LEADERSHIP Adaptive Leadership
Adaptive Leadership
LEADERSHIP Adaptive Leadership 2
Overview
Adaptive Leadership
Description
Amodel of Adaptive
Leadership
How does Adaptive
Leadership work?
Strengths, Criticisms,
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Description
Adaptive Leadership
Focuses on the adaptations required of people in
response to the changing environments
Stresses the activities of the leader in relation to the
work of followers in the contexts in which they find
themselves
Encourages effective change across multiple
levels: self, organizational, community, and societal
Framework developed largely by Heifetz and his
associates
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Definition
“The practice of
mobilizing people to
tackle tough challenges
and thrive.”
Adaptive leaders help
others by:
Mobilizing them
Motivating them
Organizing them
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Adaptive Leadership in Practice
Company Merger: A midsize family-
owned company merges with another
similar company. The merger creates
tensions between the employees
regarding job titles and duties, pay
scales, overtime, and vacation pay. The
new owners must bring the employees
together to have the new company
function successfully.
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Adaptive Leadership in Practice
Merit Pay: In an established engineering
company, a small group of young, high-
achieving engineers, wants to change the
way merit pay is given by removing
seniority and years of service as part of
the criteria. Longtime employees are
resisting the change. Company leaders
must find a way to address this issue
without alienating either group.
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Incorporates Four Different
Viewpoints
Systems Perspective – Problems are complex with
interconnected parts
Biological Perspective – People develop and evolve by
having to adapt to internal cues and the external
environment
Service Orientation – Leadership serves people by
diagnosing their problems and prescribing possible solutions
Psychotherapy Perspective – People adapt successfully
when they face problems directly, distinguish between
fantasy and reality, resolve internal conflicts, and learn new
attitudes and behaviors
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Subset of Complexity Leadership
Theory
21st century organizations have knowledge
and information as core commodities
rather than production of goods
Theory includes administrative, adaptive,
and enabling leadership
Focuses on strategies that encourage
learning, creativity, and adaptation in
complex organizations
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When is Adaptive Leadership Relevant
Situational Challenges
1.Technical problems: Problem that are clearly
defined with known solutions that can be
implemented through existing organizational
procedures.
Example: Some new software at accounting firm
isn’t working.If the accountant has authority to address the
problem (e.g., contact the software company and have
program modified to meet the company’s needs), this is a
technical problem.
1. No Need for adaptive leadership
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When is Adaptive Leadership Relevant
Situational Challenges
1.Technical problems: Problem that are clearly
defined with known solutions that can be
implemented through existing organizational
procedures.
No Need for adaptive leadership
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When is Adaptive Leadership Relevant
Situational Challenges
2.Technical and Adaptive Challenges: Challenges
are clearly defined but do not have straightforward
solutions. Leader and followers both tackle problem.
Example: Hospital wants to change from traditional
approach to a patient-centered culture. Administration can
offer training on how t involve patients in their own care.
Medical
staff, patients, and families need to accept the change and
learn how to implement it. .
2. Need for adaptation by many different people
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When is Adaptive Leadership Relevant
Situational Challenges
2.Technical and Adaptive Challenges: Challenges
are clearly defined but do not have straightforward
solutions. Leader and followers both tackle problem.
2. Need for adaptation by many different people
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When is Adaptive Leadership Relevant
Situational Challenges
2.Adaptive Challenges: Problems that are not clearly
defined or easy to identify, and which do not have a
clear solution.
Example: A hospital wants to begin hospice care for
terminally
ill patients. The patients and their families will face immense
uncertainty about how and when the patient will die. The
staff, patients, and families will face many issues about the
dying process, what the loss means, how to prepare for
coping with it.
2. The challenges facing
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When is Adaptive Leadership Relevant
Situational Challenges
2.Adaptive Challenges: Problems that are not clearly
defined or easy to identify, and which do not have a
clear solution.
2. The challenges facing the organization are not clearly defined nor
are the solutions. These challenges require adaptive leadership
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Adaptive Challenges are Value-laden and stir
up people’s emotions
Technical Challenges can be fixed with leader’s
own expertise and authority
Effective leaders use adaptive leadership
behaviors for adaptive challenges and technical
leadership for technical challenges
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Six Adaptive Leader Behaviors
(No specific order to them)
1.Get on the Balcony
Understand the big picture and all that is
involved in the situation. Don’t get swept in
the field of play. Move back and forth
between action and balcony. (Get a
wholesome view)
•Identify Adaptive Challenges
Distinguish between technical and adaptive
challenges
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Four Types of Adaptive Challenges
a.A gap between espoused values and
behavior
b.Competing commitments/goals (quality
vs cost)
a.Elephants in the room
b.People avoid work
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Six Adaptive Leader Behaviors
(No specific order to them)
3.Regulate Distress
Help others recognise the need for change but not be
overwhelmed by it. The leader must …
•Create a holding environment (safe atmosphere
to discuss everything).
•Provide direction, protection, orientation, conflict
management, productive norms.
•Regulate his or her own personal distress and the
distress levels keeping it in the productive range.
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Six Adaptive Leader Behaviors
(No specific order to them)
4. Maintain Discipline Attention
Encouraging people to focus on the tough
work they do.
5. Give the Work Back to the People
Avoid micro-managing, Support people;
encourage risk-taking; people should know
that they can work out their own solutions.
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Six Adaptive Leader Behaviors
(No specific order to them)
6.Protect Leadership Voices from Below
Consider the ideas of people who may be at
the fringe, marginalized, or even deviant in
the group or organization. Protect whistle-
blowers.
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Adaptive Work
What adaptive leaders want to see happen.
Adaptive work grows out of the
communication between leaders and
followers but is primarily the work done by
followers.
A holding environment is essential.
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How does Adaptive Leadership Work
A complex process of multiple dimensions incl. situational
challenges, leadership behaviors and adaptive work;
Mobilizing individuals in doing adaptive work.
•Leader steps back from a challenging situation for a view
from balcony.
•Determine if the change creates technical or adaptive
challenges
•If the challenges are adaptive, the leader engages in
several specific leader behaviors to move the adaptive
process forward.
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How does Adaptive Leadership
Work
Leadership behaviors
Creating a holding environment
Regulating stress
Providing direction
Keeping people focused on important issues.
Empowering people
Giving voice to marginalized and
unrecognized
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Strengths
AL takes a process approach; leadership is a
complex transaction between leaders and
followers.
AL is follower centered.
Helps followers deal with conflicting values that
emerge in changing work environments.
Prescribes useful leadership behaviors
Introduces the concept of a “holding
environment” as an integral part of the
leadership process.
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Strengths
In contrast to other leadership theories, AL takes a
process approach; leadership is a complex
transaction between leaders and followers.
AL is follower centered. Adaptive leaders
mobilize, people to engage in adaptive work.
Helps followers deal with conflicting values that
emerge in changing work environments.
Prescribes useful leadership behaviors
Introduces the concept of a “holding environment”
as an integral part of the leadership process.
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LEADERSHIP Adaptive Leadership 23
Criticisms
Very little empirical research
has been conducted to test the
claims of the theory.
Complex processes are difficult
to test and
measure.
Too wide ranging and abstract
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LEADERSHIP Adaptive Leadership 24
Application of Adaptive
Leadership
For the leader, AL provides a conceptual
framework that help us determine what type of
challenges we face and strategies for managing
them
AL can apply in a wide variety of settings
For organizations, AL can be used as a model to
meet a variety of challenges incl. change and
growth.
AL is of special interest to people in nonprofits,
Northouse - Leadership Theory and Practice, Seventh Edition © 2016 SAGE Publications, Inc.
LEADERSHIP Adaptive Leadership 24
Application of Adaptive
Leadership
For the leader, AL provides a conceptual
framework that help us determine what type of
challenges we face and strategies for managing
them
AL can apply in a wide variety of settings
For organizations, AL can be used as a model to
meet a variety of challenges incl. change and
growth.
AL is of special interest to people in nonprofits,
Northouse - Leadership Theory and Practice, Seventh Edition © 2016 SAGE Publications, Inc.
