Working through Resistance
Employees may be resistant to your mediation skills and strategies, regardless of how hard you work to keep an open, safe, and respectful environment.
The truth is, this is pretty normal. You’ll likely experience resistance in a number of forms, and that’s okay. In fact, to some extent, you should expect it.
No magic formula exists for moving through resistance. Every one of your employees is unique and carries his own experiences, personalities, and core values. And because each person comes to this conversation with different needs, each one will likely respond differently to different techniques.
You goal is not to bully your employees into working through resistance. As satisfying as it may initially be to head-butt your way through an impasse, that approach rarely gives you anything but a migraine. You have a lot of power in your role, and if you use it to force your employees to find a solution, they may not arrive at an appropriate or sustainable answer.
In the following sections, I reveal some of the causes of resistance and give you strategies you can use to overcome it.