.png)
Leading through Change: Elephant & Rider Framework
Almost every coaching conversation I have with leaders these days touches on an aspect of change. Whether it’s reorgs, RIFs, shifting priorities, leadership transition, expanded scope or figuring out how to improve workflows with AI… all change involves challenge. It’s especially hard when it wasn’t your idea.
This is magnified for your team members. People aren’t resisting just to be difficult. They’re reacting to real human experiences: loss of control, fear of the unknown, and the stress of not having clear answers.
This post lays out some tips for leading your team through change and uncertainty.
The Elephant and the Rider
I love a good metaphor. And I use this one a LOT when supporting people to lead effectively through change.
Popularized by Chip and Dan Heath in Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard, this framework helps us understand how humans actually respond to change and what leaders can do to help.
The Rider is our logical, rational side. It plans, analyzes, and tries to steer.
The Elephant is our emotional side—powerful, instinctive, and often resistant when stressed or afraid.
And the Path is the environment or situation we’re all moving through.
When you’re leading a team through change, you’re not just trying to convince the Rider - the rational mind of your team members - with a well-reasoned plan. You’re also needing to coax and motivate the Elephant - people’s fears, motivations, and emotional responses.
And, you’re shaping the Path - the external environment and resources - to help facilitate your team’s journey.
Too often we focus on describing the rationale for change, without adequately giving space, empathy and understanding to the emotional impact of the change. The result? Apparent team alignment that leads to longer term issues like: disengagement, resistance, lack of accountability, low morale, and low productivity.
This framework helps you lead through all three lenses - with practical tools to calm collective anxiety, focus the energy, and move your team forward with clarity and care.
Step 1: Direct The Rider
The Rider (rational brain) needs a clear path, understanding of the change, and a reason to act. In uncertain times, ambiguity stalls action.
Strategies:
Lay out the changes clearly - paint a picture of the vision
What is changing
Why is it changing
What does this mean for each person’s day-to-day
Clarify what you do know
Even if higher-level direction is vague, share what’s currently clear: timelines, expectations, what’s not changing.
Example: “I don’t have all the answers yet, but here’s what we know and what we’re prioritizing right now.”
Break it down into actionable steps
Big changes feel overwhelming. Help your team focus on manageable next steps.
Ask: “What’s the one step we can take this week that moves us forward?”
Translate top-down strategy into local & practical meaning
Connect abstract change to your team’s daily work.
“This shift in priorities means our team will now focus more on X, which means we’ll need to adjust Y.”
Step 2: Motivate The Elephant
Give space for people’s emotions and build motivation through quick wins: humans need empathy, emotional safety, and hope to move forward.
Strategies:
Make people feel heard
While it takes extra time, prioritize sitting down with each team member 1:1 and asking them how they're feeling about the change.
“Get their world” - try to put yourself in their shoes and understand their concerns.
Use active listening to make sure they feel heard and understood - eg: “It sounds like you’re feeling really frustrated.”
Normalize emotional responses. Say: “It makes sense that you’re feeling that way.”
“Name it to tame it” - help people label what they’re experiencing (frustration, uncertainty, confusion, anger, sadness, etc)
Don’t rush in with solutions. Just listen and hold space for their experience without trying to fix or solve.
Help them transition from venting to action
Note: don’t rush into this stage - they may take longer than you expect to feel ready.
After validating feelings, gently shift to agency:
“Given everything we’ve talked about, what’s one thing you’d like to influence or improve?”
“What part of this can we shape or take ownership of as a team?”
Create opportunities for quick wins and momentum
Motivation grows from progress. Celebrate small milestones and acts of resilience.
Highlight stories of adaptation: “Here’s an example of someone trying something new, even in the fog.”
Step 3: Shape the Path to set your team up for success
Even a willing elephant and clear-headed rider will stumble without a clear, well-designed path. Endeavor to remove obstacles and provide necessary training, tools, resources to help your team embrace the new direction with minimal friction.
Strategies:
Set up simple systems
Create clear short-term goals and rituals (like weekly reflections or check-ins) to build rhythm.
Use visible tools (e.g., shared dashboards, whiteboards) to track progress and create accountability.
Design for inclusion and participation
Invite the team to co-create new norms, processes or a team vision. Ask: “What’s working? What needs to shift?”
Involve them in decision-making where possible and appropriate - to increase ownership.
Model the behavior you want to see
Calm transparency, curiosity, and adaptability are contagious. So is reactivity.
Share your own thought process: “I’m also figuring it out—but here’s how I’m approaching it.”
Okay, but what if...
(a) you don’t agree with the direction - but have to execute it?
Strategy: Lead with integrity and commitment, not personal alignment.
Separate your role from your opinion
You don’t have to endorse the change—but you do have to lead through it.
Say: “This wasn’t my decision. But here’s what I’m excited about, and how I’m thinking about making it work for us.”
Focus on your team’s needs
Filter the change through the lens of: How do I help my team succeed in this context?
Find your leadership stance
Ask yourself: How do I want to show up during this moment?
Anchor into your values and your leadership identity —clarity, care, growth, service, etc.
(b) You’re not getting clarity from above?
Strategy: Reduce ambiguity where you can.
Distill your own working hypotheses
Based on what you do know, craft a “for now” plan. Be explicit: “Until we get more clarity, here’s how we’re going to operate.”
Escalate wisely, advocate skillfully
Ask your leaders: “What’s the most helpful thing I can communicate to my team right now?”
Offer summaries and suggestions up the chain: “Here’s what’s unclear and how it’s affecting execution—can we align on the priorities?”
Buffer the uncertainty
Your calm presence helps your team stay grounded. Be appropriately transparent about ambiguity without amplifying panic.
Finally, a few coaching questions to use with your team:
“What’s been hardest for you about this change?”
“What are you most uncertain about? What would help?”
“What’s one thing you can control right now?”
“How do we want to be known as a team during this time?”
“What’s a win we can work toward together in the next two weeks?”
TL;DR
Whether professionally or personally, change takes emotional adjustment. This is especially true if it wasn't your choice. Too often, leaders rush toward action without allowing sufficient time, space and care for the less obvious, but profound, emotional impacts of change.
While it may take a little longer at the front end to sit down with your team members and address the "elephant", I promise you it is a leadership investment that will pay off 10x down the track - in time, team engagement and productivity.
As a leader, your job is not to have all the answers - but to help your team stay connected to each other, to their sense of purpose, and to the path forward.
When in doubt, slow down, listen well, and lead with clarity and genuine care. The rest will follow.
