Understanding and Investing in Your Adaptability Talent

On this Theme Thursday Season 4 webcast, Jim Collison, Gallup's Director of Talent Sourcing, and Maika Leibbrandt, Senior Workplace Consultant, talk about Adaptability.

Adaptability is about being urgent, current, present, responsive, in touch, and calm. It can be a protector from chaos. Adaptability has an openness to it. It lets you be very in touch with what is going on. If other themes are textbooks, Adaptability is Twitter. It's an unplanned moment, 280 characters and go. It is just-in-time fulfillment.

When Adaptability is at its best you are gracefully responding to the needs of those around you. This may be responding to clients or teammates. You are masterfully navigating the here and now. Adaptability has the ability to constantly have your finger on the pulse of what is going on. This theme thrives under change, and individuals who are high in it can't wait to find that change.

Look for short-term goals. Look for things that can be started and completed in one day. Look for opportunities to interact with people during really critical times. If you have high Adaptability put yourself in chaos' way. There's power in that chaos, and an exercise in practicing your stability.

Ask for a framework to work from. Know your own perimeters to be able to maximize your talent. It is almost like in itself Adaptability doesn't have a shape, and you need to know what the rules are to be able to mold that talent. Ask for rules, and specify how important it is you follow those rules. Ask for clarity. Develop a better understanding of what resources are available. Think about what your anchor points are, and practice working on your awareness of what is available to you.

The present is real to individuals high in Adaptability. Loan yourself to help be an agent of change. Things can get blurry for those not high in this strength, provide that clarity. Narrate change to others. It is about knowing what those around you need, and being able to provide it.

Worry less about long term goals. Annual resolutions are not going to seem real to you. Focus more on what you are doing today. Don't worry about doing too much prep work. You really are your best when you are a little pushed off guard. Feel yourself in the present moment. Talk yourself through your own responses.

When working with Adaptability, expect attention to the now, and a preference for the present. Except followership. They know the leadership aspect of being able to adapt to what you are doing. Expect frequent change.

For recognition look for times when they make something easy. Look for those moments when things just fall into place. Celebrate and recognize great decisions that really took courage to make. Adaptability is about making hard and fast decisions. Recognize that this is not always easy, and celebrate those choices.

The best way to partner with someone with high Adaptability is to share with them what is going on in the present. Serve projects to them in smaller chunks. Highlight what needs to be done in the short-term.

If Adaptability is one of your Dominant Themes, invest in it this week through the following challenge items:

• For one work day spend no more than 30 minutes on a single project at a time.
• Check in live with a different person every hour on the hour for a day.
• Mentally pack your "go-bag."