Adaptive Leadership: Leading When the Ground Keeps Shifting

Pinar Koyuncu Oktar
Aug 1
3 min read

What makes a good leader in a world that refuses to stand still?

That question has been at the center of my leadership journey for years, especially across regions, roles, and industries that never quite stayed the same for long. Of course I had my powerful toolkits, strategy decks, OKRs, KPIs, planning tools etc. But the most powerful leadership tool I ever developed was something far less concrete: the capacity to adapt.

Adaptive leadership, a term popularized by Harvard professors Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky, is all about navigating complexity when there is no clear path forward. It’s about leading through uncertainty, engaging people in tough conversations, and making space for experimentation not just execution.

“Adaptive leadership is the practice of mobilizing people to tackle tough challenges and thrive.”

Heifetz, Grashow, and Linsky, The Practice of Adaptive Leadership (2009)

Let’s break it down.

Adaptive leadership is simply creating space for learning.

Unlike technical problems, where we apply known solutions, adaptive challenges ask us to confront the unknown. They often come with loss of identity, of power, of control and they demand new ways of seeing the world.

In those moments, leadership should be able to hold space for learning, for discomfort, and for growth. It’s saying, “I don’t know yet, but I’m here with you as we figure it out.”

Which takes courage. And clarity. And which is something we rarely witness.

One of the key metaphors in Heifetz’s framework is getting on the balcony, the ability to step back from the dance floor and observe what’s really happening. What patterns are emerging? Who’s resisting change, and why? What unspoken fears are shaping the conversation?

You can’t lead adaptively if you’re too caught up in the moment. You need both proximity and perspective. The dance floor and the balcony.

In my own career, especially while managing cross-functional teams in unfamiliar markets, I often had to learn this the hard way. Every time we rushed into action mode without assessing the dynamics, I witnessed that we missed the chance to mobilize people around the real issue not just the symptom.

Another important trait of adaptive leaders is not avoiding tension, but regulating it. They keep the heat high enough to spark change, but low enough that people don’t shut down or walk away.

This is especially important in high-stakes environments, where transformation feels like a threat. Your job as a leader isn’t to eliminate anxiety. It’s to help people stay in the conversation long enough to move through it.

“People don’t fear change. They fear loss.”

Ronald Heifetz

This is where empathy meets strategy. You need to understand what people are afraid of losing and honor that while helping them reimagine what they might gain.

Adaptive leadership is deeply human.

At its core, adaptive leadership is not a management style. It’s a mindset. One that centers around purpose, emotional intelligence, and a willingness to evolve. Especially for women leaders navigating systems that weren’t built with us in mind, it gives language to what we’ve intuitively known all along: real leadership isn’t about control. It’s about connection, clarity, and courage.

At Her Leadership Playbook, we often say we’re not here to “fix women”we’re here to fix the systems. But to do that, we need leaders who are willing to sit with complexity, challenge the status quo, and hold space for collective transformation.

That’s adaptive leadership. And we need more of it.

Adaptive Leadership: Leading When the Ground Keeps Shifting

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