How we can adapt at work — and why we must to survive
“Evolution is life’s imperative. Choose change or die.” This was the theme of a talk by Cecily Sommers, author of Think Like a Futurist, at the annual conference of the Society of Consulting Psychology. Her other motto? “Get your head out of your past.” Or as one of my clients used to say, “If it ain’t broke, break it.” As business leaders, we are living in exciting, scary times. And if we don’t learn to adapt to them, well, we might as well start packing up our desk now.
One of the keys to innovation is breaking out of your usual mindset. When I went to business school halfway through my professional life, it blew my head wide open with perspectives, priorities and information I had never thought about before. But innovation doesn’t require a commitment as big as getting your MBA. One small but valuable step is to actively seek out opportunities to talk about your business with strangers who are outside your usual circles. Use social settings, volunteer activities or community events as opportunities to share ideas with people who aren’t in your line of business, or go to professional events for different disciplines. Not only is this a great way to stimulate your innovative thinking, it’s also fascinating and fun.
If you can’t make it outside of the office, bring in some fresh perspective by following your mom’s sage advice. Turns out that the most successful business leaders did “turn off the TV and read a book!” Zuckerberg, Gates, Buffett — all of them read 30 or more non-fiction books a year. Reading opens your mind to new ideas and forces you to step away from the hubbub to think more deeply about your work and your life. The secret, of course, is to find the time — and big surprise, that means setting up a discipline and sticking to it. If you’re not a big reader, don’t be intimidated by that 30-books-a-year figure. Use the Kaizen approach — start with a more modest goal and build up from there. Here are some interesting ideas about which books to read.
If it’s business leadership books you’re looking for, Stanford School of Business professor Jeffrey Pfeffer has a great list here. While many leadership books offer only platitudes that provide little in the way of useful behavioral guidance, these have real-life examples on how to build your power, embrace ambiguity, increase your adaptability and influence others.
When you’re thinking about your ability to adapt at work, you must consider your personal foibles in addition to your professional ones. I, for instance, am a very impatient person, and I’m always in a hurry to get things done. This drive and focus has helped fueled my success as a professional and a business leader. But it also has a downside. I waste energy fuming about things I have no control over and which don’t really matter. I get irritated when my team members don’t complete work as fast as I would like, when, again, it ultimately doesn’t matter. Learning to focus my sense of urgency on important things and let go of the small stuff has been a developmental goal for me for a long time. So I was pleased to find these very useful tips for how to chill out.
I get nervous when people talk about “authentic leadership” for this reason. Sometimes it’s a code for “You have to take me the way I am — I’m not changing anything to fit into this organization.” That change-averse mentality can be defiant, obnoxious, and, as we’ve discussed, bad for the bottom line. So I was pleased to read a definition of authenticity which is much deeper and more thoughtful. John Addison, CEO of Addison Leadership Group, suggests nine principles underlying authenticity. The most unusual one? “Make your parents proud.” Check out his list here.
