Change leaders must deliberately create conflict to spark real transformation, not just surface compliance. Expect rejection and anger, but develop emotional resilience to absorb the backlash without spreading it to your team. That callus is what separates lasting change from checkbox management.
And because we're the leaders of change within this organization, part of your job is to create problems, to face conflict, and go there and have the conversations and help people have the awakenings necessary. What that means is you're going to get a lot of rejection and people are going to get crazy and upset. And I'm going to deal with that. But that's what I'm here for. So, if I hadn't developed the callus, if you will, or the capacity to absorb people's negative reaction and not displace that on my people but just absorb it as a natural course of business because we are driving change, all of a sudden, me and my team, we were able to provide deep and lasting sustainable impact instead of just kind of the superficial checkboxy stuff.
