How adaptable are you
as a leader?

Adaptability is a competitive advantage for you as a leader and for your organization

By Angela Civitella

Previously published January 17, 2018

The wise adapt themselves to circumstances.

Chinese proverb

Perhaps at no other time in recent history has being adaptable been more important than it is now. The ability to change (or be changed) to fit new circumstances – is a crucial skill for leaders and an important competency in emotional intelligence.

A study conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit, entitled Growing Global Executive Talent, showed that the top three leadership qualities that have become important over the years include: the ability to motivate staff (35 percent); the ability to work well across cultures (34 percent); and the ability to facilitate change (32 percent). The least important are technical expertise (11 percent) and “bringing in the numbers” (10 percent).

As a leader, it is, therefore, crucial to make a concerted effort to understand people of different cultures, and cultural adaptability has become a leadership imperative.

An example of a leader who epitomized this prized quality is Robert McDonald, who was once chief operating officer of the Procter & Gamble Company, who spent much of his time in various overseas postings. He has recently said: “I did not expect to live outside the United States for 15 years; the world had changed, so I had to change, too. When you look at my bio, foreign languages are not my best subjects. But, when you move out of your culture, you have to learn foreign languages.”

This willingness to get out of one’s comfort zone, and learn continuously as a way of adapting to changed surroundings, marks a key difference between successful and unsuccessful leaders.

In the book Everyday Survival: Why Smart People do Stupid Things by Laurence Gonzales, a lecturer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, Gonzales talks about the dumb mistakes we make when we work from a mental script that does not match the requirements of real-world situations.

‘This willingness to get out of one’s comfort zone, and learn continuously as a way of adapting to changed surroundings, marks a key difference between successful and unsuccessful leaders.’

Gonzales explains that one of the reasons this happens has to do with the way that the brain processes new information. It creates what he calls “behavioural scripts”, or mental models that automate almost every action that we take. For example, growing up, we build a behavioural script for the physical motions required in tying our shoes. Through practice, this script is eventually entrenched and it ends up making the action so easy and automatic that we never give it another thought.

Another example of a behavioural script that we learn is ducking when something is thrown at us. Behavioural scripts simplify our world, make us more efficient and help us move around faster and with less effort. They influence not only our actions but also what we perceive and believe. Gonzales says that “We tend not to notice things that are inconsistent with the models, and we tend not to try what the scripts tell us is bad or impossible.”

The efficiency of these scripts carries with them a downside: they can divert our attention from important information coming to us from our environment. In other words, the models or scripts push us to disregard the reality of a situation, and dismiss signals because the message we get from our scripts is that we already know about it. So, we make decisions about a situation that, as Gonzales puts it “aren’t really decisions in the real sense of the word. They’re simply automated behaviours”.

Mental scripts may also result in stubbornly clinging to the notion that “this is how we have always done it”, refusing to understand and accept the realities of a new situation. Gonzales quotes Henry Plotkin, a psychologist at University College in London, who states that we tend to “generalize into the future what worked in the past”. So, whatever worked in the past, do it; whatever didn’t work, avoid it.

‘… we make decisions about a situation that, as Gonzales puts it “aren’t really decisions in the real sense of the word. They’re simply automated behaviors”.’

This is, of course, the anti-thesis of the quality of being adaptable, of being flexible under the influence of rapidly changing external conditions. It can make us rigid, unresponsive to change, and unwilling to learn and adopt new ways, all of which can have an impact on our ability to survive and succeed in the long run. People who score high on the adaptability competency are able to deal more positively with change, and they are able to do what it takes to adapt their approach and shift their priorities.

Here are a few tips for developing adaptability:

• When you catch yourself shooting an idea down, take a moment to consider what mental scripts are influencing your behaviour. Mental scripts are so automatic that you have to decide intentionally that you want to challenge them if you want to improve your leadership.
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• Help your people distinguish between observation and inference, between fact and conjecture. Inference and conjecture can be influenced by mental scripts that don’t have a bearing on reality. Be the voice in the room that calls others’ attention to this possibility, and help everyone pause so that they can analyze inferences and conjectures that may or may not be valid. Do you habitually insist ongoing “by the book”? Is this necessary for every issue? Might you enhance your team’s productivity if you paid more attention to the effect that this might have on the people involved? What would happen if you applied standard procedures more flexibly?

‘Consider that when we push the envelope, and when we intentionally put ourselves in situations that are outside our comfort zone, we grow.’

• Consider that when we push the envelope, and when we intentionally put ourselves in situations that are outside our comfort zone, we grow. Are you trading on old knowledge? Do you need to update your skills? Are you relying too much on your title as a sign of authority? In today’s working environment, surrounded by highly intelligent and specialized knowledge workers, this no longer works. We need to adapt by continually evolving and reinventing ourselves. It’s like snakes. What do snakes do? They moult, they shed their outside skins. But it’s not just that. It’s a matter of continuing to grow and transform, and it means that executives have to have extraordinary adaptability. This applies to every level in the organization: change or perish. When we are in a position for a length of time, we may tend to become accustomed to the status quo and fail to challenge the process in order to continue to grow and improve. If you left tomorrow, what would your successor do to improve things? Consider making these changes yourself.
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• In today’s environment of complex challenges and rapid change, the ability to solve problems becomes even more crucial. Adapters prefer a more adaptable, methodical and organized approach to problem-solving, and are more likely to seek a solution to a problem by working within the current framework rather than developing a completely new one. Innovators, on the other hand, prefer a less orderly, more unconventional and ingenious approach to problem-solving and are likely to seek solutions by thinking outside the box. One looks to do things better, the other looks to do things differently. Consider that a team that is composed of extreme adapters or extreme innovators is less successful than a team that is balanced. Tests for adaptability include:

– Openness to new ideas
– Adaptation to situations
– Handling of unexpected demands
– Adapting or changing strategy

Adaptability is not just a “nice way to have competency”. It is a competitive advantage for you as a leader and for your organization.

So, where does your company stand in terms of adaptability? What do you need to do to keep up with the pace of change, with the increasing complexity of today’s workplace? Long ago, Benjamin Franklin said: “Wide will wear, but narrow will tear”. What can you do today to widen your perspective, to stretch the limits imposed, to extend the scope and meaning of what you do as a leader?

Image: Pxhere

Other articles by Angela Civitella