Managing change can feel like a lot on top of everything else you have to do as a team manager. In this episode of Manage with Confidence I share some of the strategies I’ve used to help organisations support their managers with leading change.
I hope you find this helpful.
How do you feel about managing your team during change? If you’re like many of the managers I work with, you’ll groan inwardly at the thought of ‘yet another change on top of your day job’. When are you going to find the time?!
Managing stress and looking after wellbeing during times of change has been a common request from organisations in the past few years. So, in this episode, I’ll share with you some practical tools and tips with you. These are things that have helped other managers I’ve worked with. In fact, these are things that help me, too!
What kind of change are we talking about?
First things first, let’s get some context. Not all change is the same. I came across a helpful idea from Rachel Miller’s book, Successful Change Communication. Rachel shows the different types of change, categorising them. There are the obvious, what I call ‘big change’ and the less obvious smaller changes.
The categories Rachel uses are:
- Cultural change, such as a change to the organisation’s purpose.
- Technological change, such as the introduction of generative AI.
- Physical change, such as the move to a new office location.
- Service/product change, such as a change to opening and closing hours.
- Leadership change, such as the exit of the CEO.
- People change, such as a team member leaving and a new person then joining your team.
The main thing I take from this is that change is the norm. It’s not on top of your job. It is the job. Maybe that’s the starting point. Not viewing and treating change as these big, seismic events that you must shoehorn in but rather things that are an essential part of your role as someone who manages a team.
It starts with you
In season one episode six, you’ll hear me and my guest, Ann-Marie Barlow, talk about the importance of managers knowing who they are in times of stress. We know that line managers are one of the most important factors in determining the performance, motivation, and wellbeing of their staff. This is about how you show up. As Dr Nancy Doyle says in her book, Learning from Neurodivergent Leaders:
“We cannot expect to create sustainable, healthy environments for others if we have no idea how to do it for ourselves.”
Here are some coaching questions you might want to reflect on:
- Who am I when I am under stress? What do my team see?
- What helps me manage my stress during times of change?
- What am I currently doing to support my wellbeing?
- What have I done to create a team culture that supports wellbeing?
Focus on what you can control
The world is a crazy place at the moment. There’s a lot going on. It can be very easy to get sucked into constantly monitoring the news or doomscrolling. But those things do little to help us. In fact, they can drain our energy. This isn’t helpful when you need your energy for managing your home and working life, and when you’re managing a team during change.
A concept I like to share with managers is the Circle of Control. This originates from Stephen Coveys bestselling book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
Circle of Control sketchnote © 2022 Hayley Lewis
Imagine three concentric circles. The outermost circle, the Circle of Concern, is where we should spend the least of our time and energy. In this circle are things such as the economy, war and conflict, the weather etc. The middle circle, the Circle of Influence, is primarily about our relationships with and to other people. The innermost circle, The Circle of Control, is where we should focus most of our energy. The Circle of Control is about us – the decisions we choose to make, how we choose to react and respond, what we say, what we don’t say etc. In this crazy world, where change is the norm, the one constant is us. The one thing we can control is ourselves.
Here’s an activity for you to try:
Think about an issue that you are worrying about. Something that might be stressing you. Now focus on the Circle of Control:
- How can you choose to react to the situation?
- What decisions do you choose to make?
- What do you choose to learn from this situation?
- What do you choose to ignore?
- Who do you choose to involve?
- What help can you ask for?
- What attitude do you choose to have in response to the situation?
People react differently to change and that’s okay
Each of us reacts and responds differently to change. After all, each of us is different. We’ve got different personalities, different experiences, different upbringings, sometimes different cultural backgrounds, different levels of understanding etc. etc. etc. You get my drift. Because we are all different, it makes sense that you can get a range of different responses to change. But I also understand how frustrating that can be for managers like you. Why can’t people just get on board?!
One of my favourite concepts to teach managers is the change circumplex. First developed by Shaul Oreg and colleagues, this theoretical concept has since been tested in different organisational settings undergoing change (Oreg et al, 2018; Sverdlik & Oreg, 2023; Oreg et al, 2024).
Imagine a circle split into four. The circle has arrows around it indicating that we can move around depending on what is happening in relation to the change, and how well we are support and communicated with.
The vertical line is level of energy and activity – from highly active through to inactive. The horizontal line is about the emotions and feelings – from negative through to positive.
Quadrant one is where the change resistors reside. They are feeling pretty negative about the change and they are highly active and engaged.
Quadrant two is where the proactive change group is. They are feeling positive about the change and like the resistors, are highly active and engaged.
Quadrant three is where the change acceptors are. These folk are positive about the change but not particularly engaged or active.
Quadrant four is where the change disengaged people are. These are negative about the change and not engaged or active. I think in the past, before this concept, this group would have been lumped in with the change acceptors. How many times have we made the assumption that silence means agreement?
Image created by Hayley Lewis © 2026
Across the studies, the researchers found that:
- Energy matters as much as emotions.
- Passive acceptance isn’t ideal.
- Active resistance is better than silent disengagement. You have something to work with.
I’ve recently been working with a group of managers in UK local government and we spent some time creating a toolkit for working with each of these groups. The managers also reflect on where they might be in relation to the changes they were thinking about. Let’s have a look at the things you can do depending on where you think someone is on the change circumplex:
For the change resistors
- Engage directly and constructively.
- Find out root causes for their perspectives.
- Acknowledge their concerns.
- Channel their energy into problem-solving and feedback.
- Avoid language that paints them as a problem.
- They can be a valuable resource in uncovering blind spots and avoiding the trap of groupthink.
For the proactive change group:
- Involve in co-design. Can they help you with user testing, for example, if you’re rolling out a new system?
- They are great as change champions, peer influencers, role models, and mentors. They can also be helpful in supporting those who might be struggling.
- Channel their energy into problem-solving and feedback.
- They are a valuable communication resource during change.
- Be careful not to overload people in this group, however.
The change acceptors:
- Encourage them to be more active and contribute ideas.
- Invite their feedback, get their help with specific actions.
- Acknowledge and show gratitude for their support.
- Deepen their commitment by getting them to mentor and support others.
The change disengaged group:
- Re-engage through 1-2-1 conversations to understand reasons for them becoming withdrawn. Don’t call them out in a larger group. That’s only likely to make them withdraw more.
- Empathy and compassion are key leadership qualities here. Ask yourself, “How can I be most empathetic and compassionate self with this person?”
- Make it easy for them to participate – small, simple actions and steps. Sometimes the person is feeling overwhelmed by the change. Break it down into the first, small step they can take.
- Develop their confidence and self-belief by exploring with them their strengths and lessons from previous experiences of change or other challenging situations.
Final thoughts
I hope you found that helpful. There’s the reminder that change is the norm and comes in all shapes and sizes. How we respond to it is in our gift. That’s a choice but we need to pay attention to ourselves. After all, you set the tone for how your team responds. It’s not so much what you say but what you do, and they are watching.
On that note, the one thing I suggest you do from this episode is reflect on who you are in stressful times. What kind of manager are you in the face of change?
About the Manage with Confidence podcast
The Manage with Confidence podcast is full of practical and evidence-based tools, tips and skills to help you be the best people manager possible.
It was launched in 2026 by Dr Hayley Lewis and is listened to by people managers, HR professions and coaches in 22 countries around the world. It exists to support people managers, because better managers means better business and better worklife.
You can find the podcast online including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and YouTube.
Post author: Dr Hayley Lewis. First published on the HALO Psychology website 20 July 2026 (updated 19 October 2026).
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References
Covey, S. (2020). The 7 habits of highly effective people (30th anniversary edition). Simon & Schuster Ltd.
Doyle, N. (2025). Learning from neurodivergent leaders. Jessica Kingsley Publishing.
Miller, R. (2026). Successful change communication. Kogan Page.
Oreg, S., Sverdlik, N., Paine, J. W., & Seo, M.-G. (2024). Activation and valence in responses to organizational change: Development and validation of the change response circumplex scale. Journal of Applied Psychology, 109(1), 135–155.
Oreg, S., Bartunek, J.M., Lee, G., & Do, B. (2018). An affect-based model of recipients’ responses to organizational change events. Academy of Management Review, 43(1).
Sverdlik, N., & Oreg, S. (2023). Beyond the individual-level conceptualization of dispositional resistance to change: Multilevel effects on the response to organizational change. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 44(7), 1066-1077.