As noted in Chapter 13 of Why It Matters: Reflections on Practical Leadership, the seventeenth key to an “A” is adaptability. A close cousin of which is agility. Being agile is a key to successful leadership. Initially, I planned on including agility among the Keys to “A”s, but decided, instead, to incorporate being agile with being adaptable.
Not only must leaders deal with conditions of ambiguity, but they must also adapt to a rapidly changing world, and they must do so quickly (agility). Leaders must be adaptable and resilient. Coach Wooden observes, “Adaptability is being able to adjust to any situation at any given time.”[i] Leaders cannot be rigid and inflexible. They must hold strong to their values. They must stand up and lead, especially when opposing, gale force winds are blowing in their faces.
Bennis advances four competencies all leaders must possess: the ability to engage others by creating shared meaning; a distinctive voice (purpose, self-confidence, sense of self, and emotional intelligence); integrity; and adaptive capacity. Regarding the latter, he states, “Adaptive capacity is what allows leaders to respond quickly and intelligently to relentless change” and “Adaptive capacity allows today’s leaders to act, and then to evaluate the results of their actions, instead of relying on the traditional decision-making model, which calls for collecting and analyzing the data, then acting. Today’s leaders know that speed is of the essence, and that they must often act before all the data are in.”[ii]
Regarding Franklin Roosevelt, Goodwin notes his ability to “adapt to changing circumstances, to alter his behavior and attitudes to suit new conditions, proved vital to his leadership success.”[iii] Later, she observes that Roosevelt’s adaptability proved critical in fulfilling his promise during the banking crisis to reform the banking industry and stock market.[iv] Roosevelt was very adaptable.
General Mattis emphasizes the importance of being adaptable in military situations. However, it’s also essential in other venues. When things are not proceeding as one plans or expects, an exemplary leader assesses, adapts, and moves on.[v]
Speed is important in adapting to competitive forces. As Mattis points out, “Speed is essential, whether in sports, business, or combat, because time is the least forgiving, least recoverable factor in any competitive situation.”[vi]
Virginia Rometty, as IBM’s Chairman, President, and CEO, understood the necessity for speed in a rapidly changing world. When David Rubenstein asked what frustrated her, she identified the constant pressure to pick up the pace, to do things faster and faster, because speed separates winners from losers, haves from have nots, success from failure.[vii]
I recall an instance when B. Alan Sugg, UA System president, said I needed to go along to get along. I replied, “I’m not a go along to get along person.” I’m sure I didn’t say it in the calm voice with which you read my response. However, as I reflected on what Sugg said, I realized he was right. I was being inflexible, unnecessarily so. And, in the grand scheme of things, it was on a very minor issue. I was majoring in the minors, instead of staying focused on my larger goal. I needed to pick my battles. I couldn’t go to the mat on every area of difference if I was going to succeed in what I returned to my alma mater to accomplish. I had to decide if this was the time to draw a line in the sand and never step over it. Or, as Sample puts it, “Is this the hill I am willing to die on?”[viii] Deciding it wasn’t, I changed my position on the issue and moved on to the next challenge.
Another dimension to being adaptable is being able to change from a my-way-or-the-highway leader to a leader who is willing to compromise. Learning half-a-loaf is better than nothing can lead to new opportunities for you as a leader and for your organization. Learning to adapt and to meet someone more than halfway can be effective in getting things done, as well as in elevating the level of respect followers have for you as their leader. It took me far longer to learn this than it should have. If I could turn back the clock, I would’ve been less intransigent. Too often, I failed to focus on the critical few and ignore the insignificant many.
Finally, being adaptable means changing your leadership style as you advance in an organization. The saying, “When you move up you have to give up,” has much merit. A leader of a small organization can get away with “being the master of all things” and doing very little delegating, but when you take on larger responsibilities you’ll need to stop doing some, maybe several, things you used to do (and probably enjoyed doing).
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The eighteenth key to an “A” is accommodation. Just as aspiration and ambition are close cousins, so are adapt and accommodate. This is especially true when accommodate is used as an intransitive verb, meaning to adapt oneself. However, here, I use it as a transitive verb, meaning “to provide with something desired, needed, or suited, to make room for, to hold without crowding or inconvenience, to bring into agreement or concord, to give consideration to, to make fit.”[ix] Specifically, the accommodate key is intended to remind a leader to be inclusive, to welcome ideas, viewpoints, and personalities of all types. It is a reminder of the strength in diversity. Be accommodating; be inclusive; don’t be divisive, dismissive, or patronizing.
The value of diversity has received considerable attention in recent decades. Yet, many leaders have failed to recognize it. Currently, many politicians actively oppose it. From reading my blog, “Why Are We Killing Geese That Lay Gold Eggs,” you know that I find it puzzling that many view negatively having diverse teams. They see the world through a narrow prism when it comes to forming teams. They seem to prefer having teams of individuals who look the same, think the same, believe the same, and act the same. (At least Alice understood that Wonderland didn’t need both Tweedledee and Tweedledum. Dealing with one was challenging, much less having to deal with both of them.)
I don’t know at what point in my life that I recognized the need to increase the participation of women and underrepresented minorities in engineering and science, but it occurred more than fifty years ago. I recall, in introducing me before I gave a presentation, Jane C. Ammons, a Georgia Tech professor, saying, “John White was advocating for having more women in engineering before it was cool to do so.”
After being at the National Science Foundation and seeing demographic data for the U.S. and other nations, I became an advocate for diversity, encouraging leaders to be more accommodating of differences in people as they assembled teams. My targeted audience was white males. After all, we created the problem. So, we needed to participate in solving it.
When Walmart’s Mike Duke set out to increase the number of women and minorities in executive positions in Walmart, a member of his executive team said he thought it would impact the company negatively. Duke responded by saying increasing diversity is not a zero-sum game. By doing so, more opportunities will be available for everyone because it’s not only the right thing to do but it’s also the profitable thing to do. He reminded his leadership team who Walmart’s customers are, who makes the buying decisions for families, and how the face of Walmart needs to look like the face of the customer.
The need to be accommodating extends beyond gender, race and ethnicity. It also includes accommodating different political views, geographies, personalities, strengths, and a host of other factors. In responding to a question about diversity from a student in my leadership class, J. B. Hunt’s Shelley Simpson said, “Problems with diversity stem from a lack of knowledge and education.” Walmart’s Coleman Peterson pointed out to my students, “The biggest challenge regarding diversity is getting people to think about it.” It was then and still is!
Next: Keys to “A”s in Leadership–Part XII (Association and Arbitrariness)
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[i] See https://awakenthegreatnesswithin.com.
[ii] Warren Bennis, On Becoming a Leader, Basic Books, Philadelphia, PA, 2009, pp. xxv – xxvii.
[iii] Doris Kearns Goodwin, Leadership in Turbulent Times, Simon & Schuster, New York, NY, 2018, p. 45.
[iv] Ibid, p. 302.
[v] Jim Mattis and Bing West, Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead, Penguin Random House LLC, New York, NY, 2019, p. 31.
[vi] Ibid, p. 238.
[vii] David M. Rubenstein, How to Lead: Wisdom from the World’s Greatest CEOs, Founders, and Game Changers, Simon & Schuster, New York, NY, 2020, pp. 178-179.
[viii] Steven B. Sample, The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA, 2002, pp. 107-120.
[ix] See https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/accommodate.
