We cannot fix today’s challenges using yesterday’s thinking.
That is the heart of adaptive leadership.
For more than 15 years I have worked with the practice of Adaptive Leadership, including studying at Harvard Kennedy School under Ron Heifetz and Marty Linsky, whose work has shaped the way many leaders understand change, complexity, and the real work of leadership. Their core premise is as relevant now as ever: the toughest challenges leaders face are often adaptive, not technical.
Technical problems may be difficult, but they are familiar. They can be solved with existing expertise, known process, or established authority.
Adaptive challenges are different. They are messier. More human. More systemic. They often involve competing values, multiple stakeholders, shifting conditions, no clear roadmap, and no guaranteed answer waiting to be found.
And because of that, the work of leadership is different too.
When leaders are facing tough adaptive challenges and need to rethink, mobilise, and move people forward, the place to start is not with the plan.
It is within.
That may sound counterintuitive in a world obsessed with action, speed, and productivity. But when the path ahead is uncertain, your capacity to lead others depends heavily on your ability to understand yourself.
Because when things get harder, leaders do not just reveal their strategy. They reveal their habits. Their assumptions. Their fears. Their defaults. Their relationship with uncertainty. Their need for control. Their willingness to listen. Their capacity to stay grounded when there is no tidy answer.
That is why Real Leadership matters so much in adaptive environments.
If you are not clear on who you are, what you value, and how you want to lead, it becomes far too easy to reach for the safety of authority rather than the deeper work of leadership.
And there is a difference.
Authority versus leadership from within
There is a model I often use in this work that contrasts authority with leading from within.
Authority leans on role, position, power, expertise, and control. It can be necessary. Formal authority has a place. Teams do need direction, decisions, boundaries, and accountability.
But authority alone is not enough for adaptive work.
Because adaptive challenges cannot simply be handed down, fixed from the top, or resolved by one smart person having the answer. They require people to engage, think, contribute, stretch, learn, and often let go of something familiar in order to move forward.
That kind of work asks more of a leader than position.
It asks for leadership from within.
Leadership from within is grounded in self-awareness, values, emotional regulation, authenticity, courage, and trust. It is less about having all the answers and more about creating the conditions where better answers can emerge. It is the capacity to hold steady in uncertainty, to be honest about complexity, to invite contribution, and to lead change without hiding behind certainty or title.
This is where adaptive leadership becomes deeply human.
Because adaptive challenges do not just test systems and strategy. They test people.
They create discomfort.
They create ambiguity.
They surface fear.
They trigger defensiveness.
They expose competing priorities and loyalties.
They stir up loss, resistance, and anxiety.
That is why leaders need to be able to recognise not only the structural and operational implications of change, but also the emotional and psychological impact it has on their people and on themselves.
Too often leaders focus only on the visible work: the plan, the milestones, the communication rollout, the restructure, the initiative, the priority list.
But adaptive leadership asks us to pay attention to what is happening beneath the surface.
What are people worried about losing?
What is not being said?
Where is trust thin?
Who feels unheard?
What emotions are shaping behaviour right now?
What is this challenge stirring up in me?
These are not side issues.
This is the work.
Trust is not a nice-to-have
When there is no clear roadmap, trust becomes critical.
In adaptive environments, people are often being asked to move before they feel ready. To experiment before certainty exists. To stay engaged even when answers are incomplete. To collaborate across difference. To challenge what has always been done. To tolerate discomfort without shutting down or turning on each other.
That kind of change cannot be sustained without trust.
Trust is what allows people to speak honestly.
Trust is what makes room for dissent without disconnection.
Trust is what helps teams stay in the work when it gets uncomfortable.
Trust is what turns ambiguity from something paralysing into something navigable.
And trust does not appear because a leader announces that change is happening.
It is built through how you show up.
Through consistency.
Through openness.
Through listening.
Through honesty.
Through care.
Through creating space for people to contribute.
Through the way you respond when things do not go to plan.
Strong relationships and trust serve as a critical foundation for navigating change and building resilient, committed teams. Without them, leaders often find themselves pushing harder while people quietly disengage.
The inside work leaders must do
If the place to start is within, what does that actually require?
It requires leaders to get honest about the source of their leadership.
Are you exercising leadership primarily from authority?
Or from within?
Are you relying on position, expertise, control, and speed to create movement?
Or are you drawing on values, trust, connection, reflection, and courage?
Are you clear on your values and how they show up when the pressure is on?
Do you know what your team experiences from you when things are uncertain?
Are you deepening trust and connection in ways that will enable more difficult change work to be sustained?
This is not abstract reflection. It is practical leadership work.
Leading adaptively takes every human skill you have
There is no shortcut through adaptive work.
It takes all the human skills you can muster.
It takes observation.
Empathy.
Regulation.
Curiosity.
Patience.
Judgement.
Humility.
Courage.
Connection.
The ability to listen beneath words.
The willingness to stay in the discomfort of not knowing too quickly.
It also takes the discipline to keep returning to yourself.
Because the more complex the challenge, the more important it becomes that the leader knows what they are carrying into the room.
Your anxiety enters the room.
Your assumptions enter the room.
Your trust levels enter the room.
Your openness enters the room.
Your defensiveness enters the room.
Your values enter the room too.
A practical leadership challenge
The Within-to-Team Reset
Set aside 10 minutes at the start of the week and 10 minutes at the end of the week.
At the start of the week:
Write down three things:
1. The challenge
Name one adaptive challenge your team is currently facing.
Choose something messy, not a simple task problem. Something that requires people to think, shift, collaborate, or respond differently.
2. Your default
Write down your instinctive leadership response to that challenge.
Do you move to fix? Control? Push harder? Avoid? Over-explain? Protect? Withdraw? Rescue?
3. Your intention
Choose one way you want to lead from within this week.
For example:
- listen before solving
- create more space for voices in the room
- name uncertainty honestly
- slow down to observe before reacting
- respond with curiosity instead of control
Then choose one practical trust-building action for the week. Keep it simple and visible:
- ask the quietest person in the meeting for their perspective
- name a tension that the team is avoiding
- openly acknowledge what is uncertain
- ask the team what they may be worried about losing
- invite ideas on what needs to be rethought, not just improved
- recognise a reasonable risk someone took, regardless of outcome
At the end of the week:
Review what happened.
Write a few notes on:
- Where did I lead from authority?
- Where did I lead from within?
- What did I notice about trust, openness, and connection in the team?
- What one shift do I want to carry into next week?
Before you ask more from your team to stretch, rethink, or adapt - pause and ask yourself.
Because when the challenge is adaptive, the place to start is not out there.
It is within.
#RealLeadership #AdaptiveLeadership LeadFromWithin #MichelleSalesLeadership