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While change is sometimes hard to accept, now more than ever before, it is the time to embrace it, which means getting comfortable with uncertainty and working on the skill of adaptability within your organization. While doing this on an infrastructural level is essential (as we discussed in Part 1 of this series) adaptability on a personal level is equally important. The good news is that it is a skill that can be learned and improved upon, as needed.

Arguably, in the current business environment that we’re witnessing globally, adaptability is the most critical soft skill a person can develop, both personally and professionally. Soft skills refer to those underlying skills that people use to do their jobs, like time-management, creative problem solving, and interpersonal style. While those remain important, adaptability will drive most business success and growth in 2020 and beyond.

What Does This Look Like on the Ground?

• Acknowledging the uncertainty, along with the need to adapt. While this may seem obvious, many companies are accustomed to utilizing long-term strategies for their daily operations. As many experts agree, this method of approach doesn’t work so well for the current climate.
• Accepting that things won’t be perfect (at least not at first). Another significant component to encouraging and modeling adaptability is that sometimes it will be messy, and that’s OK. A workforce that feels comfortable making course-corrections when necessary is one of the major components of building adaptability into your business. If something isn’t working, it becomes clear quickly what needs to be changed.

RELATED: GJM COVID-19 Resources

• Taking one step at a time. Again, long-term strategies are taking a real backseat in these uncertain times. Long-term goals or outcomes are fine, but planning one step at a time how to achieve them is going to be a more prudent and less frustrating means of getting there. Things are likely to change along the way, so you can get ahead of that by building a solution around the changes, rather than having to undo an existing strategy and lose precious time and resources.
• Encouraging and fostering emotional intelligence in your workforce. This refers to the ability of a person to empathize and control their emotions and usually involves some level of self-awareness. A workforce that has a higher level of emotional intelligence will be better at adapting to continued change, be better at collaborating, and more generally have increased efficiency, overall.

Every organization is different, so how this looks may be different for some. The most valuable aspect of adaptability is that it allows your business to respond to exactly what it needs, no more, no less.

Established in 1996, Gilmore Jasion Mahler, LTD (GJM) is the largest public accounting firm in Northwest Ohio, with offices in Maumee and Findlay. Locally owned, GJM offers cloud-based accounting and provides comprehensive services including assurance, business advisory, tax, risk advisory, healthcare management and outsourced accounting. The Firm’s professionals specialize in industries including construction & real estate, healthcare, manufacturing & distribution and utilities.