Have you ever been good at something, but struggled to perform it under pressure?
I took piano lessons growing up, and can play decently, but found recitals excruciating because my hands shake when I’m nervous. I can speak or sing under those circumstances, but playing the piano is rough. If someone judged my piano-playing ability only on recital day, they’d definitely slot me as a beginner.
I’m noticing a similar pattern with people’s ability to express their adaptability. Based on data gathered using AQai assessments, it’s clear that uncertainty and/or work stress can hamper people’s ability to access their adaptability skills that are clearly present in other settings. When under stress, they can appear to struggle with adaptability — but the intervention required may not be to teach adaptability, but instead to address the stress.
Easier said than done, but at least the data can reassure us we’re addressing the right problem.
There are specific steps leaders can take to help.
Certainty is likely out of reach, but it is useful to remember that certainty is not a requirement for decisive action. We can help people identify the next right step rather than having to see the full journey or have full information before moving forward. Another idea is to “lead out loud” — communicate clearly what we know and what we don’t — so that people are not left guessing or feeling like absolutely everything is shifting at once.
Similarly, stress won’t disappear, but the work stress that hampers adaptability is often a function of workload. Are there ways we can extend deadlines, add resources, or give explicit permission to deprioritize some things? Another source of work stress is dissonance. Might there be areas where what we’re incentivizing doesn’t match what we’ve said is important to us? When we can align our actions with our values, stress drops.
When my hands stop shaking, I play the piano. Similarly, when work stress and change uncertainty are turned down, my adaptability can dial up.
