Avoiding career limiting labels that follow you around.
Labeling is easy because it can ease the effort needed to understand and talk about someone. For generations, there has been a set group of leadership styles. We would identify someone as transformational, transactional, servant, distributed or authoritative, for example. There are also personality labels connected with personality assessments. The future of leadership demands we remove the restraints of leadership persona labels, as evidence shows that leadership is now about fluidity, adaptability and a more personalized approach, rendering traditional labels as increasingly irrelevant.
Why are we moving away from labeling?
Labels limit growth potential and confine how you and others view one’s future.
The reality is that people change; change for the better, change for the situation, or just change themselves as they discover their purpose, unlock talents or become more experienced. If we can adapt our style with authenticity and be successful, it would remove the restraints of having a label put on us. This is where adaptive leadership, connected to Flex Capacity, comes in. Future leaders won’t be confined to a single style—they will be adaptable, fluid and responsive.
Why Adaptive Leadership?
The most important change in leadership is that you won’t always need to have all the answers. Adaptive Leadership means navigating through uncertain times with agility, fostering respect, and delivering results.
Sounds easy enough, right? On the contrary. This style of leadership takes a huge range of Flex Capacity. Those who practice and exude adaptiveness do five things:
✓ anticipate future needs with a trend-focused style;
✓ build team support during change, ensuring a shared purpose and strategy;
✓ embrace continuous learning with a growth mindset;
✓ demonstrate accountability to build trust and provide clarity; and
✓ prioritize long-term planning, including recovering from mistakes and striving for success.
Notably, two of the greatest minds in business, Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos, are described as adaptive leaders. They embraced change, fostered collaboration and showed resilience in unique business environments.
The book “The Practice of Adaptive Leadership” demonstrates key similarities in those that practice adaptive leadership. Here are those similarities.
Diagnosing the System: Adaptive leaders focus on diagnosing the underlying issues within an organization or community.
Balancing Technical and Adaptive Challenges: Leaders must address both technical problems (which have known solutions) and adaptive challenges (which require behavioural and cultural shifts).
Managing Anxiety and Resistance: Change often triggers anxiety and resistance. Adaptive leaders acknowledge these emotions and create a safe space for people to express their concerns.
Distinguishing Between Authority and Leadership: Leadership isn’t solely about formal authority. Adaptive leaders emerge from various positions within an organization.
Experimenting and Learning: Adaptive leadership encourages experimentation. Leaders take risks, learn from failures and adjust their approaches.
Leadership in Action: Adapt Like an Olympic Athlete
Whether or not we are conscious of how we are changing to attain success is subjective. That is, unless you are an Olympic athlete who is dealing with performance measurements in milliseconds. Professional athletes are intentionally, and continually micro-adapting their performance with a precise measurement of success. Shaving time is a consistent practice of trial and error, perhaps similar in business where your high performance (practice) is related to your leadership (skill). Leadership development is practiced over a longer term. This is why leadership development programs are 6-9 months.
If you are always adapting, you are never fixed in a style.
What’s Your Leadership Persona?
Rather than asking, "What’s your leadership style?”, we should ask, "What is your leadership persona?" Why this matters so much is because of the human equation. Even though we are immersed in tech-enabled process improvement, and an AI enhanced workplace, we still need people to drive growth. AI can’t enhance the human experience that involves their purpose, confidence, well-being, collaboration and relationships. That is a human touchpoint, which means that leadership is becoming more responsible for the engine that drives people, rather than just them achieving results. Leadership today is about nurturing these human touch points, driving both people and performance.
At Pivotal Growth, we designed a bespoke leadership diagnostic for high-performing teams, tailored for leaders navigating complex corporate environments. Our clients sought more than psychological assessments—they needed a tool to guide their leaders in engaging with diverse personalities and communication styles. Our diagnostic is intentionally focused on practical leadership themes, helping leaders address business challenges, guide teams and foster interpersonal skills.
This is your leadership persona. You are unique and not a label; it’s a combination of your being and your skills. Our leadership assessment identifies your persona and helps you understand not only your strengths and natural skills, but also how they meld with others in your team. Success is having flow within a team, and your Flex Capacity is paramount to creating that.
Check your Flex
In our June blog, we introduced Flex Capacity as the ability to engage others in ways that create impactful, meaningful interactions. Leaders with high Flex Capacity:
are open and curious;
accurately read people and are self-aware; and
seek meaningful conversations with others.
Future-Proof Your Leadership
Our Future of Leadership Program [2] equips executive leaders with AI-driven insights to stay adaptive and future-ready. By focusing on purpose, sustainability, and relationships, we help you move beyond traditional labels, fostering leadership that drives growth and resilience in a rapidly changing business landscape.
About Lisa Haydon
Lisa W. Haydon is a seasoned operational leader and entrepreneur with over three decades of experience in banking, capital markets, technology, and professional services.
With a keen vision for aligning people, processes, and outcomes, Lisa has become a driving force in the field of leadership development. She brings innovation to the forefront by leveraging data-driven strategic cohort programs, generating value-added insights, and adopting AI-enabled technology. Her pioneering work with high-growth companies and high-performance leaders led to the design and commercialization of a proprietary leadership diagnostic solution.
She is known for her unique ability to navigate complex business challenges, understand diverse leadership styles, and deliver transformational results.
Lisa and her team are a group of forward-thinking, technology- and people-focused professionals who become a trusted partner in the pursuit of leadership-driven success.
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