Adaptability
- Beards and Bibles .
- May 1, 2018
- 4 min read
You’ve got your day all planned out. Everything is moving smoothly and according to schedule. But something comes up, it’s how the world works.
Your boss tells you that you are working on the wrong project. The real project needs to be done tonight and you have to start over. Or you get to class and the infamous pop quiz actually happens and you only skimmed the material the night before. Or maybe your girlfriend tells you she can actually go out with you tonight after all, even though she clearly said she was unavailable and you spent that money on fro-yo because, why wouldn’t you?
How do you respond to a situation where you are forced to adapt? For some people, this process of adaptation is easy and natural. For many others, it causes anxiety and is uncomfortable. For all of us, there is always room to improve.
Adaptability may seem like a fairly straightforward and easy topic to understand. In a lot of ways, that’s true. But there is an importance to this subject that is becoming more and more prominent in the world today.
If you start doing any research into what employers, schools, or industries are looking for in their prospective candidates, chances are you will run into the topic of adaptability. In our increasingly connected and ever-changing world, a person’s ability to adapt can make the difference between outstanding success and horrible failure. People are looking for candidates who are ready to change, who prepare for it and even thrive on it.
This is even more important for leaders. Leaders are the ones others look to when things change, when the unexpected happens. Research done by the Center for Creative Leadership found that “the most frequently cited success factor for North American managers was the ability to develop or adapt.” Adaptability matters.
The world is quickly changing and it needs leaders who can change with it.
Adaptability Quotient
The term being coined to represent this ability to adapt is the "adaptability quotient" or AQ. You’ve seen a different, more common quotient used many times before. Intelligence Quotient, or IQ, has been around for decades. It is a measurement of an individual’s overall mental or cognitive abilities.
Emotional Intelligence, or EQ, has also been a topic of interest in recent years. Daniel Goleman brought this term into the world of leadership and it has only grown in popularity since. In a nutshell, EQ attempts to measure a person’s ability to understand and manage their emotions and the emotions of others. The understanding of EQ has significantly changed the way leaders operate in recent years and AQ now stands to be its successor.
Adaptability is only just being researched, but there are already some ways that you can understand and improve your adaptability skills. The concepts are not anything that will blow your mind. When they are put into practice though, when they are intentionally focused on and trained, they can reap impressive results.
Pay Attention
The first step in adapting to a situation is recognizing the need to change. With the examples earlier, there was a clear and definable need for change in each situation. But what about in a situation where doing nothing may keep things going just fine? What if the change that is needed is something that can make for great and lasting progress, but is not being forced on you?
Recognizing the need to adapt is an art form more than a science. It requires you to pay attention and to constantly be looking for ways to improve. It means risking the status quo to get a better result, even if you cannot yet prove the change will help at all.
Figure it Out
The second step is to focus on the situation and work to find ways of adapting. There might not be an obvious answer to your problem. You might have three great ideas that you have to choose between. This is the part where developing your decision-making skills become invaluable (a whole other topic).
Ask questions, formulate ideas, and then choose the best one. It is simple in theory. Once applied to a real situation, when people are counting on you or when your own job might be on the line, it becomes far more complicated. Practice scenarios in your mind and always be thinking of ways to improve the situations you are in. Then, when you are put on the clock, you’ll already be ahead.
Get Busy
The last step is to put your plan into action. This involves a huge level of commitment, especially if there is a lot being risked on your decision. If you have planned and strategized, developing your adaptability skills through intentional practice, you can be far more confident in your decision. You can put it into action and then continue to adapt as things change and grow.
Adaptability is not a new concept but it is increasingly more important. Practice it every day. Think about how to improve with every situation you run into. Do it in the easy, low-stress environments of your daily life. When you are faced with a big decision later, you will be ready.
Check out these links for more on adaptability: