I still see a handful of people at the top of organisations trying to solve their biggest challenges.
But it’s not effective. The challenges are too complex. Too cross-functional. Too human. Too fast-moving. Too deeply connected to culture, behaviour, systems and competing priorities.
That might have worked in a more stable environment. It does not work nearly as well now.
Because adaptive challenges need more distributed leadership.
They need more people thinking. More people noticing. More people speaking up. More people taking ownership. More people exercising leadership from where they are.
This is one of the most important shifts leaders need to make.
Leadership is not about carrying it all yourself.
It is about creating the conditions for others to step in and lead too.
And that is not a soft skill. It is not nice-to-have. It is core adaptive work.
Leadership is a Collective Process
Ron Heifetz and Marty Linsky describe adaptive leadership as the practice of mobilising people to tackle tough challenges and thrive.
That word matters: mobilising.
In other words, the role of the leader is not to be the only one exercising leadership. It is to help more people engage in the work of leadership.
That means helping people:
- see the reality of the challenge
- contribute their perspective
- think beyond their function or silo
- stay in the discomfort of complexity
- take responsibility for progress
- experiment, learn and adapt
This is especially important when the challenges involve no obvious answer and no single person can see the whole picture.
Which is exactly where many teams are operating right now.
And yet, many leaders unintentionally shut this down.
Not because they mean to.
Because pressure narrows behaviour.
When the stakes are high, leaders often default to speed, control and certainty. They over-function. They jump in too early. They fill the silence. They solve too quickly. They answer the question before the team has wrestled with it. They protect people from discomfort instead of helping them build capacity through it.
The result?
People wait.
Defer.
Hold back.
Stay quiet.
Look up.
Stay in their lane.
And the leader ends up carrying more and more, while the organisation gets less and less of the intelligence, creativity and ownership it actually needs.
The Real Question is Not “How do I get them to step up?”
It is:
What conditions am I creating that either invite or inhibit leadership in others?
That is a more useful question because it brings the focus back to what the leader can influence.
You cannot force people to show initiative.
But you can create the environment where initiative is more likely.
You cannot demand courage from people while punishing risk.
You cannot ask for ideas while signalling you already have the answer.
You cannot say “I want open communication” and then shut down challenge, dissent or emotion.
You cannot expect ownership when every decision has to come back through you.
Leaders create leadership cultures through what they reward, what they tolerate, what they model, and what they make safe.
If you want more people to exercise leadership, you have to create the conditions where that becomes possible.
What Conditions Matter Most?
There are many, but four stand out.
1. Clarity of challenge
People cannot step into leadership if they do not understand the real challenge.
Too often teams are handed tasks without context. They know what needs to be done, but not why it matters, what is changing, what is at stake, or where the real complexity lies.
Adaptive leaders do not just hand out work. They frame the challenge.
They help people see:
- what kind of challenge this is
- why old approaches may not be enough
- what tensions or trade-offs are in play
- why broad thinking and contribution are needed
When people understand the real work, they are far more likely to engage with it.
2. Psychological Safety and Trust
This is foundational.
People will not step in, speak honestly, challenge thinking, or offer bold ideas if the environment feels unsafe.
If every mistake is judged, every risk is scrutinised, every idea is picked apart too early, or every dissenting voice is treated as disloyalty, people learn quickly to stay quiet.
Adaptive work requires trust because it involves uncertainty. And uncertainty makes people vulnerable.
Leaders need to create a climate where people can:
- ask questions
- disagree respectfully
- test ideas
- name concerns
- raise tensions
- admit what they do not know
- learn in public
This does not mean lowering standards.
It means building enough trust for people to stay in the work when it gets hard.
3. Space for Contribution
Many leaders say they want more ownership from their team, but they do not create enough room for it.
There is no time to think.
No pause before decisions are made.
No invitation to contribute early enough to matter.
No real mechanism for diverse views to shape the work.
You cannot build shared leadership in a culture where only speed wins.
People need space to observe, think, and contribute. That may mean:
- pausing before solving
- asking better questions
- inviting perspectives from across functions
- drawing out quieter voices
- resisting the urge to close down ambiguity too quickly
Leadership grows in the space between stimulus and response.
If the leader takes up all the space, others have nowhere to step in.
4. Shared Responsibility, not Leader Dependency
Some teams are highly capable but still leader-dependent.
They wait for the call.
They escalate quickly.
They ask for permission instead of making judgement calls.
They stay close to authority because that is what has been conditioned over time.
Sometimes leaders complain about this while reinforcing it every day.
Adaptive leaders do the opposite. They actively build ownership. They ask:
- What do you see?
- What do you think this challenge requires?
- What options have you considered?
- What decision can sit with you?
- What is your recommendation?
- Who else needs to be part of this?
This is not abdication. It is development.
It is helping people build the confidence and muscle to exercise leadership themselves.
This is Where Many Leaders Get Uncomfortable
Because creating the conditions for others to lead means giving up something.
Control.
Centrality.
The identity of being the one with the answers.
The comfort of being needed in every decision.
And for some leaders, that is harder than they realise.
But if leadership only works when it runs through you, it is not scalable. It is not resilient. And it will not serve the complexity of what comes next.
What This Looks Like in Practice
Creating the conditions for others to lead does not require a major restructure. It happens in everyday moments.
It looks like asking a question instead of giving the answer.
It looks like naming the adaptive challenge and inviting the team into it.
It looks like saying, “I do not have the full answer yet, what are you seeing?”
It looks like rewarding thoughtful risk-taking, even when outcomes are imperfect.
It looks like surfacing tensions early instead of protecting the room from discomfort.
It looks like asking someone closer to the work to lead the thinking.
It looks like broadening who gets heard.
It looks like noticing who dominates and who disappears.
It looks like coaching for judgement, not just compliance.
This kind of leadership can feel slower at first.
But it builds something much stronger.
More ownership.
More trust.
More adaptability.
More resilience.
More leadership capacity across the system.
And that is exactly what adaptive environments need.
A Practical Leadership Challenge
Here is a practical exercise to help leaders create more room for others to exercise leadership.
This Week’s Adaptive Leadership Practice: Make More Space
In your next team meeting, choose one live issue or challenge and do three things differently.
1. Frame the Challenge
Take two minutes to explain why this challenge matters and why it needs more than a quick fix. Name the complexity. Help people see the bigger picture.
2. Ask First
Before offering your own view, ask three people for theirs. Include at least one person who would not usually speak first.
You might ask:
- What are we missing?
- What might we need to rethink here?
- What tension or risk do we need to name?
- What do you see from where you sit?
3. Hand Over One Piece of Ownership
Identify one part of the issue (or the whole issue if possible) that someone else can lead forward. Not just do. Lead. Ask them to shape the thinking, involve others, and come back with a recommendation.
Then at the end of the week, reflect:
- Where did I create more room for leadership in others?
- Where did I step in too quickly?
- Who showed leadership when given the space?
- What do I want to keep doing?
These are small shifts. But small shifts in leader behaviour create big shifts in team culture over time.
The Real Work of Leadership Now
If the challenge is adaptive, leadership cannot sit with the select few.
It has to become a collective process.
It belongs to leaders who know how to mobilise others to think, contribute, adapt and lead.
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