In the rapidly changing world, the pandemic has brought drastic changes to the operational functions of the business and how businesses operate. Change is a common phenomenon, and organisations across the globe are witnessing rapid change now and then. The pandemic has brought rapid changes, and organisations are now adopting adaptive leadership skills to deal with the situation; Ronald Heifetz formed the concept of Adaptive leadership and is now in demand in most organisations. This blog will be a roller coaster ride where everything is subjected to change rapidly within a fraction of time, from technology to money and an individual’s health.
Everyone refers to this term differently, but in this blog, you will know what adaptive leadership is. I will define the term as it was defined by its creators at Harvard University. Adaptive leadership emphasises the ability of project leaders to handle organisational uncertainties effectively. There is a slight difference between traditional and adaptive leadership; this leadership skill focuses on a top-down process. This approach demands that leaders be flexible, responsive, and smart. They should be responsible enough to handle every tough situation and guide their team on the right track. This fosters a culture of continuous learning and a supportive and adapting environment.
Adaptive Leadership is about acknowledging the team members and thus addressing organisational challenges. This also encourages individuals to learn new skills so that they can handle tough situations on their own.
Leaders who are committed to the “Adaptive Leadership Theory” follow the following leadership behaviours to guide their team members:
Adaptive learning is a concept that emphasises bringing changes required for organisations, and leaders don’t change themselves to bring these changes. Rather, they help others to adapt to navigate the changing organisational environment.
In this section, I will discuss some of the challenges that most leaders face when they adopt these leadership skills in their organisations.
As we all are familiar with these terms, technical fault is common in most organisations, and it is not rocket science; the technical experts of the organisations are well-shaped to handle these types of issues. Solving these types of problems is quite easy. All the demands are knowledge and ability.
This problem arises as it demands changes in beliefs, relationships, values and approaches. These problems are difficult to address, and solutions must be defined clearly. To address these challenges, one should experience and innovate new learning as this involves individual human minds bringing up new innovative ideas to solve this challenge.
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This approach emphasises the behaviours of leaders who can tackle every difficult situation; the challenges in the organisation can be both it can either technical challenges or it can be adaptive. A leader should always prepare themselves to face such challenges. Often, it has been found that the leaders in organisations follow six key leadership behaviours to navigate change; The behaviours involve
Get on the balcony: This behaviour demands a clear understanding of the reality
Identify the Adaptive Challenge: To showcase this behaviour, the leader should ensure they can distinguish adaptive and technical challenges. For this, they should have proper knowledge of the challenges.
Regulate Distress: A leader of an organisation is their leader to raise a sense of change among all the individuals in the society and around them so that everyone can make a small contribution. To do this
Be Disciplined: Encourage your team members and motivate them to remain focused on their target.
Empower team members: Every team member must ensure they can tackle tough situations.
Protect Leadership Voices: As a leader, you should give every team member equal access and value all voices but emphasise more marginalised voices.
Leaders who emphasise bringing change to society should carry the following qualities:
Adaptive leadership skills are continuously changing, but to develop adaptive leadership skills, you can adopt the following skills:
This acts as a game changer for your organisation. Being a leader of the organisation, you should be able to judge how your contributions have influenced organisational performance and should categorise them under positive impact or negative impact. This approach will further help to prevent those mistakes and thus will lead to a more effective outcome.
So, I hope you are prepared to navigate change. It’s not rocket science; follow the behaviours mentioned above and always keep a practice of adaptive leadership theories, and things will be easier for you.
In the fast-paced world, the operations of businesses have transformed drastically after the outbreak of COVID-19. Change has become a norm in most organisations across the globe. This blog has evolved around principles of adaptive leadership. The principles of adaptive leadership encompass various behaviours that the leaders should follow to guide their team effectively. Adaptive leadership refers to the qualities leaders should carry to set them apart from other employees. The exceptional behavioural qualities that the leader should possess involve emotional intelligence so that they can understand what others feel. Also, they should emphasise a commitment to the organisation to ensure that they work beyond their responsibility and thus, their team members will also get motivated through them. It should give equal access to individuals so no one feels discriminated against. Also, to adopt adaptive learning skills, they should embrace others’ experiences. This will enhance their learning skills. Also, they should practise self-reflection. This acts as a powerful tool and enables them to fine-tune their skill set, and they make huge contributions to the organisations.
Adaptive leadership should follow a flexible, responsive, and smart leadership approach. It focuses on a top-down approach, unlike the traditional leadership approach; it fosters a culture of continuous learning and adaptation and encourages team members to handle tough situations.
Leaders who are committed to Adaptive leadership adopt several behaviours that involve encouraging individuals, inspiring team members to allocate tasks as power their specialisations, guiding individuals in the right direction and prioritising tasks as per their importance. These behaviours help the leader to navigate change in the organisation.
Leaders who adopt the adaptive leadership theory witness both types of challenges: technical and adaptive. Technical challenges are usually related to practical issues and can be solved by experts.
On the other hand, adaptive challenges demand change in beliefs, relationships, values and approaches.
Adaptive leaders should possess the following qualities, emotional intelligence, organisational justice, acceptance of mistakes, and commitment to continuous learning and innovation.
There are numerous ways that one may adopt, but some of the points are mentioned below:
Author Bio: Mark Edmonds is a carefully prepared scholarly expert and a noticeable figure at Academic Assignments, a main supplier of first rate assignment writing services. With a significant skill in leadership and management, Imprint has practical experience in offering students unmatched direction through his excellent leadership assignment help. His broad information in adaptive leadership strategies, as displayed in his work “Navigating the New Normal: Adaptive Leadership Strategies for Management Students,” mirrors his devotion to engaging students with the abilities they need to succeed in the consistently advancing business scene.