More experimentation and dealing in smart risks implies that, occasionally, those bets will go wrong. No problem. What matters is that the best adaptive leaders make sure that their ‘failures’ are seen as learning opportunities, and that they don’t throw in the towel.
Absorbing and soothing discomfort due to change requires empathy and compassion for individuals and groups affected by it, together with monitoring levels of stress to keep the business running at maximum efficiency.
Understand the Need for Change
For contemporary organisations in a dynamically changing business environment (and a lurking recession) one of the adaptive leadership models may be the right method to manage change. Adaptive leaders are willing to try new ideas and accept failure, learning from it along the way. They also allow team members to showcase their creative thinking and even seek out innovative solutions beyond the realm of normal ones for adaptive challenges. Finally, adaptive leaders make sure that their teams create innovative responses to questions. Adaptive leaders also recognise the emotional effects of organisational changes on their stakeholders. They sense when they’re uncomfortable and express empathy for their pain, while assuring them that it’s part of any transition process. Their empathy maintains morale during tough times by making sure every concern is heard by management. Lastly, adaptive leaders know the difference between the critical and the non-critical – an ability that enables them to let go of things no longer serving the organisation as well as things that no longer contribute value for its mission.
Create a Plan for Change
Adaptive leaders grant their teams the time and space to do the hard work of managing change well. They see that resistance is often based in anticipated loss or fear – and they seek to help their people process such feelings in useful ways. They support learning and development by providing time and resources for training, for collaboration, and by empowering the team to step out of the comfort zone to try something new and risk failing. She adds: ‘And they value relationships, where there’s open communication, mutual respect, and strong, supportive relationships with all employees.’ Adaptive leadership excels at turning negatives into positives by turning a weakness into an advantage; it accelerates reaction time, the amount of energy spent mitigating problems and accurately perceiving changes before they occur. Pairing adaptive leadership with EQ training also helps teams keep calm during stressful times by helping others understand their feelings: Abraham Lincoln welcoming dissent by filling his cabinet with rivals, and General George Patton listening to staff ideas while creating a safe space for staff to speak to him.
Build a Culture of Change
Adaptive leadership does best in cultures that are amenable to change. It creates a practical and useful pathway for helping people through challenges, and the sense of meaning it builds makes us all more resilient and engaged. To encourage original and novel ideas, bearing in mind safety and effective experimentation, it’s beneficial to enable a platform of free flow of information for all to collect and present their best opinions possible.Such goals can be accomplished by establishing a regular dialogue forum or, perhaps, by allocating time for group discussion towards brainstorming. Adaptive leaders pick up signals about how people react to the transformation, empathetically appreciating their shifts in attitude or feeling, engaging members in an ethic of fair treatment – shaping relationships that promote commitment to objectives across the organisation, a phenomenon that has begun to be researched as organisational justice. This kind of justice is also a critical ingredient for adaptability – shaping a culture that can modify quickly.
Embrace Feedback
Good adaptive leadership is built around communication: creating avenues for people to share with you their opinions and concerns – including anonymous feedback reports – so you can hear diverse points of view so that you can make creative adaptations to processes. Adaptive leaders acknowledge what they don’t know – and they let others help them solve problems. This encourages teamwork and solidarity, which in turn leads to happier teams. Some in your tribe will resist adopting the adaptive leadership model and will have to be weaned from the more familiar style of command-and-control to charged-and-challenged or even to curated-and-cared. But you should provide them with the tools and support (training and mentoring) they will need to make the change, and they will rise to the occasion and perform better as they master new skills and engage in new ways that prepare them for future demands.