When change keeps coming, your leaders plan harder and work longer to protect their teams, and nobody counts the cost. In this fourth episode of Season 8, The Change Diaries, hosts Katie Beresford, CEO of The Michelle McQuaid Group, and Dr Michelle McQuaid go behind the scenes of the training Michelle has spent the past month running with more than 500 leaders across hospitals, schools, government, aviation and local communities. Michelle shares the five ways leaders respond to change and what each one teaches a team over time (from dodging accountability to waiting to be told), why the leaders who sense and adapt as changes unfold are staying well and getting results, and the nervous system skills, conversation maps and simple heart check that give your leaders a shared language to notice which response they've slipped into and choose the one the moment calls for. 00:57 Michelle describes what she's hearing from leaders in every industry right now: people worn out, no end in sight, and a pace of change our nervous systems weren't built for. 05:58 Michelle unpacks the four most common ways leaders respond to change, controlling, rescuing, avoiding and resisting, and the worry sitting underneath each one. 12:30 Michelle introduces the fifth response, adapting, and why the leaders who sense and adjust as changes unfold are more likely to feel well and to see their changes succeed. 15:39 Michelle explains why leaders can't think their way out of a stress response, and the see, soothe and settle skills that get blood and oxygen back to the thinking brain. 18:30 Katie shares why leaders need to practise these tools when they don't need them, borrowing from how paramedics stay calm at a critical scene. 20:24 Michelle walks through what each response teaches a team over time, from a leader who rewrites everyone's work to one who leaves people waiting to be told. 30:38 Michelle explains how she helps leaders assess their own approach without judgment or shame, using a leader chart and a team chart that are hard to unsee once you've seen them. 33:34 Michelle answers whether adapting is always best: it depends on the context, the resources and how much energy the team has left for this change. Take our free five-minute change survey to see how you're navigating change right now at thechangelabs.com. Want to go deeper? Join our new Change Fatigue Antidote mini-masterclass, live in October, where Michelle teaches the five change approaches and shares the leader and team charts, conversation maps and playbooks, at thechangelabs.com.
