Adaptive Leadership

Fiona Robertson unpacks Adaptive Leadership—a transformative framework designed to help leaders and organisations navigate the complexities of today’s ever-changing world. Developed by Ronald Heifetz, Marty Linsky, and others at the Harvard Kennedy School, the core idea is to enable leaders to address challenges that do not have straightforward, technical solutions and instead require new learning, innovation, and collaboration.

In this webinar we will discuss what makes adaptive leadership special including:

1. Focus on Complex Challenges: Unlike technical problems, which have clear solutions and can often be resolved by an expert, adaptive challenges are complex and involve changing people’s values, beliefs, and behaviours. Adaptive Leadership equips leaders to tackle these kinds of problems effectively.
2. Encourages Experimentation: Adaptive Leadership emphasises a willingness to experiment, take risks, and adapt strategies based on what works, rather than relying on established methods that may no longer be effective.
3. Mobilises People: Adaptive leaders engage and mobilise their teams and stakeholders to co-create solutions. They guide people through the discomfort of change by addressing resistance and creating a shared vision for the future.
4. Builds Resilience: It fosters resilience by encouraging leaders to focus on learning, growth and agility, rather than being paralysed by uncertainty or fear of failure.
5. Emphasises Emotional Intelligence: Adaptive Leadership requires self-awareness, empathy, and the ability to manage relationships effectively. Leaders must be attuned to their own emotions and those of their teams, fostering trust and open communication.
6. Challenges the Status Quo: It encourages leaders to ask difficult questions and confront deeply held assumptions that might be limiting growth or innovation.

Key takeaways:

• • What is Adaptive Leadership
• • What makes Adaptive Leadership so special
• • Resources for further study