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We all know it's good to be adaptable, but how can adaptability skills get you ahead in the workplace?
Soft skills are increasingly important in the modern workplace, especially when teams are working remotely or operating on hybrid schedules. Soft skills like communication, problem-solving, and adaptability need to be emphasized to keep teams productive, engaged, and happy.
According to studies by Manpower Group, adaptability is one of the five key soft skills that employers look for in prospective employees.
The top five soft skills that employers look for include:
- Reliability + Self-Discipline
- Resilience + Adaptability
- Reasoning + Problem-Solving
- Creativity + Originality
- Critical Thinking + Analysis
So, what does it mean to be adaptable at work?
What Is Adaptability?
Adaptability is the willingness to change your approach as circumstances unfold. This type of readied flexibility is of the utmost importance in a rapidly-changing work environment, especially one that requires employees to move fast and adapt to feedback.
However, adaptability is not taking on undue work from other team members, picking up last-minute work from a disorganized boss, or taking on duties far outside your skill set—and your pay grade.
In this article, we'll discuss how flexibility and adaptability are crucial in the modern workplace, how it plays into a leadership role, and how to take on new challenges at work with renewed self-confidence and a positive attitude.
What Are Adaptability Skills? 6 Adaptability Skills to Master
Adaptability isn't just one skill. In fact, it is an umbrella that includes other pertinent soft skills like time management, curiosity, and open-mindedness.
All of these soft skills play into building a workplace that fosters and encourages teamwork, smart decision-making, and growth mindsets.
Examples of Adaptability at Work:
- Receiving feedback from a client on a project which changes its direction.
- Using different communication styles with different coworkers to communicate within their preferred channels.
- Saying yes to new projects with the caveat that you'll be able to rely on colleagues for support and troubleshooting.
- Using active listening to look out for potential problems so that you avoid potential setbacks.
- Trying new things in the workplace that occasionally take you out of your comfort zone to inspire growth.
- Adapting new methods suggested by coworkers instead of stubbornly sticking to "the way things are done."
- Keeping an eye and ear out for new and emerging industry trends and innovations that could be applicable in your organization in the future.
Here are some of the most important adaptability skills to strengthen and use in your day-to-day. Strengthen these skills to become an adaptable person at work.
Critical Thinking Skills
Critical thinking skills are important in the workplace for a variety of reasons. Critical thinking skills help employees understand and find connections between two or more ideas or concepts.
Someone with critical thinking skills is able to slow down, especially in moments of panic or stress, in order to analyze what's happening, how it happened, and the steps they can take to problem-solve effectively.
In fact, organizations that prioritize critical thinking skills are likely to run into fewer problems. When every decision is subject to critical thinking and analysis, many problems are solved before they have a chance to occur.
Time Management Skills
Have you ever worked on a huge project only to receive feedback at the final hour that changes everything? All of a sudden, you have two days to redo work that took weeks to complete in the first place.
This is an example where time management comes into play. By managing your time efficiently, no new situations or huge feedback can derail you. Any great project management professional will tell you that time management is the key to providing yourself with a work schedule that is always flexible and adaptable.
Make sure your schedule and deadlines always have flexibility. And please, try not to procrastinate it all away!
Curiosity + Creative Thinking Skills
Curiosity and creative thinking are the cornerstones of some of the most innovative and successful organizations throughout history—and that's no coincidence.
Adaptability typically requires every person in an organization to look at a task or a project through a prism. Use creativity and curiosity to ask questions like, "What if we did it this way?" or "How would it look if we tried this?"
Especially in challenging situations, using curiosity and creative thinking are great ways to inspire optimism in a team. Rather than looking at something as a "failure," any great leader knows that creativity can be used to reinvigorate a team to try something new.
Resilience
Resilience comes hand-in-hand with adaptability. We recognize that resilience has become a bit of a buzzword in the workplace over the past few years.
According to Harvard Business Review, resilience "include[s] optimism; the ability to stay balanced and manage strong or difficult emotions; a sense of safety and a strong social support system."
Resilience does not mean devoting your entire life to your work. Rather, it's having a steadfast dedication to yourself and your work in tandem. Resilience is recognizing that you need to prioritize your mental health so that you can pursue your career long-term.
To be resilient is to be vigilant about your own mental health, stress levels, and workload.
Collaboration
Collaboration is a beautiful thing when done well. This is a crucial adaptability skill because the cliches are actually true. Every organization is as strong as its weakest link. Adaptability means taking time to get to know everyone on your team—especially when it comes to their strengths and weaknesses.
By collaborating with everyone's strengths in mind, any team is operating at superhero status. Adaptable leaders can take their collaboration to the next level by guiding their employees to work on their strengths while developing their weaknesses.
Open-Mindedness
Without an open mind, there's no flexibility or adaptability. Open-mindedness at work means paying attention, exploring all types of unexpected avenues, and constantly asking new and sometimes challenging questions!
How to Show Adaptability Skills in an Interview
Now that we have profiled some of the soft skills that fall under the adaptability umbrella, let's figure out how to communicate your skills when navigating your job search.
Adaptability Skills Interview Questions
If adaptability is the soft skill you want to discuss in a job interview, then it's crucial to prepare to answer behavioral interview questions.
During an interview, hiring managers may ask you questions that specifically relate to soft skills like adaptability, communication, or problem-solving. Depending on the work environment, adaptability might be a soft skill they are screening their applicants for.
Use these questions about your real-life, interpersonal work experience to highlight your flexibility and adaptability at work. The more concrete examples you can give, the better.
How to Show Adaptability in an Interview:
- Detail a work situation you remedied by being adaptable.
- Describe how you communicated your creativity or problem-solving to other team members or your boss.
- Share any meaningful impact your flexibility has had on your organization. Bring data and numbers whenever possible.
- Always keep your perspective positive.
If you've worked in various work environments, describe how you adapted your skills to each job. If you secured a promotion by learning a new skill set, describe exactly how you did it and how you emphasize continued learning in your career.
If you've worked with new team members who were less experienced than you, share how you used your flexible nature to coach them in new skills. If your job requires you to work alongside all types of people, explain how adaptability has developed your leadership skills.
Here are more resources for how to answer common interview questions to showcase your best adaptability skills:
- How to Prepare to Answer + Ask Behavioral Interview Questions
- Tell Me About a Challenge You Overcame at Work
How to Improve Your Adaptability Skills
If you've determined that your adaptability skills and flexibility need some work, that's great. In fact, we'd argue that it's very flexible of you to recognize that work needs to be done.
Having a strong set of soft skills or "people skills" is crucial to maintaining a long, healthy, and fulfilling career.
Opening yourself to adaptability means that you'll learn more, grow in your skills, and become an increasingly creative thinker.
For those aspiring to leadership roles, adaptability is a pivotal skill. Adaptable leaders know how to work with all types of people, how to prioritize, how to delegate, and how to proceed (and lead!) in high-stress situations.
1. Challenge Tradition
To be an adaptable employee, embracing change—or the possibility of change—is necessary. The first step is to ditch any fear of the unknown. Being adaptable means being open to trying, failing, and reiterating as we learn.
Be prepared to change something up. Start small by changing up small things on a weekly or even daily basis. This can be as small as reorganizing your desk or as large as scheduling a new weekly meeting to brainstorm with your team.
Start switching things up to get more comfortable with changes. You might start to learn that you find change exciting and exhilarating! In fact, it might breathe all new life into your work.
2. Learn From Experts
Learn by watching others. Watch the experts in your industry. What have they done differently? What impact have they made in their careers?
If there are leaders or even coworkers in your organization who ooze flexibility, talk to them. This is a great step for those who might feel uncomfortable adapting to changes. Ask others how they decided to change things up, how they handle big or unexpected changes, and why they might lead with adaptability. Ask questions!
3. Practice Empathy
Empathy is the cornerstone of any functioning workplace. Empathy can act as the key to adaptability.
Let's face it. We all have our own ideas of how we think things should work. We have our special ways of getting things done—and they work for us. However, that doesn't mean that "your way" works for everyone else.
Thinking this way closes our minds to new opportunities to innovate and push forward. When we use a "rinse and repeat" method for long periods of time, we are essentially closing ourselves off to thinking in new and creative ways.
Practicing empathy means keeping everyone in mind. Instead of becoming laser-focused on your own goals and how you like to "make things happen," consider other ways that might be better.
Use your expert communication skills to ask your colleagues for their input. Are there ways to shift your approach? Are there opportunities you're missing out on due to fear of uncertainty? Use your emotional intelligence to connect with your team and foster a work environment that is open to all innovation and input—from the entry-level employee all the way to the c-suite leaders.
