Adaptive Leadership

Workplace cultures and the people within them are constantly evolving. Great leaders understand this and know that they must adapt the way they lead to the needs of their team. Good leaders don’t adopt a one-size-fits-all style of leadership. They flex and evolve their approach to leading and managing a team as circumstances and people change. This is known as adaptive leadership.

Being adaptable in the way you lead your team has many benefits. Strengths in this area enable you to respond to complex, often rapidly changing situations and adapt to new business environments. There is no better example of this than in the shift to remote and hybrid models of working, brought about by the global pandemic. Managers that were able to adapt and flex their leadership approach were able to foster collaboration, encourage innovation and creativity, and motivate their teams more quickly during the most unexpected and challenging of times.   

In this blog we’ll consider some of the different styles of leadership and how an adaptive approach can help you, your team and organisation to respond to change and take advantage of the opportunities it brings.

What is adaptive leadership?

In his book “Leadership Without Easy Answers”, Harvard University Professor Ron Heifetz defines adaptive leadership as “a set of strategies and practices you can use to overcome obstacles, accomplish meaningful change, and adapt to challenging and complex environments”. He came up with this leadership theory alongside his colleague Professor Marty Linsky.  

The pair talked about how changing circumstances and unexpected situations should inform the way you manage your team. Shifts in organisational culture may require you to adapt your leadership style and develop new skills. The needs of individual team members also change over time. Each generation comes with a broad set of expectations and every team member has their own preferences. Personality questionnaires are a useful way of revealing individual preferences of how people like to be managed. Identifying your team’s preferences and flexing your approach to match will help you get the best out of your team.

Adaptive leadership requires emotional intelligence and for you to listen, observe and respond to the changing needs of your team. To do this, you will probably need to call on different elements of leadership styles. Let’s take a look at a few...  

Styles of leadership

• Transformational - leaders create a vision to inspire change and motivate their team to buy into this to achieve the organisation’s strategy.

• Situational - adapting your leadership approach based on the situation or challenge you and your team are facing.

• Coaching - providing hands-on support in your team’s learning and growth, encouraging people to seek out development opportunities.

• Hands-off - a more relaxed style of leadership where you delegate tasks to your team and empower the leaders within your team to step up.

• Transactional - a results-driven, performance-focused style of leadership aimed at getting the job done.

• Bureaucratic - a hierarchical style where decision making follows a clear chain of command. Although often frowned upon, some work environments benefit from this style of leadership, e.g. where safety or security is paramount.

• Democratic - a supportive, listening style of leadership that supports the development of innovation and creativity within a team.

Do you recognise any of your own leadership preferences in this list?

In reality, most leaders adopt elements of the different styles described above to develop their own personal style. A good leader will have traits of the leadership styles in their toolkit and recognise how and when to apply them to different situations. Being able to adapt your approach in this way will help you become a more effective leader. Looking longer term, flexing your leadership style can boost employee retention and team engagement.

What happens when you fail to adapt your leadership style?

If you find it difficult to put a label on your style of leadership, it’s not uncommon. Some leaders may have a defined approach they know suits their personality, strengths and ways of working. In reality, most good leaders possess a little of each style.

Problems can arise when leaders steadfastly refuse or fail to adapt their approach to leading their team. Consistency is important. Your team need to know what to expect from you each day, but failing to recognise individual needs or adapt your leadership approach to the situation can impact your team’s morale, motivation, productivity and engagement. A leader’s failure to listen to and observe their people can be damaging to the whole organisation.    

How adaptive leadership drives innovation and flexibility

Two key benefits of being able to adapt your leadership style are increased team flexibility and higher levels of innovation. Adaptive leadership creates an open, listening team culture in which it is safe to share new ideas, listen to different voices, challenge others’ opinions and have balanced discussions. An outcome of this is greater collaboration, which encourages innovative thinking practices.

In applying the principles of adaptive leadership, you will also demonstrate to your team the positive impact of a flexible approach. In leading by example you will encourage your team to behave in a similar way, allowing your team to cope with, and respond to, future change such as an organisational restructure. Flexibility builds resilience in the face of adversity. 

Examples of adaptive leadership in action:

Moving to lead a new team/organisation

When a team has been working together for a while some things just work. To a certain extent you can leave people to their own devices to get on with things, checking in on progress and making yourself available when needed. But let’s say you move to a new leadership role within the same organisation. That team may have been used to a different style of leadership, so it’s important to take time to listen and get to know your team and their individual preferences and challenges before settling on the right approach.  

Leading a remote team

Over the past five years, leaders have had to find new ways to foster team spirit and maintain motivation in remote and hybrid teams. Adaptive leadership played a huge part in this process as leaders had to listen, show empathy and encourage collaboration from a distance. Employee surveys can be hugely helpful in understanding the requirements of remote team members.   

Become a more effective leader

How do you rate your own adaptability as a leader? If you want to improve your own performance and develop leadership skills and practices to inspire and empower your team, ask us about our Effective Leadership Practice workshop. We offer a range of learning and development solutions for both current and aspiring leaders. Contact our learning and development team for more information on 0161 941 2426.

Further reading and listening

For more leadership resources, check out our blogs on Building a management pipeline, Mindful leadership, and Cultivating a positive workplace culture or listen to our podcast on Generational leadership in the workplace.