How to be an Adaptable Leader

Employee Insights, Employer Insights

Is your company struggling to get its footing right now? Are your employees looking to you to take the lead? In today’s constantly changing environment, adaptive leadership has proven to be most effective in managing teams and fulfilling the needs of their companies in the most meaningful and productive ways. As your company strives to thrive and maintain a competitive edge during this time of crisis, there are many ways to promote a strong sense of leadership and trust among your entire team, whether they are in the office or working from home. Here are some of the ways to take on an adaptive leadership mindset and give your team the stability they are seeking:

Become an early adopter.

The most successful companies and teams are generally those that choose to adapt to new practices and ways of doing things – before they have no choice but to do so. Rather than rejecting change, embracing all aspects of innovation – from new technologies to advanced systems or processes – will position you to better overcome future challenges and ensure your organization stays relevant in how it operates and serves the needs of your audience in the future. Proactively seeking ways to go beyond the norm and break free from traditional barriers will be critical to becoming an early adopter.

Promote a culture of learning.

Effective leaders don’t just lead at the upper management level, but encourage all employees to continually learn, advance and expand their skills. Promoting a culture of learning involves many initiatives, such as providing mentorship opportunities, facilitating onsite training, and focusing on collaboration activities to increase internal engagement. A culture of learning requires a concerted effort by your leadership team to create and fund sustainable learning programs that every employee can take advantage of on a regular basis.

Assess strengths and weaknesses.

By maximizing the strengths and weaknesses of your individual employees, you can effectively delegate tasks and responsibilities that are in the best interest of your company. You can do this by training your managers about how to properly assess employees’ skills and train them on how to develop their teams based on top company priorities. This also plays a major role in the hiring process, as you’ll be able to better fill vital staffing gaps and competencies.

Above all, it’s important to remember that adaptive leadership doesn’t happen overnight and is ultimately the result of a series of well-thought decisions made at the leadership level. By consistently implementing the practices above, you’ll set your company up for long-term success for years to come.