Adaptive Leadership

     Some of the best leaders are the ones that thrive under pressure. They are the ones that push through every challenge. When something get in the way of them achieving their goal they don’t stop from trying but look at different ways of reaching their goals. In the reading it talks about the evolutionary part of adaptive leadership. It connects to the survival of the fittest. The animals and humans that survived were the ones that pushed through challenges and adapted to changes. This can even connect to the Derailments of Leaders. One of the four things that derail leaders is the failure to adapt and be flexible. This comes from the very beginning of human life.  Change is required to become adaptable and the ability to change sometimes to even totally opposite directions is important for leaders. Times are changing and things will not always stay the same. At the same time new is not always better and is important to look to the past and to elders to learn what worked and what didn’t. Many mistakes can be avoided by looking into history and paying attention to what went wrong. Adaptation is also said to occur through experimentation. This is okay but only if it is very controlled. No business wants to experiment without proper research or a solid hypothesis that is could work. It is important that it mentions in the text that adaptation takes times. Change is slow and when it isn’t it can cause chaos, something that needs to be avoided.

They made a good point in not doing it alone. Make sure that your goal or vision is a common one and that what you are doing is something others support. Make sure they will be right by your side and not disappear if the going gets tough. This can relate to making your partner your real partner.

I think there was also a point that someone’s passion can hide signs of danger. This is a wonderful point in which everyone should be aware if their vision is realistic and if there is something they are possibly unaware of. This is seen a lot. An example would be a student being excited to work overseas, not taking into consideration that a country or region could be in turmoil and dangerous.

Before you leap into action, make sure you are carefully looking over every possible aspect and laying out the pros and cons. Think about obstacles and situations and how you would need to deal with them.

In Dan Goleman’s work it starts out saying that many see leadership as an individual’s personality rather than a strategic choice. This is exactly what I thought before this class and now I have realized I can work on my skills as a leader. In his styles I realized I do mostly the Affiliative and Coaching style sometimes with a little democratic style.