Everyone Wins with Adaptability – How Adaptable Are You?

I am delighted to be speaking at the Assessments24x7 2nd Annual Users Conference, October, 8th and 9th in San Diego. Assessments24x7 provides corporate employers, industry coaches and consultants the analytical tools to benchmark their hiring processes, boost employee productivity, and maximize performance. Identifying unique personal strengths is invaluable in achieving professional happiness. Is adaptability one of your personal strengths? I share this on adaptability, from my colleague, fellow Speakers Roundtable member, and CEO of Assessments24x7, Dr. Tony Alessandra:

Adaptability
by Dr. Tony Alessandra

Adaptability is your willingness and ability to behave in ways that are not necessarily characteristic of your style in order to deal effectively with the requirements of a situation or relationship. Adaptable people make the choice to go beyond their own comfort zones so others feel more comfortable.

With adaptability, you can treat people the way they want to be treated. You practice adaptability every time you slow down with another person who does not feel as comfortable moving as fast as you do. You also practice adaptability when you take time to listen to a personal story from another person, rather than getting right down to the task at hand.

Adaptability is important because people are different and need to be treated differently. You develop open and honest relationships with others by being tactful, reasonable, and understanding.

How adaptable are YOU?

What IS adaptability?

The concept of adaptability, as developed by Dr. Michael O’Connor, co-author of The Platinum Rule^®, is a two-part process. It combines flexibility with versatility.

• Flexibility is your willingness to adapt. It is your attitude.
• Versatility is your ability to adapt. It is your aptitude.

The first half of the high adaptability formula – Flexibility.

Confidence + Tolerance + Empathy + Positiveness + Respect for others = FLEXIBILITY.

• Confidence – you believe in yourself, you trust your own judgment and resourcefulness.
• Tolerance – you are open to accepting opinions and practices that are different from your own.
• Empathy – a deep understanding of another’s situation.
• Positiveness – a positive attitude leads to positive events in your life.
• Respect for others – the sincere desire to understand and consider other people’s choices, commitments and needs in relation to your own.

BEWARE! These are traits that undermine your ability to successful adapt:

• Rigidity -“It’s my way or the highway.”
• Competition with others – “I’m smarter, prettier, etc., thank you.”
• Discontent – “No, I don’t like it this way. Why can’t we…”
• Unapproachable – “Don’t bother me unless it’s worth my time and you agree with me.”
• Difficulty with Ambiguity – “Let’s nail this down right now.”

The second half of the high adaptability formula – Versatility.

Resilience + Vision + Attentiveness + Competence + Self-correction = VERSITILITY.

• Resilience – knowing how to overcome setbacks, barriers and limited resources. If you keep on going until you succeed, that is resilience.
• Vision – having the power to imagine, be creative, and suggest alternatives.
• Attentiveness – knowing when to act and when not to act. It means paying attention to more than your own needs.
• Competence – begins with expertise. In addition, it also involves a problem-solving ability that goes beyond your specialty. It means having a can-do attitude and following through on it.
• Self-correction – once you initiate a project, you ask for feedback and place a high priority on problem solving, not on being right. It is being able to say, “I think this approach isn’t working. I’d better try something different.”

BEWARE! There are traits that undermine your ability to successful adapt:

• Subjectiveness – “This is the way it looks to ME.”
• Bluntness – “That’s a stupid idea!”
• Resistance – “This is the way we’ve always done it.”
• Single-mindedness – “It’s my goal and nothing else matters.”
• Unreasonable Risk-taking – “I’m going to jump, won’t you come with me?”

Adaptable people meet other peoples’ needs and their own. They know how to negotiate relationships in a way that allows everyone to win. With adaptability, you are practicing what I call The Platinum Rule^® – treating other people the way they want and need to be treated.

Dr. Tony Alessandra earned his PhD in marketing in 1976. He is the author of more than 30 books has created over 100 audio and video programs. Dr. Alessandra has been inducted into the NSA’s (National Speakers Association’s) Speaker Hall of Fame and the Top Sales World’s Hall of Fame. He is the founder and CEO of Assessments24x7, a company that equips companies, coaches and trainers with dozens of assessments (DISC, Motivators, HVP, etc.) from one, easy-to-use online account.  To learn more visit: http://assessments24x7.com

To learn more about the Assessments 24/7 Annual Users event visit: http://assessments24x7.com/annual-users-conference.asp

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