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Disruptive By Design: Adaptive Leadership and Followership

Dr. Jennifer A. Miller is the technical director and comptroller for the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon, Washington, D.C. She is a certified project management professional, certified government financial manager and a certified defense financial manager with both acquisition and health care specialties. She is also a member of the Society of Defense Financial Management’s Washington Chapter, the AGA’s Northern Virginia Chapter and AFCEA International.

Adaptive leadership and followership are linked and worth a look for organizations to leverage. Credit: Best-stock.adobe.com generated by AI

Let us delve into whether more adaptive leadership could assist organizations, the kinds of organizational cultures that support it and examples of successful organizations that employ adaptive leadership.

In the scientific community, Complexity Leadership Theory links adaptive leadership to followership because of the ways leaders influence interactive dynamics and the resulting outcomes, as seen in the literature of Mary Uhl-Bien, Russ Marion and Bill McKelvey.

Interactive dynamics require both influence sources and recipients: leaders and followers, according to context. Further, adaptive leadership exists through informal designation across organizations in areas of organizational culture, acceptance or resistance to change, and the diagnosis of systems and models, as noted by the scholars Gary Yukl, Jennifer George and Gareth Jones.

Rather than a formal, administrative leadership linkage stymied by bureaucracy and constraints, adaptive leadership ebbs and flows with followership to enable innovation, knowledge growth and flexibility for organizations, Uhl-Bien and Marion say.

At one military installation, I found that more adaptive leadership could positively assist organizational efforts. Government organizations, like in this case, can have a negative reputation for bureaucracy captured in rhetoric and stereotypes: “That’s government,” or “Hurry up and wait!”

Given government status as nonprofit organizations entrusted with taxpayer dollars, substantial shifts toward adaptive leadership are not likely, although reasonable alterations to embrace adaptive leadership are within reach.

For me, with each assignment, I find that developing networks of knowledge, shared interests in solutions and other informal leadership processes to meet organizational needs are effective.

To foster supportive conditions and interactive dynamics of immediate peers and geographically separated individuals of other agencies, I practice and teach business administrative communication with hefty doses of customer service, as Uhl-Bien and Marion prescribe.

Also important is administrative leadership support, as collaborative efforts are a change in mentality from constant competition for dollars, designation and decorum.

It seems logical and simple, but nuances exist. For instance, the kinds of organizational cultures that respond best to adaptive leadership: Uhl-Bien and Marion described a zoo with a culture of democracy as supportive of adaptive leadership, while Jacinta McLaurin identified organizations requiring responsive, fast and adaptive traits as suited for adaptive leadership.

In each case, adaptive leadership receives a positive response when cultures embrace learning, innovation and flexibility among individual and collective teams. During the pandemic, many organizations saw rapid changes, innovation, learning on the fly and people coming together quickly, resulting in amazing perks of adaptation.

I offer that leaders best communicate with team members by using a medium appropriate for situations and with an emphasis on listening. Communication is a two-way exchange. Leaders and followers contribute elements of communication, verbally and nonverbally. The best communications are rich, utilize a context-appropriate medium, include social and emotional intelligence, and bring desired responses from both leaders and team members.

From experience, less bureaucracy, less formal structure and more focus on visionary ideas in organizational culture generate higher quality responses to adaptive leadership.

For example, in the private sector, cross-training and development of junior employees in the same hierarchy is a best practice, while government organizations yield to cultural constraints of merit principles and prohibited personnel practices hampering adaptive leadership efforts. All is not lost as local, state and federal governments are adopting more private-sector best practice—even if slowly.

One of the more effective organizations using adaptive leadership is the Society of Defense Financial Management. This nonprofit uses adaptive leadership principles at local, regional and national organization levels. Chapter members function in self-organizing ways with a democratic style for administrative leadership and adaptive leadership purposes, such as like Uhl-Bien and Marion shared. Ideas, feedback and suggestions are always welcome and often tested for the sake of achieving efficiencies and effectiveness, sharing knowledge, capitalizing on innovation, and remaining a competitive membership option for existing and potential members.

Rich exchanges amongst members take place regarding short-term and long-term opportunities, objectives, strategies, culture and support. And their membership remains strong for the benefits of continuing education opportunities, networking and otherwise unavailable leadership opportunities for military comptrollers.

As you know and have learned a little more, adaptive leadership and followership are linked and worth a look for organizations to leverage.

Disruptive By Design explores innovation and ideas with the potential to expand capabilities and revolutionize products, services and behaviors. The opinions expressed in this article are not to be construed as official or reflecting the views of AFCEA International. For more information, visit EmergingLeaders@afcea.org