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In today’s ever-changing world of work, it is necessary to be able to accommodate other people’s needs and operate in less familiar ways or circumstances. Being able to change and adapt your behavior and preferred styles of working will help you deal with change more easily and consequently exploit the benefits it can offer.
Change is the only real constant, and is driven by many different factors. These drivers include: structural and cultural changes to your organization; new colleagues or managers; and new technology and systems. To continue to be effective during periods of turmoil and transformation you will need to find new ways of achieving your objectives whilst managing disruption, disorder and often chaos. The ability to adapt, therefore, will help you do this without too much personal anxiety.
What’s the Difference?
These two terms are very similar but, in relation to your attitude and behaviors at work, they can be defined as follows:
Flexible in the way you work. Willing to accommodate others’ needs and not be pre-occupied with your own objectives. For example, if someone asks you at the last minute to change the time of a meeting do you try to accommodate their request or do you just say no?
Adaptable to the prevailing circumstances, i.e. having the ability to adapt to the way other people work and cope with differences in conditions or environment. Think about the differences between the following:
- Working in a department where things are highly structured, and you are expected to use set processes; your work is monitored and the other team members are specialists or technically minded.
- Working in a project team tasked to develop a new product where you will need to be creative in the way you think and work without any structure or leader and where outcomes are not pre-determined.
To what extent do you need to be flexible and/or adaptable in your current role? Do you find it difficult to operate in certain circumstances or with certain people? Why is that?
Inflexible people, who are not prepared to compromise in any way, tend to act as barriers to effective working relationships.
The Rewards
Being truly flexible requires a positive attitude of mind. Fear and uncertainty often accompany change, which can lead to missed opportunities. However, being seen as someone who is accommodating, supportive of others, resilient and enthusiastic could:
- increase your employability
- result in new development opportunities
- boost your self-confidence
- improve your effectiveness and that of others
How Do I Do It?
Being flexible and adaptable includes the way you communicate, the way you learn, the way you interact with others and the style of leadership you adopt. Think how these would need to differ in, for example, a meeting where you are giving an individual some adverse feedback, and a team event where you are encouraging people to come up with new and creative ideas.
Tips to improve your flexibility and adaptability
- Develop your self-awareness by understanding the characteristics of your own and others’ learning, personality and management styles (use the resources available in this topic).
- Don’t be afraid of change – react positively with courage and resolution, and volunteer to get involved.
- Think before reacting to other people’s points of view or requests and try looking at the matter from their perspective.
- Always consider how you might be able to accommodate other people’s needs and requests before saying no, even if it means some personal inconvenience.
- Choose your words carefully to prevent any misconception that you are unable or unwilling to help. Try “I’d love to help, but I’m afraid…”, instead of “No, I can’t do it”.
- Learn by observing other people’s behaviors – what seems to work and what is wholly inappropriate?
- Make an effort to work with people or on tasks that you would normally avoid. There really might be better ways of doing things.
- Stretch yourself – get into the habit of trying new things instead of being stuck in a routine.
