Thriving through challenges with Adaptive Leadership

 According to Darwin’s Origin of Species, it is not the most intellectual of the species that survives; it is not the strongest that survives; but the species that survives is the one that is able best to adapt and adjust to the changing environment in which it finds itself.

-Leon C. Megginson

The last couple of years have accelerated change multi fold in the business environment. All organizations have had to demonstrate resilience, adaptability, and agility to tide through the extreme volatility in recent years. It has made long term planning almost redundant and brought focus on short to medium term goals. Further, the evolution and adoption of technology has forced business to bring it to the forefront of planning and strategy. We may have to adapt again due to the markets indicating another slowdown. The plethora of significant changes over the last few years has brought focus on adaptive leadership and its role in change management.

Leadership and what is expected of it has undergone a sea change in current times. These changes extend to both managing business and people. 

Adaptive leadership refers to the ability of identifying and addressing challenges that are beyond the obvious. It is reflective of a leader who can enhance resilience of self and the organization in the face of radical changes. This model was introduced by Harvard professors Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky. They define it simply as the “practice of mobilizing people to tackle tough challenges and thrive”. Adaptive leadership may be very relevant in current times and for the foreseeable future where we need our leaders to evolve beyond their traditional role for business and people.

The key principles of Adaptive Leadership as outlined by Ronald Heifetz are depicted below.

While the principles are self-explanatory, one might wonder where we apply this form of leadership and how it differs from traditional leadership. One key difference in approach lies in denying the assumption that the leader knows all. Adaptive leadership leverages on the resources and employees to find unique solutions that will address underlying problems and enable a safe environment for everyone to adapt to the changes. This form of leadership is especially necessary in times of crisis or to manage problems that surpass the business-as-usual realm of challenges. The outcome of the recent pandemic is an example of adaptive leadership. Covid-19 presented a multitude of problems needing to be solved, which were unprecedented in the lifetime of most, if not all leaders. It required creating an environment of trust, emphasizing support for employees by gauging their emotional distress, working across internal functions and external resources to agree on enabling business continuity, progressive adaptation to fast changing circumstances, and focus on continuous employee communication to remain transparent and fair.

Adaptive leadership can be used in various challenging circumstances except the ones where we have a straightforward solution. These are defined as Technical challenges by Heifetz and Linsky. Straight forward problems for example, if your computer is not working fine or you need to drive cost efficiencies in your programs to avoid going over budget, have intuitive direct actions needed for a solution. These technical challenges may also pose a blind spot for effective adaptive leadership. It can be very easy to jump at the symptom of a problem assuming it is a technical challenge and solve it with a direct solution which will almost always pose to be ineffective or short lived. For example, attempting to address persistently high attrition by adding a new incentive plan, enhancing your rewards repertoire may have short lived results or, none at all. It takes an adaptive leader who is willing to broaden their perspective and work with others to deep dive into culture issues that are perhaps at the heart of the persistently high turnover. This might involve uncomfortable conversations, conflicts and challenges. Leadership in this case may have to help foster a safe environment for people to share honest feedback, and even accept criticism. Leaders must help people around them ride out their fears and frustrations of managing change in culture over a period of time.

Adaptive leadership is very relevant and highly recommended in current times however it is not perfect. While there are various advantages for long term success using this model, there are certain pitfalls too as indicated below.

Change management comes with leadership and if leaders fall short in enabling it with success it can result in a demotivated team, disillusioned employees and unfavorable business impact. As the famous adage goes, Manage change or it will manage you. 

In conclusion some key leadership qualities that can help implement adaptive leadership successfully at change management include: 

Communicate vision with clarity and reinforce it

Leadership communication is critical when driving change management. Be clear, concise and consistent in your message. 

 

Managing emotions

Emotional awareness is critical for any leader. This includes awareness of self and the larger organization. It bodes well to ensure you make right decisions while being transparent and fair.

 

Handling uncertainty

Change breeds uncertainty. Acknowledge that change can be uncomfortable, long drawn and painful at times. Stay patient, persistent and empathetic through the process. 


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