Adaptive Leadership | 120 Seconds to Better Leadership

*video transcript*

I’m thinking this week really about the importance of being an adaptive leader. I think most leaders have a sense that they’ve got their chosen style, right? I’m an inclusive leader, I’m a turnaround person, I’m a people-developer. Whatever your brand is, I hope it’s based in an authentic dedication to some values you hold dear. And I think that’s terrific. We should all kind of know what our preferred style is.

Lead with Flexibility 

Sometimes the situations that we’re in are going to require us to bend outside of our preferred style. For example, if you’re really a collegial leader, but you find yourself in a turnaround situation, you may have to get a little heavier handed than your preferred style to get the result that you’ve been hired to create. If you’re a leader who is not “touchy-feely” – I heard that this week—and you inherit a team that is largely demoralized and facing things they don’t quite know how to get through you might have to be a little bit warmer and a little more interested in your folks and supporting them.

If you’re a collegial kind of leader, but you’ve got a team that’s really underperforming and there’s not really a good reason for it, they’re just under-performing, you may have to get a little heavier handed than you want to.

Meet the Situation Where It Is

While I’m really a fan of people understanding their leadership style and being true to themselves, for sure, we also have to be flexible in how we lead our people, meeting our teams where they are, meeting the situation where it is, and making sure that we’re providing the leadership behaviors that will get the result for the people and for the business.  

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