The Leader Mindset #42

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What to Do When an Employee Resists Their Own Development

At a recent presentation, an audience member asked a question that captured a very common leader frustration.

“How do you develop someone who isn’t interested in their own development?”

If you’ve led people for any length of time, you’ve probably asked yourself the same thing. I certainly have. Leaders know they should be developing their teams. They schedule the meetings. They set aside time. They come prepared. And then… nothing. The employee’s interest just isn’t there.

At some point, it’s tempting to think, Why bother? I have other things to do.

Before you give up, it’s worth looking at what’s really going on. In most cases, resistance to development isn’t laziness. It’s confusion, fear, or a misunderstanding of what development actually means.

Here are a few practical ways to handle it.

1. Make development a constant, not an event

If development only shows up once a year during performance reviews, don’t be surprised when people are skeptical. When it suddenly appears, employees may wonder: Why now? Am I in trouble? Is this another management fad that will disappear if I wait it out?

Development needs to be part of how the team operates. That means regular coaching conversations, giving and receiving feedback, doing post-mortems on projects, and openly discussing what worked and what didn’t. When improvement is woven into everyday work, self-development stops feeling personal or threatening. Development becomes “how we do things here.”

2. Stop framing development as “the next job”

One of the most common pushbacks to development is: “I’m good where I am. I’m not looking for a promotion.”

That mindset needs to be addressed immediately. Development is not optional, even if someone plans to stay in the same role. Jobs change. Technology evolves. Expectations rise. Not developing doesn’t mean staying the same. It means falling behind.

For employees who aren’t career-ambitious, stop talking about development in terms of the next role. Instead, focus on what matters to them. Becoming better at the current job. Gaining confidence. Building skills that make work easier. Earning a certification they value. In some cases, tying development to compensation or job security is appropriate and honest.

Not pushing development is doing them a disservice.

3. “I’m retiring soon” is rarely a free pass

If someone is retiring in the next 12 months, don’t force a development agenda. Let them focus on transition and knowledge transfer.

But five years out? That’s not an excuse. Think about how much has changed in the last five years alone. A global pandemic. Rapid advances in AI. Inflation spikes. Entire industries are shifting. Now imagine the next five. Development is going to be mandatory!

Often, resistance here is rooted in fear of the unknown. Your role as a leader is to help them see development as a way to keep their skills relevant, not as pressure to reinvent themselves at the end of their career.

4. Redefine what development actually is

“I don’t have time for development” is a real concern. Most people hear the word and immediately think: training programs, conferences, certifications piled on top of a full workload.

That’s where leaders need to educate. Most development should happen inside the job. Stretch assignments. Leading a project debrief. Learning a new system by teaching it to others. Taking on a slightly expanded responsibility with coaching support.

Development should not feel like a second job. Your role is to help them understand how to do this and show them how to make development efficient.

5. If you only talk about development once a year, that’s on you

“We talked about development once during my review, and then it never came up again,” so I assumed it was not a priority. If this is your situation, don’t blame the employee.

Acknowledge what you need to do differently. Start by scheduling quarterly development check-ins, even if they’re only 15 minutes. Ask about progress during regular one-on-ones. If development matters, it needs to be visible and consistently reinforced.

The more you talk about development, the more your team will see it as a priority. In this case, what gets talked about will get done.

Final Thought

We all have reasons we resist development. Lack of time. Fear. Comfort. Fatigue. When your team pushes back, don’t default to frustration or give up. Be ready to address the resistance using these approaches. You may not eliminate every challenge, but over time, your team will notice what you value. And eventually, they’ll start valuing it too. 

Let me make one last point. If you’ve been clear about expectations, made development part of the culture, and removed the common barriers, and someone still has no interest in growing, you have a choice to make. At that point, the question may not be how to motivate them, but whether the role and the culture are still the right fit for them.

I’ll be taking next week off from writing. I want to wish you and your family a happy holiday season, and I’ll see you again in the new year.

Andy Noon, PhD

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Thanks for reading and look forward to seeing you again next week.

Andy