Your Adaptability Talent: Calmness and Clarity During Change

On this Theme Thursday Season 3 webcast, Jim Collison, Gallup's Director of Talent Sourcing, and Maika Leibbrandt, Senior Workplace Consultant, talk about Adaptability with Gallup associate, Jamie McCarville.

You live in the moment. You don't see the future as a fixed destination. Instead, you see it as a place that you create out of the choices that you make right now. And so you discover your future one choice at a time. This doesn't mean that you don't have plans. You probably do. But this theme of Adaptability does enable you to respond willingly to the demands of the moment even if they pull you away from your plans. Unlike some, you don't resent sudden requests or unforeseen detours. You expect them. They are inevitable. Indeed, on some level you actually look forward to them. You are, at heart, a very flexible person who can stay productive when the demands of work are pulling you in many different directions at once.

Maika describes Adaptability as an overwhelming calmness when unexpected change happens. And even more than calmness, it provides clarity; people with Adaptability can easily see the most immediate next step and can be present in the moment, despite the plan. They respond to what people need in the moment that they need it. It has a high situational and emotional awareness when a change is occurring.

Adaptability is a relationship building theme. It also leans into the executing domain. When everyone else wants to halt, someone with high Adaptability says "we can continue" and "let's focus on where we're going right now."

What does Adaptability look like in a leadership role? Leaders with dominant relationship building themes have the ability to build strong relationships that can hold a team together and make the team greater than the sum of its parts. Leaders with Adaptability also deal well when there's a need to change courses often. Adaptability shortens the time span that leaders need to react to changes. Sometimes Adaptability is about following, because it's about responding to what's relevant and present and important in the moment. Leaders with Adaptability can become more interested in responding rather than preventing or preempting issues, but it also means they can accept what change is very quickly. Leaders with Adaptability are seen as early adopters of change and do very well with diverse groups of people.

Jamie McCarville's Top 5 CliftonStrengths are Responsibility, Arranger, Maximizer, Adaptability and Belief.