In today’s rapidly evolving world, the only thing we can fully rely on is that things will change.
Your ability to adapt to change could be what makes or breaks your business.
It’s one thing to understand the importance of adaptability. It’s another to actually increase your organisation’s adaptability. Below are some ways that great leaders increase their adaptability. Implement these and you’ll be able to boost your adaptability too!
The first step to increasing adaptability is to make sure you bring an adaptive mindset to everything that you do. Try and normalise failure. Treat it as an inescapable part of life.
When things go wrong, rather than dwell in the failure, focus on how you can bounce back from it and come out stronger. Focus on the value of failure and teach your employees to do the same.
The current global climate is characterised by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA). To remain competitive, you will have to deal with endless market disruptions.
An adaptive mindset is not only about reacting to these disruptions to avoid any damage to your business. It’s about using them to your advantage.
Don’t limit yourself to merely overcoming a challenge, rise to it! Treat it as an opportunity for growth – a chance to rethink how you’ve been doing things. Help your team do the same by leading by example!
A truly adaptive leader will not attempt to respond to external stressors alone. They value the opinions of others and include them in their decision-making process. This not only helps you make a more informed decision but also fosters a more adaptable and integrated work culture.
When external knowledge is needed, you should receive it with enthusiasm. Don't treat it as a shortcoming on your part. Encourage your team to consider seeking information from others to help complete tasks they find challenging.
Also, learn from the mistakes and actions of others. Look to other industries and organisations to see how they respond to similar challenges.
Research shows that psychological safety is one of the biggest determinants of a successful team. Your team must feel safe to voice their ideas and opinions, even if they conflict with yours.
Who knows, they might have a different way of doing things that could be incredibly beneficial for the organisation.
No matter how much work you put into fostering a healthy work environment, your employees are human. This means that stress, mental health concerns and tensions between employees are inescapable.
These should not be ignored, and you should normalise talking about these problems. This will make everyone feel safe and valued as employees as well as individuals. This, in turn, can increase their motivation to contribute to the team, boosting productivity.
While adaptability is not a new concept, it has risen in importance in recent years. By implementing these tips and tricks, you can improve your organisation’s adaptability from the top down.
In order to be able to adapt, you'll first have to know where you stand at the moment. Falcony | Audit helps you achieve that by making it easier to evaluate and compare different areas of your business.
We are building the world's first operational involvement platform. Our mission is to make the process of finding, sharing, fixing and learning from issues and observations as easy as thinking about them and as rewarding as being remembered for them.
By doing this, we are making work more meaningful for all parties involved.
More information at falcony.io.