In the words of Charles Darwin, the great English biologist and theorist, man is the strongest, not the strongest species on earth, and not the most intelligent, but man is the most adaptable species. Versatility is one of our most prominent skills, which, of course, has received the attention of managers more than other soft skills in today’s world.
Although historically and organizationally, very little emphasis has been placed on these skills, but today’s employers have realized that these skills alone are not enough, all people working in the organization must be able to communicate and negotiate with each other to an acceptable extent. , interact and look at different issues with critical and creative thinking and most importantly be adaptable to different conditions.
Considering the complexities of today’s jobs, the sheer volume of information and the rapid occurrence of changes at micro and macro levels, all experts must be adaptable in their organization.
Adaptability, as one of the most important soft skills, is not a precautionary or coping mechanism, but a vital and managerial requirement.
Change at any level can be unsettling, nerve-wracking, and terrifying at first. Even anticipated or intrusive changes in business can cause fear, tension and stress, anger and resistance.
For managers, these reactions to change are often considered as an obstacle in the way that can be overcome, but rather than denying emotions and negative reactions, or stubbornness or destruction of change, effective managers allow the transition process to occur.
Reactions to change often follow a series of stages including: denial, resistance, investigation and research, questioning, reflection and finally commitment. During this process, people can create more adaptability in the face of change.
At the managerial level, adaptability is known as a key skill for managers to create and improve in order to be effective in this environment. Even so, managers rarely understand what they can do to become more adaptable and to foster more adaptability in others.
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What is versatility and why is it important?
Adaptability means a person’s quick response to changing trends, innovations, instabilities and environmental changes.
For example, considering that today artificial intelligence has a high impact on various industries, almost all people who are working professionally, from doctors to engineers and people active in the field of human sciences, should be able to keep pace with these changes, from use it to improve their performance and assign some tasks to them (even in spite of disturbing the safe margin).
But these examples are not only in the field of technology, when our business goes downhill for any reason and its income goes head to head with expenses, these managers and experts are adaptable who can reduce by changing the temporary income model. Excess costs, examining the problem from different angles and using the problem-solving power to solve the problem or reduce its side effects on human resources and company goals.
Are you adaptable?
In the article on the Forbes website, Jeff Bass has described 14 signs of adaptable people well, if you are interested in reading this article, just click.
In this article, he has features such as; Being experimental, opportunistic when everyone considers the situation to be a failure, progressive and creative thinking, not blaming others, curiosity, looking outside the hole and getting involved with the situation and leaving the safe zone as the most important personality traits. Adaptable people are considered pollen.
If for any reason you think that you have not cultivated some of these qualities in yourself effectively or you do not know how to deal with it, just read the rest of this article:
Ways to increase flexibility (especially for specialists and managers)
1) Changing the way of thinking
“Positive and good mentality towards various issues” is the attitude that we usually have towards various issues. Although change may be scary and scary and disturb our safe margin. But it is better for us to practice changing the way of thinking when facing everyday issues, to look at the change of perspective as an opportunity to improve, learn or grow. In addition to changing your perspective, this type of look also improves your creativity to provide solutions to various issues.
2) Be a risk taker
Risk taking is an integral part of strengthening adaptability. For this, try to try different ideas in small projects or express different ideas in different meetings to increase the versatility and challenge the risk-taking of the team.
3) Determining the goal
Another way to help you develop soft skills, including adaptability, is to set goals to improve your weaknesses in the workplace.
For example, if you think that you may be a little weak in verbal communication or have a tendency to procrastinate, just observe these things in a period of one month and use different methods to improve it. Read about your weaknesses during this time, watch videos and ask others for help. Apart from improving the overall quality of your life and increasing productivity, this can greatly enhance your versatility.
4) Learning more and more
As mentioned in the Forbes article, curious and studious people unconsciously move towards conformity. You don’t need to read books to improve this topic, listening to podcasts, watching webinars and interacting with successful people in different fields can improve your learning ability.
5) Get out of your comfort zone
If you are stuck in a normal pattern, it is very hard to adapt to changes. We unconsciously stay in our comfort zone unless circumstances force us to change.
Outside the safe zone, things can be scary. When our situation changes too much or too quickly, the safe zone can easily disappear and put us in the red zone of anxiety and panic. At that time, the logic of our fight or flight instinct is activated and overcomes us.
Changing your response mode is a good survival skill when dealing with anger.
Fortunately, you don’t have to choose between comfort and horror. There is a third zone in between called the learning zone where we become more adaptable. The more time you spend in the learning zone, the more possibilities you will find. Eventually your comfort zone expands and your panic zone shrinks.
6) Learn from your mistakes
Versatility does not mean that you continue your train of thought, achieving versatility requires practice and persistence. You need to become self-aware and give yourself constructive and honest criticism. Try to focus on effective ways and better options. Just listen to other comments and look for better alternatives.