Discover how to gain the strength, flexibility and skill you need to bounce back more quickly (no matter what “life or work” throws at you) and take any change in your stride.
Regardless of anything else, we can all agree on this: change is just not stopping. From the latest technology, through changing work forms and economic instability, up to global problems, all these were previously something like a future vision. It pays to be more adaptable in such times. It is a survivorship skill, an evolutionary development, and a performance enhancement all in one.
WHAT IS ADAPTABILITY?
Adaptability is the capability to alter your thought process, change your behaviour and adjust your actions in response to a changing environment. It is all about adapting, learning and being open minded. Those who adapt remain unfazed by the weird way life flips, and learn to roll with it instead. It is like water that fits into any shape of container, can move through any obstacles, and still remains in this direction.
WHY IS ADAPTABILITY SO CRITICAL?
Because seldom does everything get done at the office as the work planned. One day projects turn in another direction, clients change their minds the next morning, and the market conditions change overnight. If you can adapt, you can continually be relevant even as your job evolves.
- Bounce back faster from setbacks.
- Find openings amid chaos that others may overlook
- Decreased stress because you are still expecting the change to come.
Being more adaptable also makes you a more valuable employee. Employers desire team members who know how to navigate through the unknown and still produce.
THE MINDSET BEHIND ADAPTABILITY
You are able to adjust your thoughts before you can adapt in action. Here are three shifts in mindset that make a difference:
View it as a lesson, not an allegory.
- Every change comes with lessons. So, ask yourself, what you can learn from this? Instead of “Why me?”.
- Stay curious. Curiosity ensures that you remain receptive to new information and ideas. If you are curious, you the less likely you resist change because you want to find out what is possible.
- Control The Controllable. No sense in worrying about what you can’t change. Focus your energy on the things you can control.
PRACTICAL WAYS TO BUILD ADAPTABILITY
The good news is that adaptability is NOT something you are (or are not) born with — it can be learned. Update your skills regularly.
- Look up newer tools, software, methods, etc, in your field. That way, you are prepared if there’s a technological or industry trend shift. Practice flexibility in small ways.
- Mix it up: Drive another way to work, change how you have meetings or what you do on a certain project. Those small shifts condition your brain, which allows you to then make bigger changes down the road.
- Strengthen your emotional resilience. Learn to control yourself under pressure – deep breaths, quick breaks, writing things down or talking with a mentor. A calm mind adapts faster.
- Ask for feedback. Feedback allows you to see where you are blind and how your improvement can take place in moments of change that can arise quickly.
- Work well with different personalities. You can only be adaptive in processes; you need to adjust with people too. The ability to respond to people in a way that works for them is everything when trying to produce outcomes.
REAL-LIFE EXAMPLE
For example, pretend you’re on a team working on a product launch. The client changes the features of the product 2 weeks before launch. Someone with an agile leadership mindset would stop panicking, regroup with the team and determine if any of the tasks can be reprioritised. To be sure, they may have to learn a new tool or staff differently or revise a deadline, but their efforts are all levied in the service of an end they see clearly at the beginning. This gives a lifeline where the project survives here and makes the client happy.
So, in conclusion, being adaptable does not mean compromising your principles or becoming a doormat. It means being pliable so that your path bends and stretches, but all in the same direction. The world is going to keep changing…” sometimes in predictable ways, sometimes in unpredictable ways…but it IS always evolving. However, the more flexible you are, the better prepared you will be not just to weather these changes but to succeed in them. When that series of changes arrives, rather than asking yourself, “How will I get through this? Instead, ask “How can I grow through you?” That is the secret of thriving in these change-filled times.
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