Think of the neurosurgeon who can adapt on the fly to an unexpected brain bleed in the middle of a procedure or the trial lawyer who can deftly modify their argument and strategy in the face of unexpected evidence or testimony. The ability to perform well at the highest levels in routine circumstances requires the ability not only to think well but to think flexibly and quickly—in other words, to think adaptively.
Adaptability is conceived as the ability to assume changes without this altering the scope of objectives that have been proposed in advance. Which is closely linked to the ability to conceive valid perspectives and different situations to which one is accustomed.
Adaptability to changes represents a fundamental pillar for the healthy exercise of leadership within organizations. The leader must be able to transmit a concrete message to the collaborators: “The changes are part of the transformation and growth processes of the organization, and the benefits will be directly reflected in their daily work”.
In this sense, those people who exercise a leadership role within the organization must have a high degree of adaptation to change, to positively impact their work environment and generate a natural process of adaptation among other collaborators.
It is through a leadership role that I adapt to the circumstances found in my internship. One of these circumstances to which I adapt and continue to adapt is the language. An organizational culture where the most used language is English and I adapt to execute it consistently even if it is not my first language. Another adapted circumstance was to provide information written completely and effectively, considering every detail in the writing and sending of information, including texts and numbers. Remember that managers must provide information and data that justify and show the objective behind making decisions. And that’s where I adapt to a very important channel within the organization, which is to have effective and direct communication, where no context is left open to interpretation. Even a great adapted circumstance was being aware of time management in a work environment where the order of priority is practiced and constant follow-ups are provided in the operations to be executed. Adapting to this scenario makes me aware of how to execute effective and exemplary leadership.
These and many adaptations led me to adopt healthy habits and methods in operational executions.
Once we adapt to the circumstances, we reach the stage where we adopt those ways of dealing with these circumstances. Let us remember that adopting is when we make a habit of our own when we embrace and make of ourselves what is known or learned. These adopted ways allow us to perform better professionally. We begin to see a personal and professional evolution through where we impact our individual and collective environment.
In a personal example, adopting the habit of speaking English and training myself even more in the practice of this language. By constantly communicating in English (which was outside of my comfort zone), it breaks any existing limiting communication. Even adopting the language helped me manage the feelings of frustration or fear that at one point were barriers to communicative performance and among other barriers that limited me. Once you adopt, you start practicing and adopting ways of performance that allow you to be more effective. In this way, which seemed simple in a certain way, I helped to adapt to everything else. Adopt not only verbal but written forms of communication. That is where I adopt the complete and effective writing technique, providing all the required information and thus optimizing the communication exchange time. My emails began to look better, the data projection, the justifications in decision-making, in the way of proposing ideas and their objectives, among others. Simply by adapting and adopting, I was transitioning to the leadership of greater dominance.
We begin to see a personal and professional evolution through adoption, where we make by choice or choose for ourselves.
Every day we adapt to circumstances and adopt different ways of operating as individuals and professionals. It is how evolution is created that never ends, it is constant and innovative. When something evolves, it changes or develops over time, like your taste in music and clothes, which evolve as you get older. Evolve describes a development that is taking its time to reach its final destination. And yes, enjoy the process of evolving after having adapted all those habits that took you to the next level. At that personal and professional level that allows you to be and do better. In the blink of an eye, you leave behind those practices that were not of contribution to your person and environment, and you become a person attentive to details, who covers all the required areas, and efficiently manages what is under their leadership.
Who would say that now, after a summer period, where I worked on various projects, I would acquire the ability to manage time and establish priorities in a real and conscious way, taking into account the possibilities for or against? Being a person without fear of speaking, following up, proposing, and executing processes that at some point I reluctantly said would not be part of me or my experiences. And there I noticed that it was not the same person, that it had evolved. Therefore, as a person and professional, I have taken my leadership to standards that will allow me to continue adapting, adopting, and evolving later on.
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