I have a particular issue with the rigid leadership style – not just because it can cost the organization in lost opportunities, but also because it is like a fast-moving virus that can infect quite a few of the people who work for a rigid leader. After all, rigid leaders can be quite competent and who is willing to cross a competent leader?

The easiest way to discuss the need for flexibility is to address the competent leader who is currently doing everything right. That “conventional way” can work for a time, but have you noticed that competitive advantage is harder to find and harder to keep? Innovation cycles are getting shorter? What was working great in the past isn’t always working really well right now?

Finding your inner yogi (i.e. flexibility) is incredibly hard for leaders and companies who have had tremendous success doing it one way. In consulting, we had an expression for client companies who were unwilling to do this – “on a glide path to oblivion” (remember Digital?). Think about the best football coaches and teams – they are adept at responding flexibly to the situation by calling halftime adjustments to adapt their game plan (strategy) and resources to the current reality. Great business leaders do the same.

In one of my current roles leading the SAS alliances team, I have to flex much of the time. Partner ecosystems are always evolving and partner goals, objectives, and strategies are constantly shifting (as are ours). So we have to adapt paradigms and be able to envision more than just the current path. Our efforts at partnering need to have a real option feel about them. We make commitments and investments, but then we monitor closely the performance of those partnerships, the changes in the market, and changes in our co-opetition equations – and make adjustments when they are required.

Flexibility calls for using a lot of different tools. It’s really important to create a team with right/left brain specifics – and no not two separate teams to compete (more on that in the teamwork blog post). The structure and numbers guys and the outside the box thinkers have to get along. And your job as a leader is to create the right mix and then keep it motivated.

You also need to have a big toolbox of methods and lots of creativity to engage your organization and set its course. The best leaders have a wide-ranging knowledge of both “school solutions” and experience (competence), paired with the creative ability to look at the current situation in a new light. They are able to create different scenarios for outcomes and use a combination of left-brain analysis and right-brain intuition to lead a team to outcomes. And they have the confidence and maturity to ask for and use the competencies of their team in getting to those outcomes.

Finally, the flexible leader needs the ability to manage their team members in a personal way. This means knowing the person at that moment – their capabilities, their motivations, their situation – and flexing your style accordingly. Sometimes it requires making different person-for-task choices than in the past. After all, if you are giving the same type of opportunities to the same people time and again, there isn’t much room for personal and therefore organizational growth.

Flexibility is key – so find your yoga mat and get started…

Read all four articles in this series:

1. The impetus for change leadership
2. Why soft knowledge matters just as much as the hard stuff
3. Rigidity to flexibility
4. Check the insularity at the door & learn to lead with an outward facing agenda