Coaching practices for Adaptive Leadership During a Big Change
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Adaptive Leadership During a Big Change, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- When I push my team on the hard stuff they either shut down and start blaming each other or just nod and carry on as before
- Everyone brings their problems to me to solve, I jump in and fix each one, and now I’m the bottleneck for everything while my people never grow
- We keep rolling out new processes and reorgs to fix this thing and nothing moves the needle
- I raised the hard truth nobody wanted to hear and now the whole pushback has turned on me
- Everything still flows through me
Practices that may help
- Adaptive Leadership, Made Practical
Adaptive leadership, developed by Ron Heifetz and Marty Linsky at Harvard, distinguishes between technical problems (solvable with existing expertise) and adaptive challenges (requiring people to change their values, beliefs, or habits). The core skill is resisting the pull to apply technical fixes to adaptive problems — and instead helping people do the hard work of change themselves. - Regulate the level of distress in the system
Keep productive pressure high enough to motivate change but low enough to prevent shutdown.
Adaptive Leadership, Made Practical - Give the work back without abandoning people
Resist taking ownership of problems that belong to the people facing the adaptive challenge.
Adaptive Leadership, Made Practical - Diagnose the challenge before choosing the response
Ask whether the problem requires new expertise (technical) or new values and behavior (adaptive).
Adaptive Leadership, Made Practical - Hold steady when the system pushes back
Expect displacement, scapegoating, and pressure to return to the old equilibrium — and stay the course.
Adaptive Leadership, Made Practical - Distribute leadership rather than centralizing it
Develop leadership capacity throughout the team, not just in the designated leader.
Transformational Leadership, Made Practical - Name the loss the adaptive challenge requires
Explicitly acknowledge what people must give up — not just what they will gain.
Adaptive Leadership, Made Practical - Give voice to those with uncomfortable perspectives
Actively surface and protect the dissenting or marginal voices the system wants to silence.
Adaptive Leadership, Made Practical - Lead from the strategic thinking domain — absorb and analyze information
People strong in strategic thinking keep the team focused on what could be, not just what is.
Strengths-Based Leadership, Made Practical - Get on the balcony
Regularly step back from the action to see the system — not just your corner of it.
Adaptive Leadership, Made Practical
Related concerns
- Adaptive Leadership At Work
Adaptive leadership, developed by Ron Heifetz and Marty Linsky at Harvard, distinguishes between technical problems (solvable with existing expertise) and adaptive challenges (requiring people to change their values, beliefs, or habits). The core skill is resisting the pull to apply technical fixes to adaptive problems — and instead helping people do the hard work of change themselves.
- Adaptive Leadership Under Stress
Keep productive pressure high enough to motivate change but low enough to prevent shutdown.
Regulate the level of distress in the system
- Adaptive Leadership When Overwhelmed
Keep productive pressure high enough to motivate change but low enough to prevent shutdown.
- Adaptive Leadership
Adaptive leadership, developed by Ron Heifetz and Marty Linsky at Harvard, distinguishes between technical problems (solvable with existing expertise) and adaptive challenges (requiring people to change their values, beliefs, or habits). The core skill is resisting the pull to apply technical fixes to adaptive problems — and instead helping people do the hard work of change themselves.
- Adaptive Leadership Development
Adaptive leadership, developed by Ron Heifetz and Marty Linsky at Harvard, distinguishes between technical problems (solvable with existing expertise) and adaptive challenges (requiring people to change their values, beliefs, or habits). The core skill is resisting the pull to apply technical fixes to adaptive problems — and instead helping people do the hard work of change themselves.
- Adaptive Leadership On A Budget
Adaptive leadership, developed by Ron Heifetz and Marty Linsky at Harvard, distinguishes between technical problems (solvable with existing expertise) and adaptive challenges (requiring people to change their values, beliefs, or habits). The core skill is resisting the pull to apply technical fixes to adaptive problems — and instead helping people do the hard work of change themselves.
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