Adaptive
Leadership
“Exercising adaptive leadership is
about giving meaning to your life
beyond your own ambition.”
― Ronald A. Heifetz
Adaptive leadership is given to impacting the
environment. It addresses a very active form of
leadership, not a passive effort taken merely to
adjust to circumstances as found. Biology
teaches that relationships between living
entities are circular and interactive. Our
organizations are also living systems, being
composed not just of capital goods and
technology, but of people. --Dr. Charles Albano
Model of Adaptive Leadership
Situational
Challenges
Technical Challenges
Leader
Behaviors
Adaptive
Work
1. Get on the Balcony
2. Identify the
Adaptive Challenge
Holding Environment
3. Regulate Distress
Technical and Adaptive
Challenges
4. Maintain Disciplined
Attention
5. Give the Work Back
to the People
Adaptive Challenges
6. Protect Leadership
Voices from Below
Leader
Followers
Interaction
Situational
Technical:
problems that
are defined with
solution that
can be
corrected with
rules or polices
Challenges
Examples: new software issues
that managers can identify and
solve with assessing and
training.
Technical &
Adaptive:
Defined but
the solutions
aren’t as clear
Adaptive:
Challenges that
aren’t clear cut
or easy to
identify
This may include new rules or
training
These are solve through
encouragement of others to define
the challenge and solve it
Step out of the Fray, finding
solutions in challenging
Get on the
Balcony
Leaders should illicit and listen
to the workers suggestions and
allow them to seek solutions to
the challenge.
Protect
leadership
Voices from
Below
situations.
Identify
Adaptive
Challenges
Leaders should do what is
necessary to mobilize
workers to do the work they
need to do.
Leader
Behaviors
Leaders have to provide
direction, which is the desire
or the workers.
Give Work
Back to
People
Regulate
Distress
Maintain
Discipline
Attention
Recognize the stresses of
situations and help diffuse
it.
Encourage followers to face the tough
work they need to do. Steering them away
from avoidance.
Adaptive Work is where
adaptive leaders direct their
work
Holding Environment is where
work is conducted
Leaders Followers
Adaptive leaders do not use
the term follower as it implies
a submissive role. Leaders
instead interact with workers.
How it works:
-Understand the complexities
-In the of change leaders need to know if the change is causing
challenges
Strengths:
-Process approach
-It is worker centered in
involvement
-It helps workers deal with
conflicting values such as
changes in environment
and social context
Criticisms:
-Needs more research and
refinement
-Too wide ranging and
abstract
-Doesn’t incorporate a
moral Dimension
Application:
Adaptive leaders can be
used to understand
change and the
challenges created by it.
It can direct leaders on
how to defuse stress and
solve technical
challenges
The BCG study indicates
the basics of effective
teamwork include
maintaining distributed
leadership, an optimal
talent mix, a clear charter
and mutual trust. In
addition, the highestperforming adaptiveleadership teams had the
following five traits:
Boundary fluidity
-- teams can move
both horizontally
and vertically,
across roles, to
connect with the
next level of
leadership
One voice -- clarity
and consistency of
objectives
Sense and
respond capability
-- the systematic
ability to filter and
assimilate external
information
Freedom within a
framework -- team
leaders are
empowered to
take bold risks
within agreedupon parameters
Information
processing -- the
ability to
synthesize
complex insights
and make highquality decisions
quickly
Grensing-Pophal, L. (2012, May 14)
References
Grensing-Pophal, L. (2012, May 14). The Value of Adaptive Leadership. Retrieved May 11, 2017, from
http://www.hreonline.com/HRE/view/story.jhtml?id=533347270
Northouse, P. (1993). Leadership Theory and Practice (7th ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.