There’s a lot of talk about the importance of soft skills. And for good reason! Soft skills—or as we like to call them, human skills—are among some of the most sought-after skills in the workplace today. They help build resilience even in the face of serious skills disruption.
But all this talk can feel a little nebulous. Which soft skills? How do you know what will have the most impact? And how, exactly, do you help learners build these skills?
We’re helping to answer these questions by kicking off a series on the most important human skills for leadership development programs. This post—informed by our work helping organizations upskill their emerging leaders—will offer practical tips for designing a program that helps your emerging leaders develop critical human skills and build resilient, impactful careers. 💪
>> For more on creating great leadership development programs, get your free copy of our practice-forward guide on building a world-class leadership development program with any size team!
We’ll start with one of the most important skills for a leader at any stage of their career: adaptability.
🤔 What is Adaptability?
Adaptability is the ability to adjust one's approach or behavior in response to new, unpredictable, or changing circumstances. It involves a willingness to embrace change, learn from experiences, and apply new strategies or ideas to achieve better outcomes.
Adaptable workers become like a superpower for a company—while teams who can’t adapt become a serious liability.
(For more on this subject, check out what L&D and People leaders said at our webinar on adaptability!)
The Core Behaviors of Adaptable Leaders
We’ve identified three behaviors that set adaptable leaders apart from those who struggle with change. These are applicable across industries, from tech to entertainment and beyond. Mastering these behaviors makes leaders more effective. It creates a ripple effect that makes an outsized positive impact on their organization.
Here, we dive into what these behaviors look like, and how your learning program can help your emerging leaders put them into action. 🔥
1. Flexibility in Approach and Mindset
The most adaptable leaders demonstrate flexibility in how they tackle challenges and opportunities. This allows them to focus on the end goal and find new ways to get there, even as some roads close or obstacles arise. Basically: they have the range to adjust their leadership style based on what the situation demands.
Flexibility in Action
Consider a production coordinator facing a last-minute script revision affecting multiple episodes. Rather than becoming overwhelmed by the cascade of changes, an adaptable leader will:
- Quickly assess the impact across different departments
- Adjust their communication style for different stakeholders
- Remain open to modifying established processes when necessary
A well-designed learning experience will help leaders develop flexibility by practicing in safe, supportive environments before applying them to high-stakes situations. (So they’re ready when that last-minute rewrite does come!)
2. Resilience in Facing Setbacks
Resilience isn't about never falling. It's about how quickly and effectively you recover. Our research shows that leaders who develop strong resilience create more innovative and psychologically safe environments for their teams, helping everyone around them become more adaptable, too.
Resilience in Action
We've found that resilience is best built through structured reflection and practice. In our leadership development programs, participants:
- Work through real-world scenarios with peers
- Receive immediate feedback on their approaches
- Develop practical strategies for maintaining productivity during challenges
- Learn to support team members through periods of intense change
Structured correctly, a learning environment is a great opportunity for leaders to test-run their resilience. With peer and facilitator support, they can experience setbacks and find a way forward—building a resilience “muscle” that will strengthen them, and their teams, in the real world!
3. Open-Mindedness to New Perspectives
The final cornerstone of adaptability is genuine openness to different viewpoints and approaches. This goes beyond simply listening to others. It's about actively seeking out diverse perspectives and being willing to change course based on new information.
Open-Mindedness in Action
To help learners put open-mindedness into practice, a learning program should create opportunities to:
- Experience different problem-solving approaches from peers
- Challenge assumptions in a supportive environment
- Practice incorporating diverse viewpoints into decision-making
To incorporate these elements, make sure your learning experience builds in ample time for healthy discussion and debate. Note that this only works if participants feel comfortable sharing their perspectives, so we advise setting some guardrails that help to create a psychologically safe environment, too.
As an example, one thing we do to help create a safe environment for learners is to kick our session off with an Emotion Wheel. (There are several versions; here’s an article about one.) Each learner takes a look at the wheel, tells the group which emotion is most present for them today, and shares a little about why.
Even this small dose of vulnerability helps them feel a little more comfortable with the group. This sets us up for tougher conversations or self-analysis later in the session, and allows for the rich discussion that helps foster real open-minded debate.
A Three-Layer Framework of Adaptability
To encourage learners to dig deeper into the behaviors that drive great leadership, we suggest applying a three-layer framework. This framework shows learners how leadership skills function across three key spheres. In the case of adaptability, this helps them work on managing their own emotions as well as building the social and inclusive relationships that will allow them—and their team—to be more adaptable.
The three layers include:
- Managing Self: Leaders learn to recognize their own adaptive patterns and biases
- Managing Relationships: Participants develop skills for leading teams through change
- Managing External Circumstances: Leaders practice navigating complex, changing situations
This layered approach ensures that adaptability isn't just theoretically understood, but actually becomes second nature—a skill they can put into practice in their day-to-day work. The same goes for any human skill!
Layer 1: Managing Self
The foundation of adaptability begins with self-management. This means understanding and adapting their own responses to change before they can effectively guide others.
Key Capabilities
- Emotional regulation during uncertainty
- Personal resilience strategies
- Cognitive flexibility in decision-making
Training in Action
In the learning experience, leaders should practice these skills in real-time scenarios. For example, when faced with unexpected project changes, they practice steps like:
- Recognizing their initial emotional response
- Applying specific techniques for maintaining clarity
- Adjusting their thinking patterns to embrace new possibilities
Layer 2: Managing Relationships
The second layer focuses on how leaders adapt their approach to working with others. This includes recognizing that different team members respond to change differently.
Key Capabilities
- Flexible communication styles
- Adaptive motivation techniques
- Dynamic team leadership approaches
Training in Action
The learning should include structured opportunities for leaders to:
- Practice adapting their communication style to different stakeholders
- Develop strategies for supporting team members through change
- Build skills for fostering psychological safety during uncertainty
Layer 3: Managing External Circumstances
The final layer addresses how leaders navigate and influence the broader environment around them and their teams.
Key Capabilities
- Strategic adaptability
- Change leadership
- Environmental scanning and response
Training in Action
Here's a scenario we use in our training. (Keep in mind that you’ll want to customize your leadership development content to your organization, however!)
A senior executive's assistant is managing the launch of a major streaming series when multiple crises hit simultaneously: the lead actor falls ill, requiring rescheduling of promotional events, while early feedback demands last-minute edits to the first episode.
In playing out how they’d respond to this scenario, learners get the opportunity to put their adaptability skills into practice alongside their peers, collaborating to find a workable solution.
.jpg)
Conclusion: The Impact on Your Organization
Leaders who develop adaptability across all three layers become powerful assets for their organizations, capable of:
- Navigating complex change initiatives
- Building resilient, high-performing teams
- Driving innovation and continuous improvement
- Creating cultures of adaptability around them
The macroeconomic environment, industry norms, ways of working, and technology can change quickly. Adaptability will allow your emerging leaders to evolve how they work and think right along with these shifts.
When learners strengthen their adaptability behaviors, they become better decision makers and problem solvers; they enhance their career opportunities and job security; they’re able to be more innovative and creative; and they foster improved interpersonal relationships and collaboration on teams they’re part of.
Adaptability is a crucial skill for learners at all stages of their career, particularly as they’re building their leadership capabilities. And we’ve seen firsthand that when organizations invest in adaptability for their learners, they truly reap the benefits for their learners, teams, and the wider business.
*
For a more comprehensive view of building great leadership development programs, download your copy of our practice-forward guide for building world-class leadership development experiences (no matter the size of your L&D team!).
Interested to learn more about bringing Next Shift Learning’s Emerging Leaders Program to your organization? Get in touch here. We’d love to hear from you!
