DEVELOPMENT
Adaptive Leadership : EA Style
When mud hits the fan , we move from our current leadership style into crisis leadership . This time , it ’ s different . The fan continues to spin while mud continues being slung into it . Traditional leadership styles will not serve us well .
THE EXPERT
Bryan Whitefield runs leadership programs to improve decision making in organisations . He delivers his FaB ( faster and better ) Decision Making Program and his Persuasive Adviser Program across all sectors of the economy . He is the author of DECIDE : How to manage the risk in your decision making and Winning Conversations : How to turn red tape into blue ribbon
During this health crisis , I ’ m sure you are observing those who are handling the situation better than others . Take a moment to list down the positive leadership traits you are seeing consistently across the leadership group , and also the negative ones . What you are observing your leaders doing across your organisation will be their version of adaptive leadership . That is , working smart while being agile . Some will be doing it better than others .
Now take a moment to reflect on your own leadership in this crisis . How have you been showing the positive traits ? Have you portrayed any of the negative ones ? Let me explain my version of adaptive leadership with some tips on how you can influence your leadership group if some are falling short of the mark .
Adaptive Leadership Adaptive leadership comes from a Harvard Business Review ( HBR ) article published in the midst of the GFC in 2009 titled Leadership in a ( Permanent ) Crisis and authored by Ronald Heifetz , Alexander Grashow , and Marty Linsky .
As Heifetz ( et al 2009 ) say in their HBR paper , when faced with adversity leaders can hunker down or can “ reset ” their team and the organisation . To hunker down is to do what leaders might normally do when faced with deteriorating conditions : cut costs , lay off staff , bring control closer to the key decision makers . The paper argues that this is the wrong thing to do . The cause of this calamity is not usual , and your response should not be usual .
Leaders must think long term and must adapt and adapt and adapt some more . Until the new normal of business as unusual is reached . Then adapt some more as society finally returns to a longer term new normal — one with some massive shifts in the way we work and play .
I have distilled Heifetz ’ s ( et al 2009 ) views on adaptive leadership to three concepts and three questions ( see Figure 1 ). The three concepts are :
w w w
Being Courageous Proactive Experimentation Devolved Decision Making
Let me take you through each of them in turn .
Being Courageous Being courageous with decision making is turning away from the easy things to do and doing the hard-smart work . Here are three tips on courageous decision making :
w Conversations : The difficult conversations need to be had now . Don ’ t let your leadership group put them off .
w Voices : Leaders must listen to the voices from outside their trusted inner circle . They have never been through something like this . Encourage leaders to listen to the dissenters and work out how to experiment and test their views against the views of the inner circle .
w Risks : Leaders are familiar with taking risks .
54 Chief of Staff | Issue 2 2020