it can be cultivated by equipping employees with both technical skills and adaptive mindsets.

   Are you identifying and closing key skill and knowledge gaps to help workers to succeed in the new ways?

6. Recognize and Address the Emotional Impact of Change
   Organizational change is as much emotional as it is operational. Leaders who focus solely on plans, metrics, and timelines miss the underlying human experience of loss, disruption, and uncertainty. Acknowledging these natural emotions — through one-on-one check-ins, team forums, or even symbolic rituals of closure — helps employees process the past before embracing the future. Avoiding or dismissing emotions only deepens change resistance.

   Are you helping employees to acknowledge and let go of the past?

The Bottom Line
When employees are not ready to change, the least effective leadership response is to push harder or dismiss concerns as negativity or immaturity. Change resistance is valuable data — it reveals where trust, clarity, and support are lacking. It is a leader’s responsibility to help employees to navigate organizational change.

To learn more about what to do when employees are not ready to change, download 5 Science-Backed Lenses of Successful Change Leadership