October 1, 2024
From leadership role to leadership work
A paradigm shift in leadership and organizational development to navigate complexity and transformation
"I believe that the professional world can be improved. In many areas, things are already going quite well, but in others, I have to be careful not to be completely shocked by how much still remains from leadership models of the 60's, previous century!"
Andrea Hohlweck, OrganisationsberatungI Coaching, D-Saarbrücken, Interview Sep 2024 (translated)
Andrea is specialized in organizational, personnel and leadership development consulting and coaching, a passionate professional with extensive work and life experience. She is an automotive mechanic, helds a Diploma in Psychology and has over 15 years of experience in corporate environment (Daimler AG), including ten years of leadership experience in various roles related to organizational, personnel, and leadership development, both nationally and internationally.
Watch the interview bite 'The world of work in transformation' with Andrea:
What is adaptive leadership and organizational transformation?
Whether it's called distributed, collaborative, collegial or adaptive leadership. It is—a forward-thinking approach that equips organizations to manage not just technical challenges, but also the deeper, more complex adaptive challenges that require pivotal shifts in people's, respectively stakeholder's values, beliefs, roles, responsibilities, behavior and culture across their organization. Unlike traditional leadership which relies on top-down approach operated by a few top-level managers, it embraces the creativity of its people across the entire organization.
Paired with organizational transformation, which involves rethinking and reshaping an organization’s strategy, structure and processes, adaptive leadership becomes a powerful approach for guiding systemic change, staying resilient and innovative in a constantly changing environment, helping to address complex challenges which can't be solved by current knowledge or routines.
"We have a change process in our organization, dear Mrs. Hohlweck, please accompany us and make sure that our managers take responsibility. That's the moment to either reject the request or to ask, "what could be your contribution?" Often, senior executives haven't reflected on their role or attitude in leadership and quite often haven't developed change competence. Certain things can indeed be learned but you also need a supportive organizational framework. For a long time, especially in the classic old economy, incremental change was required, rather than major shifts or real transformation."
Andrea Hohlweck, OrganisationsberatungI Coaching, D-Saarbrücken, Interview Sep 2024 (translated)
BUT
Why does it matter?
Which hidden barriers and underlying dynamics are impeding adaptive leadership and organizational transformation?
What can we do to overcome them?
Why does it matter?
Adaptive leadership paired with organizational transformation enables people across the organization to contribute and thrive in a world characterized by complex challenges and transformation. By fostering innovation, building resilience, enhancing engagement and contributing to positive impact, these approaches help organizations remain relevant and successful in the long run. Without the ability to adapt and transform, organizations risk stagnation and ultimately losing their edge in an increasingly complex world.
From leadership role to leadership work: Adaptive leadership as a way forward
"I would actually like companies to contact me and say we want to seriously change leadership culture. We know that leadership, I now consciously call it leadership work, can no longer just rest on a few shoulders, but must be more distributed. That decisions are made where they actually technically belong and that the company is also aware that this is a real transformation towards adaptive or collegial leadership, which is no less difficult, as leadership remains work, but it is distributed differently!"
Andrea Hohlweck, OrganisationsberatungI Coaching, D-Saarbrücken, Interview Sep 2024 (translated)
Main objectives?
Empowering people: Promote shared leadership and accountability, ensuring that all stakeholders affected are involved .
Navigating complexity: Equip people across the organization to navigate through unpredictable and complex challenges
Fostering innovation: Encourage a culture of creative problem-solving and continuous learning, essential for long term positive impact creation
Building resilience: Develop people's capacity across the organisation to adapt and thrive amidst constant change or even disruptions
Incorporated in a long term, positive impact oriented strategy all objectives are supporting pivotal shifts in business, finance, environment and societal dynamics to create positive impact
Achievements so far
Real world examples: Swipe to --> e.g. Siemens, Unilever, Ing Group
Enhanced Leadership Development: Leadership programs @ e.g. Harvard Business School or INSEAD in France now incorporate adaptive leadership in their curriculum
Real world example
Siemens (Germany)
under its Vision 2020+ strategy, embraced adaptive leadership to transform from a traditional industrial conglomerate to a leader in digital industries. This transformation has been crucial in increasing its market capitalization to over €100 billion in 2023.
Real world example
Unilever (UK/Netherlands)
Unilever has integrated adaptive leadership into its sustainability and business strategy, known as the Unilever Compass. This has helped the company achieve a 15% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions across its value chain by 2023 while maintaining revenue growth.
Real world example
ING Group (Netherlands)
ING has utilized adaptive leadership to pivot towards digital banking, which led to a 20% increase in mobile banking users in 2023, reinforcing its position as a leader in digital financial services in Europe.
From short-term profit to long-term regenerative planning
"When decisions are taken, big companies shall seriously ask themselves, what effect does it have on our sustainability goals, our employees, on the society as a whole, if we implement them? ..Thinking about the long-term impact, ensuring ..that our business serves the common good ..ultimately, the economy serves the common good. And there are companies already doing it. They're just not the real big ones. However, the large ones always have a certain impact. That's why I wish for that."
Andrea Hohlweck, OrganisationsberatungI Coaching, D-Saarbrücken, Interview Sep 2024 (translated)
Adaptive leadership and organizational transformation thriving positive impact
Navigating complexity and transformation
Dealing w complex problems - Today’s world is full of complex challenges. Adaptive leadership helps organizations respond effectively to these challenges by being flexible and open to change.
Enabling pivotal shifts
Stakeholders expect companies to be innovative, agile and environmental and socially responsible. Adaptive leadership helps organizations meet these expectations by enabling pivotal shifts.
Encouraging innovation
Staying creative - Adaptive leadership promotes a culture where people feel safe to try new ideas. This is key for keeping up challenges and meeting user and ultimately all stakeholder needs.
Building resilience (=strength and flexibility)
Bouncing Back from Setbacks: Organizational transformation makes companies stronger and better prepared to handle disruptions, independent of being environmental, economic, financial, technological or social.
Empowering stakeholders
Involving all stakeholders: Adaptive leadership gives all stakeholder, not only shareholders a say in how the organization changes, leading to higher morale, better engagement, and smarter decisions.
Ensuring long term positive impact creation
Being resilient: Organizations that can adapt quickly are more likely to stay successful over the long term, even as polycrises, markets and technologies evolve.
Hidden barriers and underlying dynamics impeding the leadership and organizational transformation?
"In adaptive leadership, classic leadership roles are being dissolved and people are working more in circles. The existing power structure is changed. It is no longer attached to particular persons, but is assigned to functions and that is of course difficult. Especially, where I'm not setting up a new company on a greenfield, but taking something away from someone. The SCARF model -used in emotionally mindful leadership-describes status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness and fairness. If I say, for example, let's get rid of the classic management roles or at least delete every other level, people actually loose status. This issue of autonomy is also affected...and it is simply a core need that we have. The issue of security is also handled badly. And since you know that -when these needs are addressed in such a way- we actually ramp up our stress system to the maximum and fear really arises and it is processed in the same brain area as physical pain, then you know that you have to deal with it differently. So, above all in communication."
Andrea Hohlweck, OrganisationsberatungI Coaching, D-Saarbrücken, Interview Sep 2024 (translated)
Watch the interview bite 'hidden barriers and how to overcome them' with Andrea:
Clinging to existing power structures and inadequate communication
Not all executives possess the skills or willingness to embrace adaptive leadership.
"There is the issue of managers holding on to their own power, i.e. the existing power structures, but also that when changes are initiated, the difficulties that this brings with it are concealed from teams, shareholders, supervisory board, customers etc."
Andrea Hohlweck, OrganisationsberatungI Coaching, D-Saarbrücken, Interview Sep 2024 (translated)
According to Deloitte, 87% of organizations believe that adaptive leadership is crucial for navigating (digital) transformation, but only 12% of European organizations feel their managers are adequately prepared for the demands of adaptive leadership.
European Business Outlook: Adaptive Leadership in Times of Change. Deloitte, 2023
Resistance to change
People across the organization often resist to change due to fear of the unknown, loss of control, or perceived threats to their competence or status.
McKinsey study shows that about 70% of transformation efforts fail due to employee resistance and lack of management support.
The Role of Adaptive Leadership in Organizational Success. McKinsey&Company (2023)
Lack of understanding
Organizations often struggle to differentiate between technical problems and adaptive challenges.
e.g.
The crash of an internal software system can be fixed by IT professionals. The problem is well-defined, experts can solve it with technical knowledge. Whereas an organization facing declining sales due to shifting user preferences requires a fundamental change in business strategy, -models, doing business, mindset, culture etc. It is a journey for all across the organization to adapt and evolve over time.
Find more here
Organizational resistance
Established structures, processes and cultures can resist the flexibility required for adaptive leadership.
E.g. Accenture found that 85% of European companies recognize adaptive leadership as crucial for navigating digital transformation, yet only 18% feel they are effectively implementing it.
Digital Transformation and Leadership in Europe. Accenture, 2023
Hidden barriers and underlying dynamics are powerful. What can we do to overcome them?
Developing skills to cope well with the transformation
"Organization need to ensure that a certain know-how and awareness is developed... It no longer needs purely technical understanding or specialist knowledge,... it's very important that in current times, when changes are happening more and more quickly, we become aware of the skills that are so important in order to cope well with the transformation..., emotional competence, being aware of what actually triggers something in people, but also a complexity competence, knowing how to actually make decisions and realizing that perhaps classic majority decisions are not always the most favorable, just as the boss alone decides. But also perspective competence, changing perspectives, incorporating what is actually happening outside the company, where we might need to network... Building communication skills,.. for those who hold leadership roles, whether technical or disciplinary,... it is very important to keep in mind how different individuals are and what different stabilizing stories they need."
Andrea Hohlweck, OrganisationsberatungI Coaching, D-Saarbrücken, Interview Sep 2024 (translated)
Watch the interview bite 'skills and competences' with Andrea and find more insights below
Effective communication style
"Psychologists like to say that communication must be effective. First, think about what effect you want to achieve... instead of thinking about what kind of content you want to convey."
Andrea Hohlweck, OrganisationsberatungI Coaching, D-Saarbrücken, Interview Sep 2024 (translated)
Open communication culture
"An organization, no matter how big or small, should try to establish a relatively open communication culture and provide safety through internal contact. The outside world is changing so quickly that the only thing that can be managed well is related to internal questions: 'According to which values do we want to work together? and 'When do we want to check if we're doing well?' Through this, safety can be provided to a certain extent. And that often works relatively well for people. But also to involve people, even if it happens quickly. There are so many processes and (digital) tools that can easily be used. Not only announcing changes, but also make changes discussable. This means to open up the space for employees, no matter where they sit, to talk about it and thereby determine what do I actually understand and where might I still miss something and where do I have maximum irritation."
Andrea Hohlweck, OrganisationsberatungI Coaching, D-Saarbrücken, Interview Sep 2024 (translated)
Networks and peer support
Creating networks and peer support, such as communities of practice that are helping to navigate the challenges of adaptive change
E.g.
"I volunteer as a mentor for two organizations and currently have a young mentee who works in the area of sustainability.They all have this report in front of them, because in almost every company the finance department has cleverly handed over this topic to one or two people in the organization with the label sustainability on their forehead and that's it .. They've actually founded a kind of self-help group that spans across organizational boundaries. This means that the sustainability experts are networking and something is currently emerging that I would describe as dynamic."
Andrea Hohlweck, OrganisationsberatungI Coaching, D-Saarbrücken, Interview Sep 2024 (translated)
Team resilience
Offering opportunities to develop team resilience, meaning the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties and/or adapt to change, characterized by strong relationships, adaptability, mutual objectives, diversity and a positive mindset.
E.g. Teams in high-stress environments, like emergency field work or healthcare often exhibit strong resilience due to training, shared purpose and strong relationships.
Roles and responsibilities
Encouraging the development of leaders at all levels, fostering a culture of shared leadership and collective responsibility.
"Roles are needed that enable communication to take place and results to be achieved. Roles are needed that have an overview of everything that is happening. So, it takes a lot of different roles, without necessarily saying what kind of organizational form it has to be.
Taking responsibility is actually not that easy. It is important to clarify what their responsibility actually is. So, I think there is always a need for clarification about what you talk when you talk about responsibility. If this responsibility is directed towards you in the team, which relates to a task, it may also be directed towards the interface, to other teams, so that the communication flow is better there.That is often relatively unclear. And taking on responsibilities that are unclear is really not nice.That said, providing clarity helps."
Andrea Hohlweck, OrganisationsberatungI Coaching, D-Saarbrücken, Interview Sep 2024 (translated)
Which of the adjustment screws are yours to turn, personally and on a professional level?
Adaptive leadership and organizational transformation are crucial for organizations facing rapid change and uncertainty. While progress has been made, substantial barriers like a lack of leadership preparedness, clinging to existing power dynamics, inadequate communication and resistance to change remain. However, with ongoing efforts in leadership development, open communication culture adequate communication style, and people empowerment, organizations can successfully navigate these challenges and achieve meaningful results and remain relevant and successful in the long run.