Adapting Leadership Styles for a Changing Workforce

Navigating Leadership rights and wrongs can feel like a bit of a dark art sometimes. The pressure to deliver against performance standards, together with a spotlight on workplace culture, well-being, and staff satisfaction, leaves many leaders feeling they can’t challenge what feels like unacceptable behaviour, they can’t push too hard for results, and that they are in an impossible position.

Challenging times demand a great deal from leaders, often at the very time they might be feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, and uncertain themselves. While it might feel tempting to pull back, put up barriers, or lean into positional power, better connection is your friend.

The Power of Connection

The bottom line is that most leaders don’t pay enough attention, usually because they believe they are too busy, not because they don’t care. Unfortunately, the impact is people often don’t feel seen, heard, empowered, or that you care. From there it’s a slippery slope towards looking for the bad stuff, not contributing ideas, escalating gripes, and generally being less engaged.

The more connected you are, the more your people will tell you how to lead them.

Start with Yourself

If you want to be able to lead in a way that connects with your people, accommodates rapidly changing landscapes, and still delivers results, you have to start with yourself.

Your behaviour and attitude have a direct impact on how those around you show up and behave. So do your beliefs around what leadership ‘should’ look like.

The chances are you are influenced by the leadership you see around you. If your college or organisation has a great culture and lots of good role models, you have an advantage. More often, leaders are doing the best they can in pressured systems, trying hard to fit in and be the leader they think they should be.

Pay Attention to Your Environment

One of the quickest ways to build adaptive leadership is to pay attention to what you see around you.

I mean really pay attention.

How are people, do they seem engaged, do they have ideas, can they ask for help or admit mistakes, or are they going through the motions, trying to please, trying to stay under the radar, and getting by. You’ll see what different people respond to, and how they respond, you’ll start to get a feel for what is needed to get the best out of and do the best by your people.

Of course, this probably varies from department to department, team to team, and day by day – you will find good and not-so-good examples of leadership from all levels.

Learning from What You See

The beauty of this approach is that the information, the examples of good and not-so-good leadership, are right there in front of you – you just need to train yourself to notice as you go about your day. Part of that noticing is paying attention to yourself and your behaviour, attitude, and reaction. The likelihood is you will have picked up some behaviours from those around you also.

Some of them will fit with your values, how you see yourself and your role, some of them may not, but it’s likely you will still model some of the behaviours you see around you, whether they feel authentic or not.  Sometimes that modelling might even be a convenient excuse for your behaviour. 

Even if you don’t adopt behaviour that doesn’t feel aligned to who you are as a human being, it is quite possible you are leading in the way you would have wanted to be led. Now, this might sound like a good thing, but it rarely takes into account our changing workforces.

Understanding Generational Differences

Generational differences are a perfect example of this. Many senior leaders are from Generation X (born between 1965 – 1979), they were the original latch-key kids, this means they are likely to be independent, risk-takers, like freedom to act, and are company loyal, yet pragmatic and like stuff to get done. They might have craved more autonomy, less rules, and being able to get on with stuff.

For the Gen Zs (born 1995 – 2012), who are likely used to being supervised more by parents, tighter regulation and expectation in their school environments, they are not used to being left to their own devises, they are much more used to checking in, checking up and having access to direct support/supervision. They are used to their needs being met and expect flexibility in the workplace.  They are also very cause/values driven, believing in what they do is important.

Similar contrasts can be made for Millennial (or Gen Y) leaders, they are tech savvy they want feedback, they are often career minded but not company loyal – so are likely to be free with their own feedback, and expect information and updates from their teams, which can prove challenging for older Gen X and baby boomers team members.

Of course, not everyone fits into generational stereotypes. the key point here is that you need to learn to adapt your leadership style both for the situation and for the needs of people you lead. Leading how you wanted to be led is not enough.

Building Adaptive Leadership

Leadership fit for the future is about connection, it considers people, situations, and is usually heavily values-led. This is why adaptive leadership starts with you.

Your own attitudes, beliefs, and biases are the things that might get in the way of adaptive leadership.

If you want to be more adaptive there are three areas to consider: your level of self-awareness, your ability to manage yourself, and your level of emotional agility.

These three things are layered and cumulative – you can’t manage yourself if you are not aware of the impact you have, and you are less likely to choose your emotional responses as opposed to just reacting to things.

Putting It Into Practice

Again, this starts by paying attention, noticing how you feel, how you behave, and then making a few adjustments if you need to.

• Think about the leader you want (and your people need you) to be, which may differ from leadership you see around you.
• Look at where you are already using that style or behaviour, notice what it feels like.
• Notice where your leadership doesn’t feel aligned with who you are, what do you feel like? Often the root cause of behaviour and underlying emotion is fear, fear of being judged, fear of not performing, fear of overwhelm…
• Choose again – we all have a lot more control over our emotional presence and attitude than we think. This is about choosing how you respond, ensuring you get the best out of the situation, most of the time – you are human, after all.

These will allow you to flex with circumstances, stay focused on outcomes, and bring people with you. Like most things being an adaptable leader gets easier with practice. start small, in low-risk situations, and build your confidence and skill.

Remember, the more connected you are, the more likely your people will feel your energy and reciprocate.

By Professor Lynda Holt, CEO The Braver Group, Honorary Professor of Social Leadership, University of Salford