We all face change and uncertainty every day, and it seems like it’s coming at us faster and fiercer with each passing moment. Our ability to adapt and respond effectively – both individually and collectively – will determine whether we sink or swim.
When the pressure is on, it’s common to reach for the familiar or lean on a strength we have. I feel particularly for emerging leaders who may feel confident in their understanding of technical expertise but are still climbing the learning curve when it comes to leading and inspiring their teams, who may also be their former peers.
In my coaching work with leaders, there are a number of common pitfalls they encounter when facing change.
Pitfall 1 – “It worked before, so it will work again (I hope!)”
Sticking to strategies and policies that worked in the past as a guide to what will work in the future. The challenge is that in a period of rapid change and unpredictability, a lot of the rules of the games are different than they were in the past and the willingness to look for innovation is lost.
Solution: It’s time to give your Unlearn muscle a bit of a workout. Rather than automatically reach for what worked before, get curious about what the issue you’re facing now really is. Ask questions and seek out multiple perspectives from those around you.
If you always walk a certain route with your dog, take a different one. Try eating your meal with your non-dominant hand. Even disrupting some of your daily routines can start to fire up your unlearning skills and awareness. Barry O’Reilly’s book, Unlearn: Let Go of Past Success to Achieve Extraordinary Results, is a great resource I highly recommend.
Pitfall 2 – “I haven’t got time to find a new way”
When the pressure is on, it’s common to just put your nose to the grindstone or be reluctant to delegate or involve others on the team. While this might temporarily feel like you’ve regained some level of control, it makes you the bottleneck and leaves you vulnerable to burnout. Most significantly, it doesn’t help to develop or inspire your team to give their very best which creates a whole other set of problems for you and the organization.
Solution: Hang up your superhero cape. Running on adrenaline fumes isn’t sustainable and it’s not a great role model to set in terms of expectations you have for your team. Be willing to have an honest discussion with your team about the workload and priorities you have, and how you can come together, reallocate, reprioritize and innovate how to get the work done. Advocate with your senior leaders to address workload and capacity issues, so you don’t risk burning yourself and others out.
Dwight Eisenhower said “What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.” Resist the temptation to operate solely in reactive mode, but instead create space in your schedule for dealing with what Stephen Covey called the “big rocks.” To learn more you can watch his demonstration of this concept here.
Pitfall 3 – “I worry I don’t know how to do this. Maybe I’m just not cut out for this.”
This is the fear that so many leaders secretly have, even the ones with years of experience under their belt. Losing your hope can lead to analysis paralysis and self-doubt that you don’t have all the answers to the challenges you face. Operating out of a sense of fear can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy as you resist new ways of achieving goals, feel confidence slipping away and feel drained and resigned.
Solution: The ability to tap into a sense of hope rather than a sense of fear when facing change is a big contributor to your adaptability, so it’s important to find ways to rekindle hope. In the Adaptability Quotient (AQ) framework, we define hope as “the mindset to pursue goals and the ability to see or create alternative ways to reach them if challenged.” Of the 15 dimensions that are measured in the AQ framework, Hope is one that is positively correlated with the others, so being able to access hope helps you be better able to deal with stress, to have more grit and resilience, and to offer support to those around you.
Imagine hope is like a campfire, and sometimes you need even just a bit of kindling to bring it back to life. Make it a practice to notice what IS working instead of what isn’t, and celebrate the wins – no matter how small – with your team. Remember times in the past when you felt challenged and fearful and note the decisions and choices you made to get through it. How did those moments of past challenge actually contribute to your wisdom and experience? Identify those small daily choices you can make to bring some kindling to help feed the fire of hope for your team.
If you’d like a snapshot of the adaptive capacity of you or your team, as an Adaptability Quotient coach and practitioner I can help! Feel free to reach out and we can set up a call.
