Ensuring Adaptability and Delivering Results

Focusing on drive, delivery and performance

Adaptability and determination are essential if anything worthwhile is to be accomplished. Being adaptable means being able to match your response to complex, changing situations. Drive and a focus on winning solutions are also necessary: they are prerequisites for success. As if that were not enough, there is now an awareness that change requires leaders to be more flexible and to learn at a far greater rate than, say, ten or twenty years ago.

Leadership depends on an ability to know when to press ahead and when to change course, as well as the ability to show purpose and direction. It is important to understand the realities of a situation, but it is also important to know when to stick to a tried and tested formula. When focusing on results, it may be necessary to take one step back in order to take two steps forward. Adapting methods in the light of experience is an important aspect of leadership and may often mean having the courage to stand-alone. In the words of George Bernard Shaw: “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

This toolkit explains how to develop a flexible approach and outlook providing dynamic, adaptable leadership.

Length: 13 pages

Contents:

The Benefits

Action Checklist: Ensuring Adaptability

• Regularly monitor and assess how issues are developing

• Develop an adaptable approach and outlook

• Innovate

• Maintain perspective and think clearly

• Use scenarios

• Display dynamic, adaptive leadership and vision

• Empower people

Avoiding Problems – this includes techniques to avoid potential pitfalls when encouraging people to be adaptable, determined and more focused on achieving results.

Key Questions

Dos and Don’ts

Things You Can Do

• Demonstrate flexibility and resilience

• Find different options to tackle a current (or developing) challenge

• Adapt your language and style to varied situations

• Develop the right mindset within your organization

• Understand your decision-making style

• Providing participative leadership

Further Action

Further Information

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