Situational adaptability : key to your career success

Is knowing how to manage your own talent just as important as knowing how to be a good manager? Arguably, yes. One of the first editions of this newsletter back in the summer of 2020 looked at when not to coach as a manager coach. Thinking recently about what makes a good supportive relationship between manager and individual team members lead me to turning this on its head and looking at it from the employee’s perspective.

When considering our contribution to the team, and therefore our likely performance and potential, we need to be mindful of two crucial elements based on Hersey & Blanchard’s situational leadership model : on the one hand our competency, aptitude, skill or cognitive ability and on the other our motivation which leads to our commitment. How we go about our job and apply our talent to the task in hand will therefore depend on these two factors, and we’ll expect our manager to adjust their management style accordingly.

At any one time, the support you require from your manager will vary and you’ll expect different management styles, on a task to task basis. There is no “one size fits all” approach to people management, and your manager-coach will need to adapt their managerial technique constantly based on the circumstances from directing to participating, supporting, and delegating. But it is also up to you to adapt, it takes two to tango. There’s also no “one size fits all” approach to realising your full potential either. It is critical for us to adapt our approach and demeanour in real time to match the shifting demands of different situations, context, and activity. Successfully managing your own talent requires the ability to recognise the right behaviours for the situation and adapt accordingly. Quickly adopting the right mindset by paying attention to your skills and motivation, your interaction with your manager, and the wider circumstances of the activities of the team can be key to getting ahead. Continuously measure the impact you are having, gauge the needs of the team, and be flexible in your approach to work.

Ensure you get the support you need

If your manager is a little too “hands off” and leaving you without the support you need, particularly in the early days of joining a team, or when you are undertaking a new task, don’t hesitate to reach out for support. Read their behaviour : are they leaving you with autonomy because they trust in your competence and think you don’t need help, or are they just too busy or not interested? If it’s the former make sure you communicate clearly your need for support or guidance, don’t be shy to ask for help there's no shame in admitting you need to learn how to do something. If it’s the latter then don’t ignore the situation, a passive approach is not going to get you very far. You’ll just find yourself more and more frustrated, and that will impact your motivation as well as your ability and you can find yourself in a downward spiral of not knowing how to do the task and having less and less motivation to try to do it. Clearly this is not healthy. If your manager doesn’t seem interested in your development or isn’t a people person (bafflingly, not all of them are…) find alternative means of gaining the support or acquiring the knowledge you need. Peer to peer learning, on the job observation of your colleagues and co-workers, or seeking free to access online learning resources (anything from a wiki site, a youtube video or a formal elearning) may all help you if you find yourself in this situation. The main thing is to recognise that you need support and do something about it, with or without the help of your manager.

Give yourself a boost

All of us will find ourselves at times doing elements of the job that we’re fully capable of doing but just not much motivated to do. Every job has its less glamourous tasks. Putting energy into the elements of the job that don’t motivate you is not easy. It might not be possible to avoid the dull bit, but changing the way you think about it can really make a difference. Focus on the end result, not the task itself. What is the purpose of the activity? Who does it benefit? What difference does it make? Seeing the activity as a means to a more motivating end can be a way of giving yourself a boost. Taking a positive outlook on the task and considering how it contributes to meeting a larger goal or outcome that meets your intrinsic drivers will help you to tackle it in a way more likely to be recognised positively. Perhaps it’s a dull task that will nevertheless earn money, help people, bring about change, or provide you with social interaction? Perhaps you have some leeway in the way you do the activity and can bring a little fun in, adapt the pace to your preferred working speed, or work on its appearance to make it look more attractive? Nobody knows your motivational needs better than yourself, so it you find yourself competent but not very motivated, you’ll need identify the things you can adapt to give yourself that much needed energy boost.

Find your flow

In the sweet spot of a job that gives you just the right dose of challenge based on your skill you find yourself both competent and motivated. It’s in these situations that your manager-coach can delegate responsibility to you and provide you with autonomy to determine the "what" and "how" of your job. By asking you those powerful questions that provoke the "ah-ha moments" that challenge you, your manager can help you to jump from the state of flow, your happy zone, to a state of arousal, the learning arena just outside of your comfort zone. With the right amount of motivation and a good balance of positive stress you’ll find yourself at your peak behavioural performance. Doing this will probably require you to learn to let go, avoid clinging to the familiar. There is a degree of risk taking as you’ll need to read the context around you and adapt. Embrace the change, identify new ways of doing things, adapting the way you do your job, changing your approach: these are the things that will help you to constantly improve and keep your career moving forwards.

However good you are at your job, one thing is for sure : if you stay still long enough you won’t stay ahead and others will overtake you. You constantly need to reassess your competency based on the changing context around you, and be prepared to challenge yourself to learn and evolve, adapting your skill set to the changing needs of today and tomorrow. Similarly you need to keep check on your energy levels and motivation and ensure that you don’t drift into a state of too much relaxation, boredom or even apathy. 

Alan Lambert, Fellow of the Institute of Leadership and Management, is an International HR leader currently working at the Corporate HR Strategy division of a global energy major and is a Linkedin Talent Voices Talent Advocate award winner.