Welcome to the 7th issue of Mountain View Leadership.

This month, we explore Resistance: Data or Defiance? and how resistance can serve as valuable feedback for leaders willing to look beneath the surface. In Personal Growth, we turn that lens inward, focusing on how to process your own resistance and use it to move forward with clarity and intention.

In Where’s Mike?, I recap an energizing time speaking at OSC26 in Columbus and share details on my upcoming Spring Speaking Series across five Ohio cities through May.

If you are looking to strengthen your leadership, culture, or safety performance, I offer training, coaching, and consulting services designed to create real, lasting impact. Let’s connect.

Resistance: Data or Defiance?

There is a moment every leader recognizes. A new initiative is rolled out. A process is changed. Expectations are clarified. And somewhere in the room or across the organization, resistance shows up.

It might look like hesitation, silence, pushback, or even open disagreement. The instinct for many leaders is to label it quickly: lack of buy-in, poor attitude, or outright defiance.

But what if resistance is not the problem? What if it is the signal?

When we view resistance only as obstruction, we miss its value. Resistance is rarely random. It is feedback, often unfiltered and immediate, about how people are experiencing leadership, change, and culture.

The visible part is easy to spot. Behavior, attitudes, and performance shifts sit above the surface. These are the things leaders react to because they are obvious and measurable.

But like an iceberg, what drives those visible reactions is mostly hidden.

Below the surface are two powerful forces.

On one side is core design. This includes personality, values, and deeply rooted traits that shape how people naturally engage with the world. These elements are relatively stable. They are not easily changed, nor should they be the primary target of leadership correction.

On the other side is something far more dynamic: response systems.

This is where resistance becomes meaningful.

Response systems are how people interpret and react to their environment. They are shaped by perception, fear, past experiences, and emotional needs. When something in the workplace triggers uncertainty or discomfort, these systems activate automatically.

What looks like resistance may actually be:

When leaders take resistance personally, they tend to shut down the very information they need most. When leaders get curious instead, resistance becomes a diagnostic tool.

The distinction matters.

If resistance is treated as defiance, the response is often control. More pressure. More enforcement. More urgency. In the short term, this may produce compliance. In the long term, it often erodes trust and limits honest feedback.

If resistance is treated as data, the response changes. Leaders begin asking different questions.

What are people experiencing right now?
Where might there be confusion or misalignment?
What am I not seeing that they are feeling?

This shift does not mean all resistance is valid or that standards should be lowered. It means leaders are willing to understand before they decide how to act.

Resistance can also serve as a mirror.

Patterns of resistance often reveal patterns in leadership. If the same types of concerns surface repeatedly, it may point to gaps in communication, inconsistency in expectations, or a culture where people do not feel heard until they push back.

In this way, resistance becomes a form of temperature check. It tells you how your culture feels, not just how it looks on paper.

Leaders who create space for this kind of feedback gain something powerful: early insight. They can address root causes before they become larger issues.

One of the most important leadership disciplines is choosing not to be offended by resistance.

That is not always easy. Resistance can feel personal, especially when leaders have invested time, energy, and intention into a decision. But taking it personally narrows perspective. It shifts focus from understanding to defending.

When leaders stay grounded and curious, they create psychological safety. People are more likely to speak up honestly. And when people speak honestly, leaders gain access to the real story beneath the surface.

The goal is not to eliminate resistance. The goal is to learn from it.

When leaders interpret resistance as information, they can:

Over time, this approach transforms resistance from a barrier into a strategic advantage.

Every organization has resistance. The difference is in how it is interpreted.

Leaders who see defiance will fight it.
Leaders who see data will learn from it.

And the ones who learn are the ones who lead cultures that adapt, grow, and perform at a higher level.

The next time resistance shows up, pause before reacting. Look beneath the surface.

There is information there.

Processing Your Own Resistance

The next time you feel resistance rise within you, don’t ignore it or push through it. Process it.

Pause and ask yourself: What is happening inside me right now? Resistance is often your internal response system activating, not a flaw to fix. It may be signaling fear, uncertainty, or a belief that needs to be examined.

When you take the time to process your resistance, you turn a reaction into insight.

Try this:

Personal growth is not about avoiding resistance. It is about learning how to process it, understand it, and use it to move forward with purpose.

Since the last newsletter, I have had the opportunity to present to four Ohio Safety Councils and deliver two sessions at the 2026 Ohio Safety Congress. The energy at every stop has been outstanding, and OSC26 in Columbus was a highlight. Being surrounded by leaders committed to safety and growth always reinforces why this work matters.

And we are just getting started.

Beginning next week, I will be back on the road for my Spring Speaking Series, visiting five more Safety Councils across Ohio through May. I am looking forward to more great conversations, new connections, and continuing to build momentum around leadership and culture.

If you would like me to train your team, support your leaders through coaching, or partner with you through consulting, let’s connect.