Adaptive leadership for Accountants-Road to COVID recovery

Darwin was one of the first individuals to correlate adaptability and survival in his “theory of evolution by natural selection.” So much has happened since then as businesses now more than ever realise the importance of being adaptive to the changing trends, thereby keeping pace with the ever-evolving competitive landscape.

But what are the principles of adaptive leadership?

To answer this simply, what’s needed are strong foundational pillars of ‘Adaptive Leadership’ that push through challenging changes and help their organisation evolve and grow.

So, what is Adaptive Leadership? Let’s take a tour and explore adaptive leadership style and how it will roadmap COVID recovery for Accounting professionals. 

What is Adaptive Leadership?

First introduced by Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky, Adaptive Leadership is a leadership framework that focuses on developing individuals and the organisation as a whole in a way that can easily adapt to the dynamic market demands and come out on top during challenging times.  

Moreover, leadership nowadays isn’t about a single person’s accomplishments, instead, it is about a collaborative effort that drives results from each individual’s contribution. Adaptive leadership is also the same and is a team game.

However, even though it is a team game, someone has to take charge for defining new strategies when difficult times (like the ongoing pandemic) arrive. This is where adaptive leadership comes into the scene where business leaders step forward and make sure that their team and the organisation keep abreast with the changing requirements of the corporate arena.

So, what are the principles of adaptive leadership? Well, there are usually four strong pillars upon which Adaptive Leadership is built upon. 

Adaptive Leadership – Key Qualities to develop

1. Emotional Intelligence:

Emotional Intelligence is also referred to as Emotional Quotient and denotes the capabilities of a leader to effectively balance out one’s own feelings and the other person’s emotions and then make a sane and logical decision accordingly.

2. Organizational justice that entails a culture of honesty

Adaptive leaders aren’t your regular bosses who just want to get their work done anyhow. They focus on building policies that are equal for all, thereby valuing every individual’s contribution. Adaptive leaders respect opinions instead of just burdening you with the knowledge they have.

3. Constantly learning new things

The word ‘adaptive’ itself signifies the quality of constantly learning and being at par with the latest industry trends.

4. Strong Character

Strength of character is a trait that can’t be learned in a day, it is a process that great leaders develop with time and experience. IT defines how an individual reacts to difficult situations and is core to adaptive leadership.

Accountant traits that are vital in the COVID recovery

Accounting is an ever-evolving industry. The ongoing pandemic has put Accountants at the forefront of the ongoing war against the pandemic as they are trying hard to save businesses from perishing. Accountancy has once again proved why adaptive leadership is what’s needed to overcome the obstacles of unprecedented events.

Here are a few traits of Adaptive leadership that are and will drive the financial world out of the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19:

• Desperate times require desperate measures and this is the time when Accounting leaders need to step up and experiment and risk in order to steer businesses out of troubled waters
• Become proactive by indulging and creating new opportunities both for themselves and for their clients
• Constantly encouraging themselves
• Learning the new ways, making it easier and faster to adapt to the ‘new normal’
• Try to foresee/ predict the future and plan for the long-term accordingly 
• Persistence and a willingness to continue the hard work they have been doing
• Mental health for Accountants is very crucial