I believe it was Tony Robbins himself who said that leadership is one of the most sought-after abilities in the world. One of the three core areas of becoming a great leader is the ability to be adaptable. In this post I will be sharing exactly why this is so important.
Have you ever heard the song “Miss Jackson by Outkast”? There’s one line from that song they’ve really stood out to me and it goes:
“You can plan the perfect picnic you can’t predict the weather”
Outkast
That’s just such an amazing line and just sums up adaptability as a leader. You do not need to be the best at everything because a leader cannot do everything, but what a leader can do is adapt to any situation and come out the other end winning. When we’re not adaptable we become too rigid, or too fixed and focused in our ways. We end up on a one track and never really change. Adaptability allows us to, over time, course correct. Course correct to be able to create a positive outcome which ultimately leads to success.
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It’s often difficult to picture what adaptability actually looks like. So I will, as always, simply it for you. When I was young I used to do kickboxing and over the years I learned some things about what great kick boxers do. Although I can’t remember many of the techniques now, what kickboxing did teach me was adaptability. So let’s take the example of a kick boxing, but if it’s simpler to understand I want you to imagine a boxer. Visualize yourself as the boxer. As you face your opponent you need to be able to listen, see and feel what is going on. If you’re stood there rigid and your opponent takes a swing at you, what’s going to happen? You’re going to get hit and you’re going to get hit hard. That’s the same as in life if we stay fixed and stuck in our ways, life is going to hit us hard and all we will do is find a way to blame something or someone else without looking at ourselves first. That unfortunately, is what most people do.
What great leaders do is they adapt instead. Over the year I’ve watching great leaders, as well as leading myself, which allowed me to narrow down adaptability to four essential components: listening, changing, reacting and acting.
Now I wanted to go back to the boxer visualization. You’re in the ring and your opponent is opposite you. You need to be able to listen to what’s going on around you, feel what the opponent is about to do, not just with your eyes, but your ears. What are they going to do next? Can you see their body shifting? Can you hear their coach shouting to execute a move? This is listening. Understanding what they are about to do and being open enough to realize that you need to do something is change. Being open and fluid enough so that when they throw their punch or they kick you’ve listened, ready to change and now you dodge and counter. This is reacting. Once you’ve done this process, which would take a professional fighter a few split seconds, you need to execute. This is acting.
If you don’t do anything and you freeze, you’re going to get hit again. That is the difference between a person who is rigid, inflexible and just managing vs a leader who is open, fluid and actualising success by course-correcting and being adaptable.
At first you may not think of adaptability as being that important in leadership, but if you speak to any person is a position of leadership, adaptability is a powerful asset. A leader knows that to be a truly great, they need to put themselves forward. They need to push themselves into uncharted territories knowing that they don’t have all the information. Knowing that it may not be a success, but they’re willing to adapt and move forward. They know that they are not the one and only person that can save a bad situation, they adapt to the scenario by leaning on others to draw on information to make informed decisions. So remember, in order to be adaptable you can focus on the four components: listening, changing, reacting and acting.
If you would like to learn how to implement these components into your development and grow as a leader then you will be interested in my book – just click the image below.
Thank you for reading, JT
