4 Common Leadership Roadblocks in Change Processes: Part 2
This is the second installment in our series on common leadership roadblocks that can stall organizational change. Last time, we explored how Distance — leaders being too removed from day-to-day realities — can undermine equity efforts.
Another obstacle we often see is Bottlenecks. Even leaders who support change can unintentionally slow things down when too many decisions, approvals, or communications have to run through them. The result? Frustrated staff, stalled momentum, and equity initiatives that never quite get off the ground. In this post, we’ll look at how and why bottlenecks form, and what leaders can do to clear the path for change.
Bottlenecks
At a mid-sized tech company, employees wanted to form affinity groups. When HR brought the idea to the executive team, they were supportive, but the CEO insisted that all affinity group communications be pre-approved “to protect brand integrity.” The CEO had not heard directly from the employees who were advocating for the program, and didn’t understand how this requirement would come across. The result? A watered-down version of the initiative that left employees feeling censored, misled, and disengaged. Leadership thought they were managing risk; in reality, they were silencing the very voices they claimed to uplift.
This roadblock shows up when one leader becomes the main conduit between equity efforts and the rest of the organization. Sometimes this looks like an HR executive who channels all the communication between equity champions and the rest of the leadership team. Other times, it’s a nonprofit director who controls access to the board. In either case, the intention is often to maintain clarity, but the effect is that not everyone has access to important ideas, questions, and data.
This is not necessarily malicious! Filtering communication is a normal part of many leadership roles and can be helpful for maintaining role clarity and avoiding overwhelm. But because issues of equity are complex, emotionally charged, and often outside many people’s comfort zones, it’s easy to misjudge what’s important or urgent. Without deep experience in this kind of work, it’s common to fall back on gut feelings, unconscious bias, or “the way things have always been done.”
As a result, the staff driving the change process and the consultants supporting it may be shut out before the process even gets off the ground, without anyone – including other leaders – really understand what went wrong.
To avoid this roadblock, try to let go of the need to control the narrative, and trust your colleagues to think with you. Set yourself up with the resources – such as structured time and facilitation support – to have difficult conversations at the leadership level. Boundaries around time and engagement are important, but they should be explicit, shared, and in service of the process, not protect from it.
- Clear, shared goals for equity initiatives that contribute to the effectiveness and wellbeing of all employees
- Transparent processes for shared decision-making, including communication channels for leaders to demonstrate their accountability to staff input
- Leadership coaching to shift from control to collaboration
Bottlenecks often come from leaders trying to stay engaged and connected. But when too much flows through a single point, the system can’t move. By recognizing where you may be holding things up, and intentionally sharing decision-making and ownership, you create the conditions for your team to act with confidence.
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Next, we’ll dive into Drift: when equity efforts start strong but lose direction over time, and how leaders can help keep things on track.
