Fear, Pride, and Apathy: Tackling Emotional Roadblocks to Operational Alignment

Have you ever shared a groundbreaking new plan with your team, only to meet resistance? In this mini pod, Summer Poletti explores the hidden emotional barriers that derail alignment: fear, pride, apathy, and more. And we explore their significant impact on productivity and profits. Drawing from real-world insights and actionable strategies, this episode equips leaders to identify and address these roadblocks head-on. Learn how to foster trust, lead with empathy, and tackle the biggest competitor in the room: the status quo. Plus, a sneak peek into how DISC personality types influence change adoption in the free subscriber forum. 

Companion Content: 

• Organizational Alignment: 6 Growth Hacks for 2025
• Uncovering Hidden Barriers to Organizational Alignment
• Saying "N0" Strategically: Your Secret to Organizational Alignment

Show notes:

• Connect with Summer on LinkedIn
• Visit Rise of Us for more information about Summer's services
• Episode recorded and edited using Descript
• Repurposed content, such as this description created using CastMagic

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
https://uppbeat.io/t/anteros/street-cred
License code: YZNKQJB2HOLR4BPC

Transcript

summer: 0:11

So here's the thing. Emotional barriers are often the silent culprits, and they don't just make your job harder, they cost your business big time. In fact, companies lose an estimated 6. 2 million annually due to communication inefficiencies.

0:31

Welcome back to Revenue Remix, a podcast from Rise of Us, where we take a fresh spin on driving revenue growth, hosted by Summer Pelletti, a fractional CRO who works with business owners and leaders who feel held back by outdated systems. This podcast explores how adaptable, unified frameworks can transform static processes, equipping teams to meet evolving customer needs and drive resilient, lasting growth. Each episode features insights from Summer and her guests, offering practical strategies to sidestep common pitfalls and build real revenue momentum. It's time to remix the way we think about growth. Enjoy the show.

summer: 1:12

Welcome back to Revenue Remix. I'm your host, Summer Poletti, and today we're doing a little bit deeper dive into barriers to alignment. Alignment has been the focus of the month, and we're going to close out this month with the recognition that there will be barriers. To alignment, and that some of those are going to be emotional. Your team is going to feel the way they feel, and you're going to have to deal with it. So let me ask you this. Have you ever shared a really amazing new plan with your team only to be met with instant resistance? And then maybe that new plan fails. It's totally frustrating, right? You've done your homework, you've done your planning, you know your vision, you know where this is going, and you get hesitation, or worse, even pushback. And often, these are from the people that you trust the most to help you achieve your business dreams. So here's the thing. Emotional barriers are often the silent culprits, and they don't just make your job harder, they cost your business big time. In fact, if we remember, companies lose an estimated 6. 2 million annually due to communication inefficiencies. In this little mini pod, we're going to explore what emotional barriers are, how they impact organizational alignment, and most importantly, how you as the leader can address them head on. Plus, stay tuned for a sneak peek into a deep dive content that's going in the free subscriber forum. So what exactly are emotional barriers? I mean, my name is Summer. I'm a vegetarian. I live in California. Are we talking about some hippie dippy stuff? Yes and no. These are the internal blockers that make alignment tough to achieve. And again, your team is going to feel the way they feel and there's not a lot you can do about their feelings. But you can help them overcome some of these barriers. So here are some examples. As employees hesitating to share ideas or concerns. Think of a team member who doesn't raise their hand in meetings, worried they'll say the wrong thing. Fear can stifle creativity and innovation. And when you're going through some change, such as, hey, guys, we're all going to get aligned on this. That fear is often fear of loss of their political capital. They might be fearful of where the organization is going. They might be fearful, especially as Gen AI continues to infiltrate organizations. They could have a deep seated fear about. Their future with the company. So fear is a big one. That's why it's first. And then, of course, there's anger. Anger is an emotion. That's everywhere. You can't help it when it pops up. Emotions run high logic flies out the window. I've seen heated debates and meetings where no progress was made because people were too busy defending their positions. In my corporate career. We once had a Management consultant that had been brought in because we weren't meeting our goals. And after a particularly heated meeting, he told a group of adults that we had been unruly that day. Um, and we were. So, the sibling, I guess, of fear is anger. When people are fearful, they might lash out. Pride is another one. Have you ever worked with someone who couldn't admit they were wrong? Pride can make it nearly impossible to collaborate effectively. And then pride's also going to potentially show up here. If you are working with key personnel or leaders, they have pride in their work. And if you come to them to tell them, they're going to do something differently. And you have this great idea. Their pride is hurt. I thought my work was good. Um, why are we changing it? Pride's going to show up everywhere. Right? And then there's anxiety. Anxiety kind of comes along with fear, especially if it's fear of the unknown, fear of my job security, things like that. This is going to cloud judgment and make decision making a nightmare. A team member overwhelmed by deadlines might freeze up instead of asking for help. Anxiety in a, we're going to go through a change. It comes up as I don't have time for more stuff. What does this mean for the future? You can see where it kind of aligns with fear a little, but it's different enough to call it out. Speaking of aligning, jealousy comes up as well. Jealousy. I feel like kind of aligns with pride. Imagine a scenario where someone withholds critical information because they don't want a colleague to shine. It wastes time, it wastes resources, it wastes opportunities. Jealousy might be like, someone doesn't want to admit that someone else had a good idea because they didn't have a good idea themself. They could see someone being put in charge of a new initiative and be jealous that they didn't get put in charge of that new initiative when you have a hierarchy, like most corporations do where. You're there as the CEO or owner, and you have a group of trusted folks around you, usually your leadership team, they're all kind of there on the same level and sibling rivalry comes up. And a lot of sibling rivalry is jealousy. They're going to be vying for your attention. Right? Another 1 is insecurity, insecurity, a little bit of anxiety. Those are kind of brothers as well. It can cause individuals to be hesitant about communicating effectively. This is similar to an example of employees fearing judgment. But it's, of course, helpful to call it out explicitly, because someone might be insecure. Maybe they don't feel like their skills are up to par with where the company is going. Maybe they don't really understand where they fit in in this future initiative. Lack of trust also comes up. Lack of trust is a big emotional barrier when team members don't trust each other or worse when they don't trust you. They might withhold information. They might avoid open dialogue. They talk amongst themselves. They can be competitive rather than collaborative, which, of course, undermines entire overall performance. Lack of trust. With a change initiative could be like, where's this going? What aren't they telling me? What does this mean for my future? Burnout? Burnout's a big one. You might have people thinking, that they're too busy for this. They might be working overtime. They might feel like they're at capacity. They might feel unsupported. They might feel, unloved in a corporate sense. Of course, in this burnout, maybe it's not full burnout where they need to take some time off, but they're feeling overwhelmed. And if they're feeling overwhelmed, they feel like they don't have time for this. They feel like they can't fit another thing in. You're definitely going to get maybe some disengagement and maybe some apathy and the apathy. Of course, I have saved it for last. This is a silent killer. This is employees disengaging productivity plummets. And this is just like another new initiative. There's that apathy again, it comes right after burnout because they're definitely closely related. And each of these barriers, you're not going to see all of them, you're definitely going to see some of them when you start some sort of new initiative, like, hey, guys, let's all get aligned. You're going to see some of them, you're going to get some friction, and it's definitely going to slow your progress down, and certainly slow your business down.

AI host: 9:53

Summer Pelletti of Rise of Us helps her clients transform by building adaptable, customer focused sales systems that replace outdated models. With these new frameworks, their teams can respond quickly to evolving customer needs, reduce friction, and work as one cohesive unit. This shift equips them with the tools to drive consistent growth. Lowering churn and creating lasting customer relationships. As a result, they achieve sustainable revenue growth that positions them ahead of competitors and prepared for future challenges. Together, you and Summer will create a foundation that not only meets today's demands, but supports long term success.

summer: 10:36

So why these barriers matter is basically, we've seen that 47 percent of workers say misaligned teams fail to meet objectives. 46 percent of employees report frustration due to alignment issues, and only 28 percent of executives and managers can name their company's strategic priorities. Lack of alignment is costing you money, so barriers to getting aligned, therefore, are also going to slow down your alignment journey. Which costs you money in the long run. So let me ask you this. Think back to a time when a team you were a part of or leading wasn't working well together. What were the root causes? Was it logistical strategic? Was there emotional undercurrent that no 1 really addressed properly? And there probably was. So ignoring these emotional barriers doesn't just impact team morale. Of course, it costs real dollars. Misalignment leads to delays, missed opportunities, and sometimes failed projects. Like your alignment project, but the good news is you have the power to fix it now that we've identified these emotional barriers and their impacts. Let's talk about how we can address them. I'm going to break these into 3 actionable clusters, weaving some additional insights to undermine just how vital this work is cluster. Number 1 is building emotional awareness. So this is an EQ play. And everything starts with self awareness and you, the leader, the CEO, the senior leader, the runner of the alignment initiative, you're going to need to recognize your own emotional triggers and their impact on your decisions and interactions. And why we start with self awareness is you need to understand your emotional state. So that when you deliver the news about your great new initiative, and you meet some resistance that you don't meet their fear with your. Anger. You see how that works? The next step to an EQ play is learning to recognize the emotions in the room around you. It's a little bit more of an advanced play to regulate your emotions and regulate, you know, bring the temperature of the room down, but you start with awareness. So practice mindfulness. This isn't just a buzzword. It's not just what we use in yoga rooms here in California, but like recognize. Your emotional state and how it might change, like, pay attention to your heart rate, pay attention to how your mind might race, pay attention to maybe changes in,, your physical temperature. I know that. When I feel a negative emotion, like when I'm feeling frustrated, when I'm feeling angry, when I think back to those times when I was in a room full of unruly leaders with a sometimes overwhelmed management coach, I would feel hot, like physically, and I would feel my heart rate start to race, and my mind wasn't as clear. I had trouble picking the right words and I had trouble kind of thinking out the conversation. You know how when you're thinking through a conversation and you're like, well, I'm going to say this and then they'll probably say this. And then I'll probably say this. That's how I knew it was my fight or flight kicking in. I just thought of, like, little punchy things I wanted to say. And then that was when I knew that I needed to pipe down, or I needed to excuse myself. I have to go to the restroom and just, like, getting physically away from it was what helped me. You're going to be different. Notice your signs and then notice what you need to do to get your mind back in the right place. So that's how you start with you. If you want to talk about how you start noticing the folks in the room, we can have a separate discussion about that. I took a whole class on this interesting stuff, by the way. So then when you start with EQ, the next step is to foster trust and psychological safety now, psychological safety is just some big mumbo jumbo words where people feel safe to be themselves. They feel safe to speak up. They feel safe to speak their mind. You're making them feel comfortable, making them feel like if they speak up, they're not going to get yelled at. So it's all about creating safe spaces. And that starts with trust. So, how you can do that is you have to start by asking people. Not. Everybody's going to be willing to just speak up and blurt things out. You might see a. Quiet person in the meeting, and you might need to ask them if they have any thoughts, you know, you might have to draw it out of people. And then once somebody has trusted you enough to state a fear they have, or a concern they have, you're going to need to reward that. With I appreciate you sharing that and not immediately tell them that their idea was stupid. By the way, I know you wouldn't do that. By the way, we've all seen that. And then this leads to leading with empathy and support. We talked about what I mean by leading with empathy. Empathy is not just about being nice. It's about understanding and addressing your team's needs. So, if somebody shares a concern, they have, this is about. Walk in a mile in somebody's shoes, seeing things from their perspective. You need to think about why that might concern them. You can ask them why that concerns them if you feel comfortable and if they're comfortable enough to share that with you understanding where they're coming from and then understanding also that. If they are a key member of your team, they're not coming from a, I want this initiative to tank. Standpoint, right? They have some concerns, but they're on your leadership team because they are bought in. They care about the future of your company. So, starting with that understanding and then understanding where they're coming from and then supporting them, seeing what you can do to address their concerns, instead of hearing their concerns, getting frustrated, assuming that they're being uncooperative, or that they're being lazy or something like that. You know, that's not leading with empathy, understanding that they have a concern. It's a valid concern. At least it's a valid concern in their mind and then seeing what you can do to make them feel more comfortable. That's what I mean by leading with empathy. So when you are overcoming emotional barriers, and you're improving communication on your alignment journey, you got to figure out something to measure something to measure might be employee engagement employee satisfaction. I've also seen people do employee and P. S. You know, you have your net promoter score that shows your clients who are likely to refer somebody employee NPS or internal NPS is similar. It's like if their friend was looking for a job, would they recommend working here? That shows an employee who satisfied and engaged. So find something to measure, measure it and work on improving. Because how do you know if this initiative is working, right? So then I come to you with a lot of research. And now I have a bonus for you. In my life, I look at everything through the lens of a revenue leader. So let's set alignment and emotional barriers aside for just a little bit. And let's think about why your sales don't close. Why are you losing deals? If you're like anybody I know in B2B sales, or actually B2C sales, the prospect often decides to stick with their current provider. Give it another shot. We're gonna look at this later. Um, it comes in a lot of different flavors. But it's basically they stuck with status quo. If you work with me on the sales side, you will know that whenever we do competitor personas, we build out status quo as a competitor status quo is always in the room and people might have this initiative. To do a new thing, and then you always have to know that you might lose the deal because they decide to do nothing that status quo, by the way, sometimes they ghost you and they ghost you because they've decided to do nothing. So you might not really realize it, but status quo sticking with the familiar, not doing something different. This is the biggest competitor in most sales situations that I see. So, when I look at organizational alignment, and I look at some of these emotional barriers with the understanding that with any initiative, the thing that's likely to win out is doing nothing or status quo, a main barrier to alignment. Is going to be comfort with the familiar what we're currently doing is familiar. It feels safe. It's predictable. It's easy. I don't have to learn a new thing. I don't have to do a new thing. I show up at this job. I like that. I've worked out for a long time. I've worked my way up through the ladder here. That is going to be in my mind. One of the biggest emotional barriers to change is getting over comfortability with what's familiar. And so you're going to need to help your team envision where you're going, why alignment matters, how it can reduce their stress, improve results, help them reach their goals., maybe this is because I look at everything through the eyes of a revenue leader, but you're going to have to sell your idea to your team. And so you're going to have to deal with my biggest competitor, which is status quo. And here's a teaser for our subscriber forum. Again, it's free. Not everyone reacts to change the same way. If you've ever introduced a new initiative and you feel like some people jump on board right away and others dig in their heels, it's possible that you're dealing with some very different personality types on your team. And in the deep dive on my free subscriber forum, we're going to explore how disk personality types influence how people process change and how they adopt change. And. Of course, how you can use that knowledge to relate to your team and align with them on the change more effectively while also making them feel psychologically safe because you're kind of tapping into how their brain's wired. We don't have time for that on a mini pod. Join me on my forum and we'll go through that. So let's wrap this up. Emotional barriers like fear, pride and apathy can derail even the best strategies. Leaders can break these barriers by building emotional awareness, fostering trust and leading with empathy and remember status quo is often the biggest competitor in the room, but with the right approach. You can overcome it. So here's your call to action. Reflect on your team. What emotional barriers might be holding them back? What is one step you can take today to address them? And don't forget the subscriber forum is open for a deeper dive into personality types, and it's free. If you found something interesting in here, I would appreciate a review. I would appreciate a share. I am growing my reach and that really helps if you are anybody, you know, would like to join me for an interview. You can find me on LinkedIn. I'm Summer Paletti Rhymes with Spaghetti, or you can go to my website, theriseofus. com, which is linked in the show notes. There is a podcast page and a guest information page so that you can learn a little bit more. Appreciate the listen, and I will see you next time.