3 Skills Needed for Adaptive Leadership
People are constantly facing business issues they have never seen before, and they are coming at an increasing rate. Too often employees feel like running on a treadmill, going nowhere fast. The harder they run, the more worn out they become and have no progress to show for it. Worse, management above us keeps throwing new challenges our way, and we lack the adaptive leadership skills to deal with them.
When I was running Motorola University, we understood the need to develop people to be more effective. Back in 2005, we focused on:
Technical Skills. We ran live and virtual classes on various technologies, how to be a functional expert, MS Office, et al. Basically, tools to do your job better.
Problem-Solving Skills. We taught skills needed to solve typical problems and implement solutions including, project management and Six Sigma.
Leadership Skills. We ran Academies to understand business/financial dynamics, look a few steps ahead, and anticipate what might be around the corner.
Today, this is no longer enough. Not even close. Leaders across the entire organization need a set of adaptive leader skills to face the challenges of every day.
3 Adaptive Leadership Skills Every Employee Needs
Resilience. Ability to face new challenges that were unheard of yesterday from a place of strength and confidence. Leaders need a framework that grounds them in who they are, connects them to the values of the organization, and aligns them to the objectives of the business. Only then will they will have the foundation to tackle the new and unexpected with the confidence that they, with the resources around them, will deliver results.
Influence. Understand how to influence up, down, and across to get things done. Not to your personal agenda, but a shared and aligned set of goals that contributes to everyone’s success. Tools that clarify-focus-align-act enable leaders to concentrate on the right issue, create solutions that work, and put them in place.
Leading Change. Too often change management is the domain of Human Resources, specifically the organizational design or change experts. What is missing is an appreciation that you don’t implement change, you lead change. In this context, we equip leaders to be change champions with a straightforward framework and tools to take ownership in leading change.
I left large-scale consulting to focus on what I believe are the absolutely necessary skills to equip leaders to succeed. Our Leadership Mastery Series is designed as live workshops, blending content, real business challenges (from your organization), and practice tools. Participants interact with the material and one another to build resilience, influence, and change leadership skills. They leave equipped to face the new day with practical tools and the confidence to lead through the chaos that awaits them back at the office. Furthermore, participant’s retention and ability to apply what they learned on Monday morning is at the 75%+ level vs. the typical ‘training’ program that results in people putting a manual on their shelf and cursing the 100’s of unread emails that have piled up while enduring a training class.