This blog is about my journey through a text called ‘The Practice of Adaptive Leadership’, (Heifetz, Grashow, Linsky, 2009).
Heifetz and Linsky identify five major constraints to engaging in adaptive leadership which most people experience to some degree. These are:
- Loyalties to people who may not believe you are doing the right thing
- Fear of incompetence
- Uncertainty about taking the right path
- Fear of loss
- Not having the stomach for the hard parts of the journey
They recommend tackling the first constraint by undertaking a number of steps. Firstly watching again for the gaps between you words and actions, staying in the present (and putting the past to rest), identify the loyalties you need to refashion and then conduct the needed conversations. You can also create rituals for refashioning ‘ancestor’ loyalties. This means if somebody who you need to converse with is deceased or can no longer be reached then you create a ‘ritual’ in order to create the closure you might need to leave the unproductive aspects of that loyalty behind you. And finally, focus on what you are conserving by remaining true to core principles and values as you leave perspectives that are no longer helpful.
An on the ‘practice field’ (a regular section in this text) exercise brings this point to life. Have a direct conversation with those around you that may sound like…”look, I am going to disappoint you in some ways, and I’m going to make you proud in others. Here is where I am going to go in a different direction, and here is where I am going to make you really proud.”
Manage the next constraint (fear of incompetence) by leaning into your incompetence. Find structured and challenging learning opportunities and treat your view of your incompetence as an assumption; a story about reality, not the truth itself.
To manage the uncertainty of taking the inevitable new path down which an adaptive challenge will take you, Heifetz and Linsky suggest falling in love with tough decisions. This could include deciding in ‘close calls’, choosing between the known and unknown, deciding to do the ‘right thing’, when you know it will incur significant losses and deciding in a situation where several of your values are in conflict. Not easy!
So how do you learn to love making those types of decisions? According to Heifetz and Linksy you can increase your capacity to do this by accepting and practicing the following concepts:
- Accept that you are going to have to make some tough decisions throughout your life
- Nothing is forever and making no decision is in itself a decision, and
- Tough does not necessarily mean important. So few decisions are so important that everything depends on them.
The next constraint is fear of loss and the best way to work through this is simply by giving yourself permission to fail. It is helpful to broaden your definition of success on a particular adaptive change intervention, prepare your constituents and finally commence by conducting small experiments where failure might be easier to stomach.
The strategy for the final constraint is to build the stomach for the journey. How do you do that? Basically its practice and setting clearly defined short term goals along the way. Keep reminding yourself of your orienting purpose and verbalise your willingness to stay in the game as long as necessary so anybody not that committed doesn’t bother with sabotaging behaviours, as they will recognise your commitment.
Finally, be patient and compassionately let others share the issue as they come to terms with it in their own time.
This blog is about my journey through a text called ‘The Practice of Adaptive Leadership’, (Heifetz, Grashow, Linsky, 2009). This is the seminal text in the Leaders Institute of SA’s flagship program the Governor’s Leadership Foundation (GLF). As Director of Programs my role is to develop programs and evolve the GLF to meet our mission of creating wiser leaders.’
WISER LEADERS 