Adaptability: Leading through change without adding more to your plate
Here’s the situation for a lot of businesses: In the context of business uncertainty, everybody’s working a lot harder just to stand still. Managers are telling us they’re overwhelmed, teams are stretched, and senior leaders are drowning in day-to-day operations. Targets continue to rise as companies try to do more with what they’ve got, and morale is waning. Unhappy people aren’t leaving because no one is hiring, meaning tensions are rising.
Feeling overwhelmed is a natural response. There’s not much that can be done about the external sources of overwhelm, but there are some things you can do to reframe the environment for people, mainly around helping people see opportunity in change.
There’s an important context for this. Jack Welch said “If the rate of change on the outside exceeds the rate of change on the inside, the end is near”. With the rate of change on the outside so high, organizations have got to find ways to increase their adaptability.
Put it like this: the rate of change is represented by the Greek letter delta (Δ) in mathematics. The challenge is ensuring that your ‘Inside Delta’ (the pace at which your team adapts), moves faster than the ‘Outside Delta’ (the rate of change from external factors).
You can’t change anything about the Outside Delta, but this article will show you how to improve your Inside Delta, without adding more to anyone’s already full plate. Because it is possible to achieve this without doing more, but by evolving how you adapt to change.
The Three Building Blocks of Adaptability
Resilience
Resilience, the ability to “bounce back” after setbacks, is your core strength. It’s built over time through deliberate repetition and reflection.
Adaptability
Define this as the ability to adjust quickly and well to change. Where resilience is bouncing back, adaptability is the ability to “bounce forward” and turn uncertainty into momentum.
Stress Management
Stress can blur your focus and reduce your ability to think clearly. When stress levels rise, adaptability and resilience fall. By managing stress effectively, you create the mental space needed to respond to change with calm and clarity.
These three components work together to ‘up the delta’. Your team learns, adapts, and evolves faster. Your Inside Δ is greater than Outside Δ, and you’re rolling ahead of the changes going on around you.
What This Means for Leaders
A leader’s responsibility is to create and uphold a culture where teams have the structure and space they need to be resilience, adaptive, and manage stress. Help your team learn how to carry their load better, not take on their load as your own. Small, consistent adjustments over time will lead to this.
Ask your leadership team:
“Where are we struggling to keep up, and what IS working?”
The important thing here is how you think about that. For example, you might sense that customer expectations are moving faster than your product development cycle. Well done for at least noticing it, but leaving it as a sense means it can weigh on you like a cloud.
Get clear about what’s actually happening: what does the data say? If it proves that there’s a problem, what’s the root cause? Is it us or is it the market? If we were just starting out, what would do in this situation.
And use the Keep/Kill/Change method: Keep what’s working, kill what isn’t, and test one quick change.
Stress: The Barrier to Adaptability
Stress is the enemy of adaptability. When stress levels rise, it becomes harder to think clearly because you mind is full of noise, and reactive behaviors take over. Leaders often jump in to solve problems immediately, but this response just drags you back into the weeds, signalling to the team that this is the norm. This undermines learning, change, and trust. We have a simple method for dealing with personal stress, and it’s something you can teach anyone on your team.
In-the-Moment Reset: Use BEAT
You can help your team manage stress so they can think, learn, and adapt.
When stress rises, it’s important to reclaim your composure before acting. The BEAT method is a simple tool for shifting from a reactive mindset to an active one:
Breathe – Take slow, deep breaths (Try 5 inhales/exhales).
Experience – Acknowledge your thoughts and feelings without judgment.
Accept – Name the feeling: “This is what pressure feels like.”
Transition – Take one small action (stand up, walk, drink water, write the next best step).
Systemic Reset: Too Much / Too Hard / Too Soon
Most stress comes from one (or more) of these three factors:
Too Much (volume)
Too Hard (complexity)
Too Soon (timeline)
Diagnosing the source of stress is the first step in addressing it.
Too Much:
List tasks, confirm priorities with your team. If priorities exceed capacity, adjust scope, time, or resources.
Delegate: If you're working more than 60 hours a week, you’re likely taking on someone else’s job. Pass it back.
Too Hard:
Seek help from experts or collaborate to design a simpler path forward.
Break things down: Focus on delivering a "minimum viable improvement" first.
Too Soon:
Adjust timelines, scope, and resources to create more realistic expectations.
Protect focus time by blocking off deep work periods and turning off distractions.
Resilience: Turning Setbacks Into Advantage
Resilience is about recovering from setbacks and using them to your advantage. It’s also a skill you build over time through experience, reflection, and deliberate repetition. Each time you bounce back, you strengthen your ability to bounce forward faster next time.
Think of resilience as a muscle which keeps you balanced when things get rough. Adaptability, on the other hand, is the ability to read the changing environment and adjust your course. These two qualities work in tandem, forming a feedback loop that strengthens both.
How Leaders Build Resilience
Normalize setbacks as data
Shift from asking, “Who messed up?” to “What did we learn?”
Ask: "What worked? What surprised us? What can we improve next time?"
Adopt a growth mindset
In moments where you feel your limits being reached, practice telling yourself “This is a skill I can learn.”
Make learning visible by setting 90-day goals and reviewing progress monthly.
Short feedback loops
Conduct quick postmortems within 48 hours of a setback. Capture one small change, schedule it, and move on.
Authenticity under pressure
Don’t fake calmness. Instead, set the tone with: “We’re steady, we’re learning, and we’ll adjust.” Your team will follow your lead.
Adaptability: Practical Habits for Adaptable Leaders
Make Time to Think
Block off one "Hour of the Important" each week to focus on bigger-picture issues. Without this time, you risk missing critical signals.
Bring the Outside In
Regularly seek feedback from your team, customers, and external sources. Curiosity is key to staying adaptable.
Maintain Structure
Use SMART goals for experimentation. Keep experiments small, specific, and measurable to ensure they lead to actionable insights.
As a leader, try asking yourself:
Are you giving your team the space to fail forward?
Are you making time to think beyond the immediate priorities?
Are you experimenting enough to make “upping the delta” a part of your team’s culture?
For more insights on building resilient, adaptable leadership, download the Active Manager Book today.