I would like to introduce you to a new acquaintance. Professor Ronald Heifetz Senior Lecturer in Public Leadership, co-founder of the Center for Public Leadership at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and co-founder of Cambridge Leadership Associates. His books include Leadership Without Easy Answers (Belknap/Harvard University Press, 1994) and he is co-author of Leadership on the Line: Staying Alive through the Dangers of Leading with Marty Linsky (Harvard Business School Press, 2002). His most recent book is The Practice of Adaptive Leadership: Tools and Tactics for Changing Your Organization (Harvard University Press, 2009).
He has an interesting background. Before teaching leadership he was a clinical instructor in psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School. His profile and CV can be seen here.
His concept of adaptive leadership caught my attention because it focuses on the key role of workers as problem-solvers rather than simply the instruments of the leader’s efforts. He talks about four key principles:
Authority does not equal leadership
Understanding the difference between technical and adaptive challenges
Power (of the individual) vs. progress
Personality (of the individual) vs. presence (skills & practice)
Read more about it here.
Forbes Magazine talks about adaptive leadership in this article.
Here is a five-minute video Heifetz made prior to a trip to Brazil. In it he hits the key elements of adaptive leadership. Click here.
I hope I have raised your curiosity and that you will launch your own journey of discovery about adaptive leadership and how it might help you be more effective as you navigate through the rapidly changing environment in which we live. I would be remiss if I didn't draw a comparison with Hersey and Blanchard's model of Situational Leadership. But it appears to me the Situational Leadership take the top-don perspective whereby Adaptive Leadership looks at creating a meeting point between leader and workers.
- Herb