Can you adapt?

Can you adapt?

This week in my leadership class, I read a very interesting chapter on adaptive leadership. The chapter discussed how well a manager is able to get his or her followers to adapt when faced with obstacles, changes, challenges, or problems.

As I read the chapter, I mentally assessed my own abilities to encourage my followers to adapt to changes and thought about the creative methods I often employ when I really want their buy in without me having to do a lot of “selling”. After completing my own mental evaluation of myself, I thought for quite a long time about how unadaptable I am as an employee. While I have always been a person that has been eager to take on new and challenging tasks and assignments, I have also been one who fears changes.

Part of my fear is rooted in my need to be in control. When the outcome of a situation cannot be reached by me directly, I develop a sense of anxiety, which in the end makes me less productive. As I thought more and more about this, I realized that in order for me to overcome this inability to easily (and willingly) adapt to new changes, I have to learn to trust my supervisor’s leadership. After all, when I am employing changes within my departments, a lot of the presentation to my team includes several reminders of their ability to trust me.

This mental contemplation helped me to not understand myself, but to also understand what my staff maybe experiencing when I am presenting changes to them. I had never considered that they may also be dealing with anxiety and fear, as I have always assumed that their lack of enthusiasm about some changes was rooted in their dislike of learning new things. If I am honest with myself, sometimes I just am not mentally in a place where I am ready to learn new things either.

I have learned this week that adaptive leadership requires a leader to be able to help people change which may include helping them to understand the reasons why changes are needed. This should also include the honest conversation about how rocky the road of change may become. The leader must be proactive, strategic, and thorough in his efforts to motivate his team. The leader’s behaviors are most important when demonstrative adaptive leadership.

In the majority of my situations, I now realize that I did not have confidence in my leader, and feared that he may not have known what he was doing or where he was actually leading our team. His behaviors were convincing that he believed in himself and he was unable to answer many of the questions asked of him when changes were being brought down the pipelines. This left me fearful of my own abilities to perform well, because I did not feel as if I was receiving adequate guidance from my leader.

Keeping this in mind, I understand even more now, the importance of ensuring that my behavior demonstrates confidence so that my staff can feel safe in knowing that I am leading them down the right paths. This also builds trust. If I am able to prove that I know what I am doing as their leader, they will be more confident in following my leadership.

Similarly, I have to also keep in mind how much support I must give to those who are hesitant to get on board as well. As much as I feel that I need support in similar challenging situations, I have to also ensure that I give an even greater amount of support to my followers, since I know firsthand how difficult it may be to adapt to new changes.

In order to support and build staff confidence, a leader has to demonstrate that he is knowledgeable, experienced, and most importantly not afraid. The leader must show confidence in order for his followers to have the same. Being available to provide guidance and direction to employees also makes them feel more comfortable and helps to build trust that as they head down the road of the “unknown” that they know you have their back and that you will not stand by and just allow them to fail. After all, the fear and anxiety associated with change derives from the fear of failing.

Adaptive leadership requires the leader to know ins and outs of the game plan prior to giving it to his followers. He should be prepared for questions and show enthusiasm about the changes being made. Building trust and confidence are the key factors in successfully assisting followers to adapt to changes. If a follower is not able to trust their leader, and does not have the confidence that their leader will lead them in the right direction, then he will most likely not be able to perform at his best.