The hardest part of progress isn’t always the vision or developing whatever comes next—it’s letting go of what used to be enough. Even when everyone agrees that it’s time to evolve, moving forward can feel slow, messy and uncomfortable. The technology could be ready to go, and the business case could be airtight, but progress might stall anyway. Change rarely fails on strategy. It often fails on emotion.

For example, the shift from legacy infrastructure to cloud-native platforms in the telecommunications industry is long overdue, and everyone knows it. Everyone nods in the room but drags their feet outside it. We frequently assume customers are ready to leap when, in reality, they’re clinging to what’s familiar. This reaction from customers isn’t ignorance; it’s human nature. Change is hard. And unless we lead with that understanding, we’re going to stall before we start.

Real leadership starts with education. When teams show up with pitch decks without perspective and jump straight to the product, they’re not taking the time to unpack and understand what the customer is actually going through. Instead, it’s about reframing how customers see their world: