Flexibility essential to long term leader success.
In anything but the most simple leadership situations, one can observe a startling phenomenon. It’s hard for any leader to continue to be successful over time, and across situations, jobs, or companies. For example, a leader may do well for a period of time — even years, and than suddenly lose effectiveness even if he or she stays in the same job.
Or, a leader may succeed in one department in an organization but fail badly when moved to a different one. It’s startling and it illustrates how complex the function of leadership is in the real world.
One of the reasons these failures occur has to do with the fact that changing circumstances and personnel require the leader to adapt, change, and learn as he or she goes. When a leader fails to do so, and continues to try to lead in exactly the same way, the “world changes while s/he isn’t looking”, leaving the leader out of touch, and often less effective.
Leaders need to guide their actions with values, principles and beliefs, but even those need to be re-examined over time. Leadership behaviors need to be re-examined even more frequently to determine whether they continue to work.
Leaders who are not adaptable, or who cannot change with the circumstances, or are rigid run the risk of losing their ability to lead, even if they stay in the same job and position.
