Building Resilience: Creating an Agile Leadership Mindset to Better Adapt to Change

Two coworkers engage in a conversation in the workplace.

When change hits, you have two options: sink or swim.

Caught up in the tidal wave of change, it’s natural to feel disoriented, frightened and overwhelmed, but resisting it only makes things worse. So, what if, instead of trying to fight the current, you learned how to ride the wave?

Embracing change can be more than just a means of survival; it can be a launchpad for growth. It allows you to get comfortable with uncertainty, build your resilience and find the opportunity within the challenge.

But to take your organization from floundering to flourishing, you’ll need to master the power of the pivot.

And that starts with adopting an agile leadership mindset.

What Is an Agile Leadership Mindset?

An agile leadership mindset is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a mindset that enables leaders to respond to change with clarity, flexibility and purpose.

By placing adaptability firmly in the forefront, this mindset encourages leaders to remain solution-oriented through any unexpected shifts or changes.

The key to developing this mindset, however, is learning how and when to adapt. The Situational Leadership® Model provides a proven framework that teaches leaders how to evaluate a situation and adjust their leadership approach accordingly, giving them to the tools they need to develop an agile leadership mindset that will carry them through any change.

Why a Mindset Shift Is Needed for Adapting to Change

Nowadays, agile leadership is becoming more and more necessary. In the last decade alone, the pace of change has increased tenfold, and that upward trend is only expected to continue.

On top of managing this onslaught of unpredictable, large-scale change, leaders are also expected to accommodate the more personal changes that happen within their teams each day.

In the blink of an eye, projects can evolve, priorities can shift and workloads can grow. With each new challenge that presents itself, leaders can easily find themselves struggling to keep the team’s heads above water. Then, before they know it, they’re drowning in a sea of change.

Learning to work with change rather than against it allows leaders to turn their barely-staying-afloat into smooth sailing. The key to developing a more manageable and sustainable approach to change truly is adaptability.

An agile leadership mindset enables leaders to respond to change with clarity, flexibility and purpose.

Benefits of an Agile Leadership Mindset

Adopting an agile leadership mindset does more than just build adaptability, it opens the door for leaders to:

·      Build resilience

Change isn’t a derailment to agile leaders; it’s fuel that allows their team grow stronger and gives them the ability to bounce back from challenges and roll with the punches.

·      Drive trust

Agile leaders don’t scramble—they hold steady in the face of uncertainty, demonstrating to their team that they are reliable and trustworthiness in challenging situations.

·      Mitigate resistance to change

Leading with adaptability gives agile leaders the chance to show their team the power of remaining flexible, proving that change isn’t a threat and doesn’t need to be feared.

·      Increase innovation

With a more adaptable mindset comes an openness and willingness to learn from setbacks, explore new perspectives and experiment with better ways to work moving forward.

·      Enhance problem-solving

By embracing change, agile leaders turn their problems into possibilities, and with this new outlook, leaders can unlock the freedom to explore more creative solutions.

·      Make faster decisions

Adaptability empowers agile leaders to assess changing circumstances in real-time and trust their ability to make timely, informed choices, even with an unclear path forward.

·      Manage risk

Flexibility keeps leaders open to all possibilities, even potential threats, enabling them to expect the unexpected and adjust as needed to implement the solutions that best protect their team and goals.

·      Promote continuous development

In viewing change as an opportunity for growth, agile leaders create space for constant improvement, keeping ongoing development at the forefront of their efforts.

·      Maintain a competitive advantage

Organizations can stay ahead of the curve with agile leaders, who have the ability to capture opportunities and overcome challenges more quickly than their competition can.

 

The process of leading through change should start long before the change actually happens.

When change hits—and it will—readiness shifts, and leaders must be prepared to adjust their leadership style to guide their team through the change effectively. Developing a Situational Leadership® approach to change early on is crucial.

By using the Situational Leadership® Model framework to learn adaptability and create an agile leadership mindset, leaders can place themselves in a position that will allow them and their team to anticipate, adapt and thrive within change, despite the uncertainty.

Strategies for Developing an Agile Leadership Mindset

Change happens fast, and leaders need to be ready when it comes. While it may not be instinctual at first, thinking through an agile leadership mindset can become second nature if you set the right intentions and execute the right strategies. You can develop an agile leadership mindset if you:

1.     Grow your self-awareness

Reflect on the way you currently manage change. Think about the last change your team experienced and assess what you did well and what might need some work. If you want to take into account the biases you may have, consider gathering feedback from your team to identify patterns and areas where you could improve.

2.     Get comfortable with being uncomfortable

Change is constant, and the sooner you accept that, the better you’ll be at navigating it. You may not be able to plan for everything or have all the answers and that’s okay. As difficult as it is, letting go of the need to control your circumstances can help you manage change more effectively.

3.     Keep learning

If you haven’t been yet, get curious about how you can better your approach to change. There isn’t just one path to success, so remain open to experimentation and exploring the new perspectives and processes that could take your team to new heights.

4.     Focus on growth

While change can be disruptive and damaging, it can also be a powerful opportunity to evolve. Don’t hold onto a fixed mindset—it’ll only keep you exactly where you are. Instead, take risks, make mistakes and embrace the chance to transform your company into an unstoppable force.

 

Create and Maintain an Agile Leadership Mindset

Growth often occurs in motion. Knowing that, leaders simply can’t afford to stay still.

An agile leadership mindset grants leaders the power to become not just reactive, but proactive, ready to seize opportunities to evolve their company into something greater.

But developing an agile leadership mindset takes more than just commitment. Leaders need to know the “when,” “why” and “how” of adapting their leadership to maneuver change; that’s where the Situational Leadership® Model comes in.

Using a framework designed specifically with adaptability in mind, leaders can learn how to adopt and sustain a mindset of agility, empowering them to not just navigate change but harness it for their team’s growth.