Every successful leader needs buy-in from their team.

This is true whether you are talking about an office or a factory; a restaurant or a retail store; in a business or at home.

Buy-in is not just passive acceptance of a change. It is actively supporting the decision of a leader. (

Click to Tweet That!)I’ve been writing about my goals about starting my web design business. I’ve “attempted” to progress in this work before, but with little success. My wife had let me pursue this, but with limited support: I mean, she had little proof that it would work.

A little over two years ago, I started taking some classes to further educate myself in different aspects of web design and development. I grew in my skills. I had also been maintaining a couple websites for a while.

When I started to pursue this a few months ago, my wife had a different response. She was in favor of it. In fact, she has done several things to actively support me in this, including purchasing a course for developing apps and a ticket to the EntreLeadership 1-Day event in April.

What made the change in her? What caused her to finally buy-in to my business?

Many people resist change. This is because we are creatures of habit. But change is inevitable in some cases. How you handle change is important.

If you are responsible to set the change in motion, you must check your process for making the change:

• Involve the people affected by the change.
• Get their suggestions – they may see things in a different light.
• Get as much information as you can – tough decisions are easier when you have more information.
• Make the best decision for the most people with the information you get.
• Have a definite plan to carry out.

If you aren’t responsible to start the change, but are affected by the change, you have your own responsibilities:

• Give your input – you really do matter.
• Accept the decision that is made and support it.
• If your idea is not implemented, it’s not a conspiracy against you!